South Africa
Building a Multiracial, Multicultural Society in South Africa
May 31 - June 10, 2009
Itinerary
This 11-day seminar begins in Cape Town and ends in Pretoria. Group travel by air from Cape Town to Johannesburg is included in the seminar fee. Click here to see the 2008 Seminar itinerary.
Seminar Fee
CIEE Member: $2,700 Non-Member: $2,900
Academic Content (please note this is tentative and subject to change)
Lectures
- An Historical Overview of South Africa
- Human Rights in South Africa
- South African Democracy
- Education and Transformation
- The effectiveness of NGO’s within South African Society
- Xenophobia in South Africa
- Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: 11 years on
- ‘Race’ in South Africa Today
- The Transformation of Education in Post-apartheid South Africa
- Restitution of Land in South Africa
- Affirmative Action and its impact on young White Males
- Gender and HIV/AIDS
Co-curricular Site Visits & Field Trips
- Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula
- Social Geography of the Townships of Cape Town
- Robben Island
- University of The Western Cape
- Apartheid Museum
- Parliament
- Cradle of Humankind
- Tours of Soweto, Johannesburg, and Pretoria
- Home Visits with South African Families
Rationale
After decades of apartheid policies and state-sponsored oppression and exclusion, Nelson Mandela identified and pursued a vision of a democratic and pluralistic South African society. The change was obvious just by turning on a TV and listening to programming in the Xhosa language or watching black and white music video jockeys side-by-side in the studio. Reflecting and building a multicultural, multiracial society, especially one in which individual communities developed along imposed and radically different trajectories, requires more than superficial examples of inclusion and cooperation. This seminar will explore the South African model and vision of a pluralistic society and reflect on the policies and assessments of its advancement.
Participants will receive an historic overview of South Africa in order to contextualize contemporary issues. The seminar will explore South Africa’s domestic social, political and economic development. Issues will include: the government’s policy on the HIV/AIDS pandemic, black empowerment and affirmative action, education, South Africa’s constitution and concerns that it may be too liberal, and the problems of inequity. Regionally, South Africa’s role in the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) will also be discussed. These issues will be reflected upon through lectures and visits in Cape Town and Pretoria led by university faculty, community leaders, and governmental officials.
Host Institutions
The University of Cape Town (UCT) is internationally recognized as Africa's leading research university, established as the South African College in 1829. Today, UCT has over 20,000 students, with an almost equal gender ratio, studying in 100 departments among 6 faculties. During the apartheid years, UCT was classified as a white university, but in the mid-1980s the University adopted a posture of integration and affirmative action in defiance of government policy.
The University of Pretoria (UP) is the host institution in Pretoria. In 1908, the University of Pretoria was formally established and today the University is spread over 5 campuses with 12 faculties, 148 academic departments, and 58 research institutes. UP is the largest residential university in South Africa, with 27,000 full-time students. The university reaches another 24,000 students through telematic teaching.
Seminar Leadership
Quinton Redcliffe, Resident Director of the CIEE Study Center in Cape Town, serves as the faculty leader for the South Africa seminar. Quinton holds an Honors Degree in Religious Studies and a Masters Degree in Conflict and Conflict Management with a particular focus on religious conflicts. He has taught Conflict Resolution Skills and has been involved in a number of mediations. Quinton is also an associate of the Mediation and Transformation Practice (MTP), which is an African-based conflict resolution and facilitation unit. He has worked as the manager for the President's Award Youth Empowerment Program and as the co-coordinator for the study abroad program at the University of Cape Town. He has been part of this annual faculty seminar leadership team for the last seven years.
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