The Harriet Tubman Student Summer Programme 2011

The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples studies the migrations of African peoples through internal, regional and international and transnational movements. The Tubman Institute is concerned not only with the historical movements of Africans and people of African descent but also with their contemporary experiences. Part of our mandate is to share information about these movements and experiences with all groups of persons. Among the groups on whose experiences we focus are Africans and their descendants in Canada (African Canadians); these concerns are reflected in a special initiative within the Tubman Institute – “Spotlighting and Promoting African Canadian Experiences” (SPACE).

The Harriet Tubman Student Summer Programme will focus on guiding forty (40) students (between 14-18 years old) through an “Introduction to African and African Diaspora Studies.” The African Diaspora refers to all the places to which Africans migrated and where they and their descendant now live. The Summer Programme will help students to evaluate, collectively, the contributions of African peoples and cultures to the historical development of the Americas and their influence on new generations of youth.

To achieve those objectives professors, teachers, facilitators and 40 youth from formal school settings, after school programs and community groups will focus their attention on topics related to:

• Africa and African Diaspora histories (that is, African descended communities outside of Africa)
• The Slave trade in Africans and slave resistance (historical and contemporary representations)
• African and African-descendent identities
• Memory, community values like folkloric traditions in African, African Diaspora (African descended communities outside of Africa) and specifically the African Canadian contexts
• Museums, archives and popular culture
• Contemporary issues of histories of migrations, race, slavery, education, popular culture…
• Introduction to technology to digitalize community historical records: working sessions, photographs, documents…

The daily activities will be run under the auspices of the Harriet Tubman Institute, York University.

• The content will be delivered by professors at York University
• The students will work as individuals and in groups facilitated by trained facilitators
• The afternoon cultural activities will be facilitated by professors, graduate and undergraduate students at York University
• The students will be provided with breakfast and lunch for the 10 days of the Summer Programme.
• Application deadline June 24, 2011 @ 6:00 pm

To apply, download and fill in the application package attached below in this page and submit to the programme coordinator, Abubacar Fofana León (address enclosed in the form). 

For more information about the Harriet Tubman Summer Student Programme, please contact:

Abubacar Fofana León
SPACE Network
Harriet Tubman Institute
York University
abubacar@yorku.ca

Professor Michele A. Johnson
SPACE Network
Harriet Tubman Institute
York University
johnsonm@yorku.ca