As much as I have traveled in the past, I have never been to Africa before. One week from today, I leave for two weeks in Kenya and Rwanda. This trip was made possible by a generous donation to the university from Paul and Vivian McCorkle. The McCorkle Fellowship is a program that allows 4-6 faculty members to travel to a different country every summer.
This year, the five faculty members are: Jamii Claiborne, Swasti Bhattacharyya, Stan Ullerich, Matt Packer, and myself. I'm extremely excited about this trip for many reasons.
First, I love to travel with other faculty members. They offer such interesting insights into everything we experience, from other academic disciplines. It makes the entire trip very educational. Beyond that, it's enriching to foster friendships among the faculty, building a wonderful sense of teamwork and camraderie.
Second, I'm a Social Psychologist. One of my areas of expertise is stereotypes and prejudice. While Rwanda is famous for several things (such as the beautiful countryside), perhaps it is most famous for the 1994 genocide. All of the Fellows on the trip plan to study the genocide from a different perspective. I look forward to further insights into how such events happened, and why, and how we can prevent prejudice in the future.
For this trip, we'll spend the first four days on safari in Kenya, then eight days in Rwanda. BVU has about 30 Rwandan students, so we are all looking forward to learning more about this beautiful country.
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