Next semester, Dickinson College students will have the opportunity to learn about the Atlantic slave trade, both inside and outside of the classroom.

The mosaic Remembering the Atlantic Slave Trade will be taught in the fall of 2013. In this intensive, semester-long program, students will explore the ways in which the history of the African slave trade is remembered, depicted and taught in Africa and the United States.

Students will not only take classes on the topic, but also go to places that are connected to the slave trade and slavery. For two weeks in October the students will travel to Ghana, where enslaved Africans were exported to the New World colonies.

“The students will attend lectures by Ghanaian professors; take cultural workshops on African drumming, dance, cooking, or cloth-making; and visit monuments, museums, and research archives” explained Assistant Professor Lynn Johnson, chair of the department of Africana studies and program directorfor the mosaic. “We will also stay in traditional African houses.”

Before going to Africa, the students will spend one week in Charleston, South Carolina, where enslaved people disembarked from the slave ships to be sold to American plantation owners. Here, the students will get the chance to visit former plantations and speak with members of the Gullah community, who are the descendants of slaves.

“By visiting the sites that are associated with the Atlantic slave trade, the rich history of slavery and African culture survival will be brought to life, made real,” said Johnson. “An important aspect of the discipline of Africana studies is experimental learning, which involves scholars and students immersing themselves in the black communities that are the subject of their investigations.”

Johnson hopes that the students’ knowledge and appreciation for this history and culture will increase as a result of this program.

“We are encouraging students with an interest in the links between African and African-American history, identity and culture to participate in this mosaic,” explained Johnson. “The course work associated with the Remembering the Atlantic Slave Trade mosaic should be particularly appealing to Africana Studies, American Studies,

English, Sociology and History majors. But any student with a minimum GPA of 2.8 may apply to participate.”

The application deadline for the Remembering the Atlantic Slave Trade mosaic is Friday, March 1. For more information on the program and the application process, contact Johnson at [email protected] or Special Assistant to the President for Institutional and Diversity Initiatives Joyce Bylander at [email protected].