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African Entanglements in Ghana

With Associate Professor and Director of African and Latin American Studies Kezia Page

ALST 199, also known as Entangled Intimacies: Introduction to Africana and Latin American Studies, covers everything from uprisings to migrations and emphasizes the overlap between the experiences of African, African American, Caribbean, and Latine American people. Through their trip to Ghana, students confronted a complicated, broken history.

Beginning in Accra, the capital of Ghana, students explored the National Gallery Museum and the Library of Africa. They visited W.E.B. Du Bois’ home and the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Mausoleum, dedicated to the famous Pan-Africanist and first president of Ghana. They saw the Manhyia Palace of the Asante in Kumasi, as well as slave dungeons, orphanages, and other sites.

In Ghana, there was no shortage of new things to try; the group learned bead-making, painting, and cooking. They kayaked, abseiled, and even saw elephants while on safari in Mole.

One big takeaway, according to Associate Professor Kezia Page, was the absurdity and ignominy of the colonial project, which manifested itself throughout Ghana. While the class toured the Manhyia Palace Museum, they saw gold that had previously been stolen by the British during the colonial era. “The gold is now on loan to the Asante Palace Museum from the British Museum for three years,” said Page.

Combinatorics in Japan

With Associate Professor of Mathematics Robert Davis

Combinatorics is a branch of mathematics concerned with discrete sets of objects and the formulas that describe them. Professor Robert Davis relates problem-solving to “playing games.”

Students enrolled in MATH 310: Combinatorial Problem Solving journeyed all the way to Japan to interact with experts in the field. In between walking tours and soba noodle cooking classes, the group shared their original research projects with faculty and students from the Institute of Science Tokyo and the University of Osaka. They also visited sites like Osaka Castle, all while in pursuit of collaborative discovery, from Tokyo to Kyoto.

“My favorite day in Japan overall was our day trip to Kyoto, where we did a traditional tea ceremony,” said Sophie Smyth ’25. “[The staff] dressed us in traditional Japanese ceremonial clothing. They braided and put flowers in our hair. It was so cool to see all the intricacies of how they prepare the matcha tea.”

Together, these academic, social, and cultural activities prompted students to ask questions, explore new ideas, and even think like grad students — but most importantly, to experience firsthand how math can be a social activity.

Indigenous History in Hawaii

With Associate Professor of Native American Studies and History Ryan Hall

Inspired by students’ interest in Hawaii during past iterations of HIST/NAST 356: Global Indigenous History, Associate Professor Ryan Hall designed an extended study that allowed students to discover Hawaii’s complex history firsthand.

In Hawaii, the class participated in both tourism and volunteerism, centering their experience on connecting with locals. They visited the ‘Iolani Royal Palace, toured old Honolulu (the site of many Indigenous protests), spoke to labor leaders in the Local 5 Hotel Workers Union at the Waikiki beach district, explored the Bishop Museum, and saw Pearl Harbor.

They also participated in a program through the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa to work in landscape restoration with local native organizations. The class waded through mud to pull weeds from a spring, then cleared a taro patch and a fish pond of invasive species.

“Hawaii is the invasive species capital of the world,” Hall says. “I can tell the students that in the classroom, but being on your knees and pulling nasty grasses in a never-ending fight, that’s something different. We’re learning what Native Hawaiians are doing to maintain the place, reconnect with the place, protect it, and revitalize it. It’s very moving to contribute to that in a very small way.”

Forced Migration in Egypt

With Associate Professor of Educational Studies Sally Bonet

Associate Professor Sally Bonet asks students to consider the education of forced migrants as emergency care.

EDUC 246: Forced Migration and Education contemplates refugee education on a local scale — the class visited a refugee center in Utica, N.Y. — but also in a global context.

War began in Sudan in April 2023, and now 1.3 million displaced Sudanese are in Egypt. These refugees are technically allowed, but effectively banned, from public schools.

The class traveled to Cairo, Egypt to volunteer at a school for such refugees; ���߲��о��� students took inventory to help the school understand what resources it has and what it still needs, and they acted as English language partners for the Sudanese children.

“I got to talk to a seventh-grade girl at the Sudanese Displaced Children Learning Center (SDCLC). That experience changed my perspective on how I can help students like her,” shared Amanda Ariunzaya ’27. “She asked me what I was studying, and I told her film and art. She said, ‘Art? Draw my teacher!’ All of the class lined up, and I drew all of them. That was my favorite memory.

“After my conversation with the SDCLC students, I have been reflecting on how I could further support her and her classmates. Recently, I prompted conversations with Prof. Bonet to explore ways to raise funds for art supplied for the SDCLC. My access to art supplies has paved the path for my higher education in studio art and film. I hope that providing these students with supplies can offer the same experience to tap into their creativity and further develop their self-expression, just as it did for me when I was younger”

The class also saw the Great Pyramids, rode camels, took a boat ride on the Nile, and visited museums. They traveled the length of Cairo to trace the steps of refugees making the long trek to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees located on the outskirts of the city. Together, these experiences helped contextualize the refugee experience and ground the class in cultural and historical themes.

Coffee in Colombia

With Professor of Geography Peter Klepeis

After pondering themes of environmental justice and ethical consumption in GEOG 307: What’s in Your Cup?, students had the chance to see how coffee beans are grown, harvested, and turned into the well-loved drink they enjoyed so often during the semester.

Dan Joseph of Hamilton’s Fojo Beans was a frequent guest speaker and resident coffee connoisseur throughout the semester, and he also accompanied the group to Colombia. Once they arrived, students traveled with Dr. Andrés Guhl of the Universidad de los Andes to explore Colombian geography.

At two cooperatives and six different coffee farms in Colombia, the class practiced “cupping” methods to pick apart the flavors of each brew, and they worked alongside farmers to learn the life cycle of the coffee bean firsthand. They also spent time in the city of Bogotá and visited archaeological sites like La Chaquira.

“My favorite part of the trip was visiting the family farms in rural areas, where they were really passionate about teaching us the process of growing coffee,” said Veronica Cordero ’27. “We were able to see it from seedling to bean. They’re very innovative with their fermentation process in Colombia, and they’re able to get really cool and funky flavors that you can actually taste.”

Global Politics in Ghana

With Associate Professor of Political Science Dominika Koter

The curriculum of POSC 350: Africa in World Politics spans from the pre-colonial period to the present. During their trip, students retraced the slave trade, visiting a slave market site and two castles, Cape Coast and Elmina, that were central to the slave trade. Accompanied by local guides, the class rediscovered the history of power and culture in Ghana from multiple perspectives at sites of “tremendous historical significance” — though they also had light-hearted experiences, like museum visits and a canopy walk in one of Ghana’s national parks.

Professor Dominika Koter hoped to present a different image of Africa than its stereotypes, and she noted that Ghana is a peaceful and safe country. The people are “really warm, and they laugh a lot. They’re very welcoming.” Koter had previously been to Ghana several times to conduct research. However, after her first visit to Ghana with a class, she found that the trip was even more meaningful because of the students.

Juanita Omeje ’27 says she “enjoyed getting to know my peers beyond the campus setting. Traveling to Ghana together really set up the space for us to talk more about life outside of our coursework, and some of my best memories from the trip came from these unfiltered conversations.”