A new political science course to be offered this spring will give Tufts students a new perspective on international relations by connecting them to two universities in Africa. Political Science Professor Pearl Robinson will be teaching PS178A, "Regionalism in African International Relations," as part of a collaboration designed to foster dialogue among students at Tufts and African students studying similar subjects.
The course grew out of a partnership between Tufts, the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and Makerere University in Uganda fostered by Robinson since last year. Students in the University of Dar es Salaam's "Regional Integration" class and Makerere University's IR course will share their perspectives on African issues with the 25 students who will be enrolled in Robinson's class at Tufts through a special website.
"This system allows a student to send a mass e-mail to reach others that may help obtain information needed for research or a paper," Robinson said. "This sharing of information will provide new and personal insights on issues, will save time for the African students who have limited access to the Internet, and will allow the students to become involved in getting new data."
PS178A is described as "an examination of how the regional scope of political issues in Africa affects processes and prospects for democratization," according to the department handbook. The program will focus on five issues - Globalization/Regionalism Debate, Conflicts in the Great Lakes Region, African Feminism, Environmental Regulatory Regimes, and the African Crisis Response Initiative.
Although each university's course will be designed differently, 25 percent of the reading for each will be the same. The sharing of resources between the three schools will be mutually beneficial, as it will allow Tufts students access to rare resources and provide funding to the African schools that will give them better access to educational tools such as books and software.
"Books are filtered through the US publishing system and it is rare for Tufts students to read books published in Africa and to have unfiltered access to the analytical forms in order to study about Africa," Robinson said. "The course is designed in a way to improve instruction in all universities."
Robinson thought of the Curriculum Co-Development Project idea while teaching and assisting at both the University of Dar es Salaam and Makerere University last year. While the program is receiving some startup money from Tufts, its major source of funding is the Ford Foundation's Nairobi office. The budget for the first year of the project is $240,000, according to Robinson.
"I chose Africa as the area of interest because I had colleagues at the universities and understood the constraints and potential there," Robinson said. "I feel it is a version of how international relations education ought to be done. This course is a chance to study a region of the world and interact with teachers and students from there."
The project was kicked off in September when two political science professors and one information technology person from each school gathered at Tufts for a weeklong workshop. A $22,000 grant from the US-AID's Leland Initiative helped support the project.
In order to make the computer interaction between the three schools possible, all the universities need access to a computer lab. Tufts and the University of Dar es Salaam already had such facilities, but a majority of the funds from the Ford Foundation went to the construction of a computer lab at Makerere University's Faculty of Social Sciences.
On the course website, there will be an integrated student roster with the students' names and school emblems beside it. Each student will have a homepage with some biographical information. The website will feature a boot-up trip to each university and will have designs by two Ghanian artists on the site.
The collaboration between Tufts and the two African schools will not be limited to this one course, and Robinson said she is committed to the partnership for the next five to ten years. The Ford Foundation is helping to develop a model that can be replicated at other universities.
"If it works, it will be a new way of working a class," Robinson said. "[The students'] perspectives and interpretations of the same subjects will be different. The course will let students appreciate variations on perspectives in the world. It allows students to come to an understanding."
