Sustainable Development In Senegal, Theory And Practice
ANTH 397A (4 cr.)
This introductory university course in sustainable development theory and practice is co-taught by a professor experienced in the sociology of development in Senegal, and includes updated information on recent advances in emerging global issues and sustainable technologies. Integrating top-down and bottom-up development perspectives, the course focuses on understanding, assessing and attempting to contribute to Senegal's sustainability policies and programs. American and Senegalese university students work in teams based on common interest. The instructors and guest lecturers are bilingual in French and English. Non-French speaking students are paired with local English speakers.
Independent Study in Sustainable International Development
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ANTH 396 (4 cr.)
And
Community Service Learning in Developing Countries
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HONORS 397 (4 cr.)
These two courses support American and Senegalese students and village teams with closely related interests in creating projects important to villagers in their ongoing activities to sustain their villages. Subsequent semesters continue existing projects and initiate new ones.
Among a wide range of ecological, social, economic, and cultural project options, individual students select to work with village teams with vital concerns most similar to their own. The Independent Study course is the research carried out by students, villagers and faculty to obtain and learn to apply the external knowledge base needed to create each development project. Students share what they learn with their village teams, and in turn, members of the village team share local expertise with the students. Faculty members connect students and villagers to experts, who serve as counselors and mentors. EREV faculty and staff also are available as advisors and live and work closely in the field with the students on their projects. Depending on their type of project, students and villagers typically carry out some structured data collection and analysis.
The Service Learning course is the project itself. Following a living and learning philosophy, these two courses interweave mentoring with flexible sessions in social science and action research methods applied to the creation of each semester’s development projects. In developing countries where services often are minimal, community development skills are keys to effective service learning. Starting at the EREV sustainable community development center in Dakar, American and Senegalese students receive sessions in social science and participatory action research methods. In a rural ecovillage, they apply these development skills with their village partners. Before leaving the site, students typically assist their village team members in organizing on-site presentations for the village community, faculty and staff, and plan for an EREV intern to support projects over the interim to the next course. Back at EREV headquarters they complete research papers and a project proposal describing and seeking further support for their projects. Students and faculty evaluate lessons learned and prepare project materials and results for sharing on the EREV website.
Students take one of the following language courses:
Beginning to Intermediate French
FRENCH 290 (4 cr.)
Our program director, Ousmane Pame, who once taught French at Manchester University will decide with each student whther he/she will learn most rapidly in the this beginning – intermediate course or the nect intermediate – advances class. This will accommodate beginners and advanced beginners, whose previous French classes took place long ago or failed to provide them with sufficient opportunities to gain spoken language proficiency and comprehension. Students will gain fluency and confidence in both oral and written French, increase their professional French vocabulary in the area of international development and explore African cultures through a range of texts, taken from original sources by African authors. In addition to written exercises, students will read the local press regularly, listen to certain Senegalese radio programmes in French, and discuss the main news in class with their instructor. They also will review French technical vocabulary used in their sustainable development classes. The course encourages intense cultural interaction while building students’ linguistic competence and communication skills.
Intermediate to Advanced French
FRENCH 290 (4 cr.)
This intermediate – advanced French course is offered for those already proficient in basic spoken French. Starting at this level, students will increase their fluency and comprehension as well as their speed and accuracy in reading and writing in French, mastering a professional French vocabulary in the area of international development. Students also explore African cultures through a range of texts, taken from original sources by African authors. In addition to written exercises, students will read the local press regularly, listen to Senegalese radio programs in French, and discuss the news in class with their instructor. The course encourages intense cultural interaction while building students’ linguistic competence and communication skills.
Introductory Wolof and Senegalese Culture
FRENCH 290 (4 cr.)
(note: this Wolof course is listed under the French Department at UMass)
This introductory course will use audio-aural methods in conversational dialogues adapted from existing texts, as well as language learning games, Wolof proverbs and poetry. Only Wolof will be spoken in the classroom, with few exceptions. Adult literacy texts will serve to introduce written Wolof and to familiarize students with the rural lifestyles of Senegal. Students will also become familiar with and discuss the health, hygiene and other development messages that literacy programs target to the illiterate rural women who are their main participants.
Additional language courses for intensive French or Wolof are also available, when planned in advance as an option for the Independent Study course.
Earn 16 transferable credits through the University of Massachusetts
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The following is a list of core faculty. In addition, a wide variety of specialists from
local universities and development agencies teach collaboratively in the course.
Ousmane Aly Pame
Ph.D., English, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
In addition to directing the Global Ecovillage Network's EcoYoff Living & Learning Center, Pame is a professor in the Department of English at Cheikh Anta Diop University, where he has been teaching translation and English civilization and literature for the past five years. He has also taught French language and Senegalese literature in the Department of French at Exeter University (United Kingdom) and business English at Suffolk University's Dakar Campus, and at CESAG, a West African sub-regional Management School. He has significant experience coordinating study abroad programs for U.S. students in Dakar, and is the local director for Living Routes' Senegal programs.
Lamine Kane
M.S., Community Development and Education, University of Manchester, UK.
Mr. Mouhamadou Lamine Kane has served since 2000 as a study abroad instructor in the sociology of International Development in Senegal for American University programs offered by the University of Minnesota through the West African Research Council in Dakar and by the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) for a large number of American universities. Following his studies in Manchester, where he also taught French at Moss-side College, he served as a research fellow in African social anthropology and history at the Vervuren Museum and in the language department of Université Libre in Brussels, Belgium. From 1993 to 1995, he was UNICEF Dakar’s program officer for Education, working with the formal, informal, and remedial education sectors in Senegal. His has worked as an expert consultant in many countries for Ministries, UN Agencies, and NGOs and is the author of a recent paper on poverty reduction through education for the international conference in South Africa on "Education and Sustainable Development".
Oumar Diene
Ph.D., in Urban end Environmental Planning, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
Dr. Diene is the program manager of the Living and Learning Center and of the Living Routes Program in Senegal. He also serves as the Secretary General of the Global Ecovillage Network, Senegal (GENSEN), and has worked extensively in development projects in areas including permaculture, ecotourism, and renewable energies. Dr. Diene teaches the Research and Action Research methods classes which are a part of the Independent Study and Service Learning courses and which enable Living Routes' Senegalese and U.S.students to work and learn effectively in host villages. He draws on a background of engagement and leadership in community development activities since his earliest student years in Yoff, Dakar.
Marian Zeitlin
Ph.D., International Nutrition Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professor Marian Zeitlin, is the Director of the EcoYoff Living & Learning Center, cofounder and Vice President of GEN Senegal and founder of the EcoYoff Sustainable Community Development Programs provided by Living Routes. She will be present during half the program and will participate in sessions on action research and international program design and in nutrition, health and early child development. Before relocating to Senegal in 1996, she taught social science research methods and international program design for 17 years at the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She currently remains a visiting professor at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, a courtesy professor at Cornell University’s Division of Nutritional Sciences and a Visiting Fellow at Cornell’s Institute for African Development. Between 1971 and 2004 she also authored several books and consulted and directed projects in 25 countries sponsored by U.S.A.I.D., the World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, FAO, the Ford Foundation and Save the Children, among other agencies, before expanding her focus from nutrition, child development and food security to holistic ecological communities.
Brooke McKean
MSc, Development Management, London School of Economics, UK
In addition to teaching with the program, Ms. McKean has conducted anthropological research in Tanzania and Sierra Leone. She also has experience developing and overseeing consultancy projects in media, participatory evaluation programs, and other organizational development in Kenya and Senegal. In coordination with Oumar Diene, she teaches the Independent Study and Service Learning courses, providing theoretical background and supporting students in developing participatory projects in villages.
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