The African Studies Unit offers a full academic programme, concentrated at the graduate level but also including some undergraduate courses. The following degrees are offered as part of the graduate programme:
- Postgraduate Diploma in African Studies
- Honours in African Studies
- Taught Masters in African Studies (in which the dissertation counts 50%)
- Research Masters in African Studies (by dissertation only)
- PhD in African Studies
The African Studies Unit is staffed by faculty with a range of disciplinary backgrounds, who work collaboratively as an interdisciplinary team. Existing teaching strengths and research directions include:
- African and African diasporic critical and intellectual traditions
- Postcolonial and decolonial theory
- Questions of public culture, heritage and memory
- Questions of archive and curation
- Questions of African literature and culture
- Agrarian Studies and questions of land reform and redistribution
- African political economy
Students have substantial freedom in constructing a curriculum that suits their interests. There are also two named streams in African Studies:
- An Honours degree in African Literature and Culture
- Honours and Masters degrees in Public Culture and Heritage in Africa
Full details of our academic programme are available in the Humanities Faculty Handbooks http://www.students.uct.ac.za/students/study/handbooks/current
For many of our degrees, we admit students both at the beginning of the year (February), and mid-year at the start of the second semester (July).
Interested students are invited to email faculty working in their area of interest for further information, or to arrange a Skype meet.
Applications to the African Studies Unit are made through the central university application system https://uct.ac.za/students/applications-apply-postgraduate-qualifications/applications-and-registration
Students looking for financial assistance are directed to the university’s postgraduate funding office http://www.students.uct.ac.za/students/fees-funding/postgraduate-degree-funding
Guidelines of the African Studies Association for Members’ Ethical Conduct in Research and Other Professional Undertakings in Africa: http://www.africanstudies.org/about-asa/ethical-guidelines
For students in the department:
African Studies Unit Ethics Form
African Studies Unit Informed Consent Form