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Monday 9am - 5pm Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm

Pitt Center for African Studies

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Pitt Center for African Studies

Internationalize your education, expand your understanding of Africa, and study abroad in Africa

We coordinate undergraduate and graduate certificate programs with an overarching goal to deepen the knowledge of students and expand understanding of Africa.

08/31/2026

Don't miss the African Language Student Association (ALSA) meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, September 1, at 9 PM at 5203 Posvar Hall!

08/19/2026

It was great to see so many new students at the Global Carnival yesterday; thank you for stopping by our table!

Couldn't make it yesterday? Swing by our office tomorrow for tea and conversation with our team and fellow new students!

📍 4138 Posvar Hall
⏰ Thursday, August 20, from 2-2:30 pm

08/17/2026

🌍 Come find us at the Global Carnival! 🌍

The Center for African Studies will be tabling tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug 18, from 1–3 p.m. as part of Welcome Week!

📍 William Pitt Union Patio
(Rain location: WPU Ballroom, Assembly Room, or Kurtzman Room)

Stop by to learn about Africa, connect with our team, and find out how you can earn an African Studies certificate alongside your degree. See you there!

08/13/2026

Fifty years ago, the students of Soweto rose up against apartheid, led by Tsietsi Mashinini.

Join acclaimed journalist Lynda Schuster as she reflects on the Mashinini family's role in the liberation struggle and the courage of the students and countless Black South Africans who changed history.

Tuesday, August 17, 7 to 8:30 PM, at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall

Copies of Schuster's book will be available for purchase at Woolly Bear Books

Walk-ins welcome; registration appreciated: https://carnegiecarnegie.org/event/a-burning-hunger-reflections-on-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-soweto-uprising-with-lynda-schuster/

08/12/2026

This Saturday: An evening built for connection. The Night of Excellence brings leadership, legacy, culture, and community together for a night of business networking, meaningful conversation, and celebration.

More than a party, it's a space to build relationships, exchange ideas, and enjoy an elegant evening of entertainment. Saturday, August 15, 7 PM, Legacy Events Center, Monroeville.

Tickets and details: https://thenightofexcellence.com/

07/29/2026

Greetings from Kenya. CAS is here meeting with our partners on the ground, and it has been a full couple of days.

Yesterday we visited Africa International University - AIU, where their campus sweatshirts sum up the mission well: catalyzing Africa's potential for global impact. For more than 40 years, AIU has trained professionals across many fields, equipping Christian leaders who go on to serve as catalysts for societal transformation around the world. Demand for that work keeps growing, and to meet it AIU is investing in new programs, people, facilities, and infrastructure so it can grow sustainably and serve at a greater scale.

We also spent time with The Green Belt Movement founded in 1977 by Professor Wangari Maathai to help rural Kenyan women who were watching their streams dry up, their food supply shrink, and their walks for firewood grow longer. Decades of grassroots organizing later, it remains a leader in restoring Kenya's forests and has grown to include work on democracy, community empowerment, and conflict resolution.

There is a Pitt connection worth knowing here too: Maathai earned her master's in biology right here at the University of Pittsburgh in 1966, funded by the Africa America Institute, and it was in Pittsburgh that she first saw environmental restoration in action, watching local environmentalists push to clean up the city's air pollution.

The Green Belt Movement is actively looking for Pitt interns, so if that interests you, reach out and we can connect you.

07/17/2026

Pitt alumni in Kenya, mark your calendar!

CAS is hosting an alumni dinner in Nairobi on Wednesday, July 29, and we want the whole crew there. RSVP now and we will send the details on where and when: pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6nkDvNAkaYuKoMS.

Tag a fellow alum who needs to see this.

06/23/2026

How can AI expand access to sexual and reproductive health education for adolescents in Ghana? This Friday, we're finding out.

Join Dr. Martina Anto-Ocrah of University of Pittsburgh School of Education & Fulbright Specialist, as she hosts Dr. Gifty Merdiemah, Co-Principal Investigator of a Google-funded AI for Social Good project based at the University of Ghana Medical Centre.

Dr. Merdiemah will share how her team is using AI-enabled tools to deliver culturally grounded, equitable sexual and reproductive health information to young people, built through deep stakeholder engagement and cross-sector collaboration.

Virtual | Zoom | Friday, June 26 | 12:00 PM EDT
https://pitt.zoom.us/j/2129571412

05/14/2026

What a week it has been. On Saturday, May 9, the Center for African Studies held its Re-imagining the Future of African Studies in Global Contexts Workshop, part of PittGlobal at the University of Pittsburgh's The Future(s) of International and Area Studies conference (May 8-10). Scholars and practitioners gathered in person and virtually to chart a path forward for African Studies amid shifting geopolitical, intellectual, and technological landscapes.

The conversation made one thing clear: this field is not only enduring, it is evolving. Despite ongoing funding challenges, the work of engaging deeply with Africa's history, cultures, and people will continue, through student hubs, cross-disciplinary partnerships, and new forms of community.

A heartfelt thank you to facilitator and CAS Director Assan Sarr, to panelists Alix Saba (African Studies Association), Elizabeth Schmidt (Loyola University Maryland, ASA Past President 2024-2025), Ousman Kobo (Ohio State), and Glenn Adams (University of Kansas), and to the conference committee, all attendees, volunteers, and sponsors for making the event a success. We look forward to putting these conversations into action.

05/05/2026

On Thursday, April 16, our Critical Research on Africa Series continued with an outstanding presentation by Dr. Seth Asare Okyere of Urban Studies on "In Situ Marginalization: The Urban Wetland-livelihood (dis)assemblage in Coastal Ghana."

Watch the recording on Youtube: https://youtu.be/_-Y_-IFhjFg

Thank you to everyone who joined in person and virtually, and to the University of Pittsburgh School of Education for their support.

Address

4138 Wesley W Posvar Hall
Pittsburgh, PA
15260

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+14126481802

Website

http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/africa/

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