- Region
- Africa
- Term
- Fall, Spring
- Student Year
- Junior
- Courses Offered By
- College of Arts and Letters, College of Engineering, College of Science, Keough School of Global Affairs, Mendoza College of Business
Rwanda, the land of a thousand hills, is a small, but mighty, green and mountainous country located in East Africa. Its capital, Kigali, is a medium-sized modern city in which clear signs of a successful recovery from the devastating impact of the 1994 genocide are visible. Kigali's neighborhoods stretch out over the many hills on which the city was built, providing breathtaking views over the city and the surrounding valleys. This program encourages you to examine the social, human, psychological, and economic impacts of genocide and the challenges and opportunities of post-conflict restoration in Rwanda. You will study the impacts of the 1994 genocide and the country's persistent efforts to foster peace, unity, and reconciliation though visits to genocide memorials, museums, a refugee settlement, civil society organizations, and commissions.
In addition to excursions within Rwanda, you will spend two weeks in Northern Uganda to examine the Lord's Resistance Army with visits to NGOs, civil society organizations, and a formally internally displaced persons camps. This excursion will allow you to learn about post-conflict reconciliation in a very different, but related, context. In Kigali, you will pursue your personal academic interests through a required internship or independent research project where you can explore topics such as; unity, justice, and reconciliation; development and reconstruction; nation building; language and identity; collective memory and memorials; or democracy and freedom of speech in post-genocide environments.