Since 2000 a number of targeted initiatives that bridge classwork and community work in Africa have been initiated.  These have featured Josef Korbel School students and professors in collaboration with professionals based at home and abroad.  Partnering organizations have included Africa Today Associates, Project Education Sudan, Rotary International, and LIONS (Leadership Institute Of New Sudan).  Josef Korbel School's Students for Africa group sponsors a wide range of seminars, film screenings, and community outreach activities.  The student-run Center On Rights Development (CORD) regularly features the intersection of African and human rights themes, including those analyzing human trafficking.  Others work with African immigrants and refugees close to home, in metro Denver.  These include students who have served as interns at (e.g.) the African Community Center, the Rocky Mountain Survivors Center, and Lutheran Refugee Services. 

Students are encouraged to engage in important work inside and outside the classroom.  For example, six students during 2009/2010 authored papers on the challenges of peace building in six African nations; their efforts were funded by the Carnegie Foundation through a project sponsored by Prof. Tim Sisk.  During the same period, another student served as an intern with Gen. Scott Gration, President Obama's special envoy to Sudan.  Four students worked in Kibera, Kenya (under the advisement of Professors Randall Kuhn and Peter Van Arsdale, plus faculty in other departments), to enhance the sanitation capacity of Africa's largest slum.  During 2009/2010, approximately a dozen students (including undergraduates) worked in Africa through internship, study abroad, and applied research assignments.

Writ large, themes of importance to those at Josef Korbel School working with African issues currently include genocide (e.g., in Sudan), food security (e.g., in Ethiopia), refugee and IDP resettlement (e.g., in Rwanda), extractive industries (e.g., in Democratic Republic of Congo),  alternative peace building strategies (e.g., in South Africa), military relations (e.g., in Djibouti), child soldiering (e.g., in Sierra Leone), and disability rights (e.g., in Uganda).

Faculty

Tom Farer, Professor
Rob Prince, Lecturer
Tim Sisk, Professor
Peter VanArsdale, Senior Lecturer

Student groups and initiatives

Amnesty International - Sturm College of Law 
Center On Rights Development (CORD)
Human Rights & Human Welfare 
Students for Africa Portfolio page 
Students for Africa Facebook page 
University of Denver's Peace Corps Community 

Course offerings with substantial African content

INTS 4601: Development Forecasting
INTS 4602: Human Rights, Needs, and Duties
INTS 4603: Sustainable Development 
INTS 4606: Global Health
INTS 4612: Community Health
INTS 4611: Relief to Development Gap
INTS 4616: Ethics, Education, and Change
INTS 4617: Youth Development
INTS 4368: HIV/AIDS in international affairs
INTS 4468: Politics of development
INTS 4493: Humanitarian aid in complex emergencies
INTS 4594/95: Civil wars and international responses
INTS 4705: Democratization in Africa
INTS 4711: Politics of democracy and development
INTS 4935: International humanitarian law of armed conflict
INTS 4936: International law and human rights
INTS 4937: Human rights and the international refugee system
INTS 4955: Human rights practicum
INTS 4966: Applied field methods
INTS 4939: Human rights: genocide
INTS 4987: Contemporary slavery/human trafficking
INTS 4991: Independent study (whereby students can work with an advisor and focus on an issue/issues in a specific region of the world)

To learn more about these courses, and all course offerings at the Josef Korbel School courses, click here.

Africa - focused internships

Click here to peruse internship information.

Relevant news

Korbel students research techniques to provide clean water in Kenya

Peter VanArsdale, Director of African Initiatives at the Josef Korbel School, reflects on his experiences working in Darfur and the "Theory of Obligation" in humanitarianism. Read this article.

Denver - Africa related resources

African Community Center 
Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness and Action  
MetroAfrican
Metropolitan State University, African Student Union 
Metropolitan State University, Department of African and African American Studies
Project Education Sudan
Support Africa Empowerment Foundation International
The Nuba Water Project
The 1010 Project
Water for People