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Assessment and Highlights of the 2010-2011 Academic Year |
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GRADUATE EDUCATION IN AFRICAN STUDIES The Maryknoll Institute of African Studies (MIAS), a postgraduate Institute located in Nairobi Kenya, was founded and sponsored in 1989 by the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Maryknoll New York/USA.
AFFILIATION WITH SAINT MARY'S UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, USA In 1994 the Institute affiliated academically with Saint Mary’s University of MN/USA, an accredited University and a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Universities. This affiliation has been mutually beneficial as Saint Mary’s University registers and awards four graduate credits per course, generates transcripts and awards a Master of Arts (MA) in African Studies, and a Master of African Studies (MAS). In turn, the Institute expresses Saint Mary’s outreach beyond the U.S. borders, and conveys Saint Mary’s name and excellence into the higher education circles of Nairobi, Kenya. Moreover, Saint Mary’s has been sponsoring and sending selected members of its faculty to Nairobi since 2002 to take courses during the Immersion sessions for the sake of faculty updating.
AFFILIATION WITH TANGAZA COLLEGE, NAIROBI-KENYA In 1999 the Maryknoll Institute of African Studies affiliated academically with Tangaza College, Nairobi Kenya, a constituent college of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. This affiliation has also been mutually beneficial as Tangaza College grants a joint Tangaza College/Saint Mary’s University Certificate for any three courses while maintaining a minimum 2.5 (C+) grade point average. Tangaza College also grants a Tangaza College Diploma for five courses which must include the courses on “African Culture: An Overview” and “African Religion,” while maintaining a minimum 3.0 (B) grade point average. In turn, the Institute has brought onto the Tangaza Campus a unique program of African studies that has influenced the wider community to the point that 30% of Tangaza’s faculty and two of the five directors of the other Tangaza Institutes have taken MIAS courses. Furthermore, the Institute has a 10,000 volume library specializing in Africana that is available to all Tangaza faculty and students.
HIGHLIGHTS The highlight of the past academic year has been the awarding of three MA degrees, Four Tangaza Diplomas, and eleven Tangaza College/Saint Mary’s University Certificates. Furthermore, four students are at an advanced stage of writing their MA theses, while twenty-two students have finished their MA course work and are now working on their theses’ proposals -- thirteen of them are at their third and final drafts.
ENROLLMENT The student enrollment for the 2010-2011 Academic year totaled fifty-eight part-time graduate and/or special students. Nineteen courses were taught with a total of one hundred thirty-four course registrations
NEW MODEL OF CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE Through the writings and reflections of the students, staff, field assistants and lecturers over the past seventeen years, MIAS has been able to analyze the inner structure of African cultural knowledge and break it down into fifteen foundational themes, that is ideas, values and symbols. This new paradigm has major implications for cultural study programs. The discussion and analysis of the fifteen themes is the subject matter of a book published by MIAS titled African Cultural Knowledge: Themes and Embedded Beliefs. This book is being used by the lecturers as a textbook for all MIAS courses, and makes the MIAS paradigm describing African Cultural Knowledge available to a wider audience. There is no other Institute or University in Africa that has a similar program in which African cultural knowledge is taught systematically the way grammar of languages are taught in certified language schools. Also, in 2008, the institute published a book title African Cultural Domains: Life Cycle of an Individual, that focuses on the first ten cultural domains. Domains are distinct types of cultural activities and events that are experienced as one's life unfolds. The domains are classified into four categories namely, 1) Rites of passage: those rituals that move a person to anew place and position in society; 2) Activities: things that a person does in response to one's interests, skills and opportunities; 3) Mindsets: embedded attitudes, values and thoughts that are a product of one's culture that 'color' one's ordinary perception of reality; 4) Happenings: events that impinge on one's life and activities without conscious choice. These domains are experienced, interpreted and understood and responded to ritually in the context of a specific cultural system.
FACULTY All the faculty teaching in Institute’s programs are part-time adjunct lecturers, teaching one course a session; all have appointment at various local Universities, Colleges and academic programs. For the past academic year they totaled fourteen, five of whom are professors, five senior lecturers and four lecturers. There was one new lecturer while the rest were veteran, return lecturers.
FACULTY The faculty workroom has been improved by the installation of an online computer for the convenience of the lecturers. Also, lunch is available for the lecturers from 11:45 a.m. This was needed as many of the faculty come from afar to teach and often do not have time to get lunch while on the way. This same courtesy has been extended to the students and field assistants, as food is now available at 11:30 every class day during the semester programs.
THE
INSTITUTE AND RELIGIOUS
FORMATION The Institute in conjunction with the Tangaza Formation Council conducted a workshop on “African Culture and Religious Community Life.” Papers were presented on 1) African Understanding of Sexuality, 2) African Understanding of Authority and Leadership, 3) African Family Values and Responsibilities, 4) African Understanding of the Religious Vows: Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. The presentations and discussions highlighted how African cultural knowledge regarding these issues not only pre-exist in the minds and hearts of those aspiring to join religious communities, but continues to exist and needs to be factored into their religious formation. Some of the non-African formators and spiritual directors were surprised when they realized how little they had understood of the African mindset regarding Catholic religious vows.
MIAS AT UNIVERSITIES EXHIBITION
In March 2007, the
Institute participated in the International Education Expo exhibition held in
Nairobi where different educational institutes, the public and private universities showcased their
educational curricula and services. The MIAS stand generated a great
deal of
interest due to its unique educational method that requires an hour
of field research for every hour of class, and its poster showing the fifteen themes of African cultural
knowledge through pictures of African carvings. Over 400 brochures were passed out to those interested in the
Institute’s programs.
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