The Program
This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between Ghana and the largest forced migration in human history, the transatlantic slave trade. Accounting for approximately 10% of Africans removed to the so-called New World, Ghana was an important site for the trade in people of African descent and looms even larger in representations of transatlantic slavery and African resistance to European colonization. This course pays specific attention to the middle passage, the roughly two-month transatlantic journey of Africans to the Americas, and its historical, literary, and representational legacies. As such, students will engage with scholarly studies, novels, autobiographies, and visual media. With an eye towards present day movements, the course will also devote time to thinking about contemporary journeys of Ghanaians throughout the world, the return of Ghanaian nationals and their families back to Ghana, and the efforts of blacks in the Americas to visit and sometimes settle in Ghana. It centers the notion of disability – broadly defined – in these discussions by thinking about the ways that movement, racial hierarchies, nationalism, ethnicity, and historical tourism are implicated in multi-layered health landscapes, social constructions of ability, and the built environment. The course will conclude with a 10-day trip to Ghana and visits to such places as the University of Ghana, Cape Coast Castle, Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, Assin Manso Ancestral Slave River Park, and Prempeh II Jubilee Museum.
Program Location(s)
Ghana (Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi)
Academics
Faculty Leader: Keith Green, English and Africana Studies, keigreen@camden.rutgers.edu
Class Meeting Time & Dates: TBD*
Course Number 56:352:580
Program Travel Dates
Jan 3-13, 2026
Financial Information
TBD*
Program Cost Includes:
Airfare
Housing
International health insurance
Some meals and excursions
Program Cost Does Not Include:
Passport, visa, or airport entrance or exit fees (if applicable)
Vaccinations (if applicable)
Remaining meals