Master's in African Studies

Ghent University is a public university in Ghent, Belgium. It was founded in 1817 and is one of the largest universities in Belgium. The university has over 40,000 students and 6,000 staff members. It offers a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs in the fields of humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medicine, and engineering. Ghent University is ranked #121-130 in the QS World University Rankings 2024. It is also a member of the League of European Research Universities and the Coimbra Group.

The Master in African Studies consists of three main course units at 5 ECTS each, 4 course units at 5 ECTS each selected from a list of specialist Africanist course units, 10 ECTS worth of elective course units to be chosen freely from the university’s course catalogue, and a Master’s thesis at 15 ECTS. Main Course Units The Master in African Studies focuses specifically on Central and Eastern Africa. This area is studied from different academic subdisciplines in the three mandatory main course units: ‘Language, History and Identity in Central and Eastern Africa’, ‘Literature, Media and the Arts in Central and Eastern Africa’, and ‘Conflict and Society in Central and Eastern Africa’. Elective Course Units Students enjoy a great degree of freedom to shape their own curriculum by choosing course units from various subdisciplines, based on their individual research interests. They choose four course units from the following list: ‘Anthropology of Affect and Materiality', ‘Poverty, Development and Inequality in Modern African History’, ‘History and Theory of African Urbanism and Architecture’, ‘Bantu Corpus Linguistics and Lexicography’, ‘Comparative Bantu Grammar’, ‘Gender and Identity in African Literatures’, ‘Postcolonial Literature in English’, 'African Archaeology'. In addition, students choose an additional 10 ECTS worth of course units either from the Africanist course units listed above, or from the university’s wider course catalogue, including courses on Swahili and Lingála, the two most important languages of central and eastern Africa. Master's dissertation The MA programme is finalized by writing a Master’s Dissertation. This is a research paper based on independent, empirical research, preferably (but not necessarily) the result of fieldwork in Africa. By writing a Master’s Dissertation, students testify to their ability to conduct independent research, their mastery of a methodological framework and to their thorough knowledge of a specific Africanist topic. If you want to combine your Master’s degree with a Teacher’s degree, then there is the option of taking a Master's Programme in Teaching (in Dutch: 'Educatieve master') instead of the above described master. The Master's Programme in Teaching, however, is a Dutch-taught programme. More information can be found on www.ugent.be/educatievemaster.