The African Studies Program and Caribbean, Diaspora, and Atlantic Studies Program will co-sponsor an upcoming forum entitled, “Crossing Borders Symposium: Rethinking Memory and Trauma: New Directions in Cultural and Visual Studies.” This event is free and open to the public, starting at 12:00 p.m. on Friday, April 22, through 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, in 315 Phillips Hall.

The International and African Studies Programs will host yet another baraza, or discussion - this time, with Marie Kruger, an associate professor in the Department of English. Trauma on Display: Commemorating Apartheid on Constitution Hill will explore how physical sites across South Africa are devoted to the commemoration of apartheid atrocities, from Robben Island to the Apartheid Museum.

The African Studies Program (ASP) is hosting an upcoming baraza and lecture with UI professor Brian Ekdale on the emerging media genre of "slum tourism." Baraza is a Swahili word that means a deliberation meeting help by a collective group of knowledgeable individuals. The talk, titled, BARAZA: Ironic Encounters: Posthumanitarian Storytelling in Slum Tourist Media, will take place on Wednesday, October 14 from 11 a.m.-12:00 p.m. in 315 Phillips Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

This year, the African Studies Program awarded the Rex D. Honey Lectureship award to Dr. Sandra Barkan, a program officer at Meridian International Center, Washington D.C. Barkan creates cultural diplomacy programs for participants in the United States Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). These programs are for visitors who come from all over the world, including Africa. Dr. Barkan announced that she had decided to donate the $1,000 honorarium that came with the Honey Lectureship Award to the University of Iowa Libraries for the purchase of African Studies materials.

On March 10, 2015, the African Studies Program, a constituent program of University of Iowa International Programs, hosted a reception for musicians of The Nile Project. The Nile Project is a collective of musicians from the eleven countries through which the Nile River flows in Eastern and North Eastern Africa.