The Department of Biology plans to offer an educational
experience in southern Africa in summer 2014. Through a series of field trips,
lectures, and guided tours, you will learn first-hand about the history, people,
ecology, and wildlife of this diverse region.
A limited number of slots are available to alumni and students
for the three-week experience from about July 15 through August 10, 2014, traveling through
the Republic of South Africa and Swaziland.
We plan to begin our activities in Johannesburg.
From there, we will move on to Kruger National Park, widely considered to be one
of the world’s finest national parks and a prime site for viewing wild game,
including hippos, elephants, many browsers and grazers, and a wide variety of
bird species. From Kruger, we’ll head south through the Kingdom of Swaziland for
one to two days. Afterwards, we’ll move on to KwaZulu Natal Province in South Africa,
heartland of the Zulu nation, for more game viewing near the Indian Ocean beaches.
Our next stop is Cape Town, known as the “Mother City” of South Africa, where
we’ll tour the ecologically diverse Cape of Good Hope and watch migrating southern
right whales off the tip of the continent. Participants will interact with
many of the people of southern Africa—individuals of European, Indian, or
African descent—in a variety of settings from urban, cosmopolitan Cape Town to
a working safari lodge in the bush. In addition, participants will observe the
dynamic multicultural society of Southern Africa and gain an appreciation for
its history and politics as the region moves through a period of significant social
and political transition.
For more information on this unique experience, contact Carl Luciano at luciano@iup.edu or 724-357-2352, or check out the Summer Classes in Africa website.