DESIGNlife News

Professor Joyner is director of the Ghana Study Abroad program with significant experience in the art, culture and history of the Akan, the predominant cultural group in Ghana. Professor Boone will be touring Ghana to establish connections with Ghanaian colleagues in Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Kwame Nkrumah Science and Technology University in Kumasi. A broader goal of the trip is to meet with Ghanaian design faculty, review studios and other resources, and investigate potential projects in several cities that could serve as the basis of an expanded interdisciplinary Study Abroad program in West Africa. Potential projects include studies of traditional building and landscape traditions, colonial and post-colonial design, and expanding opportunities for eco-tourism and sustainable design.

The group will tour Accra, the nation’s capital, Kumasi, the seat of the Ashanti Empire, and Cape Coast, which was one the largest ports dispersing enslaved African people through the 1800’s. The tour will include numerous stops at villages and other areas of interest. Direct contact with the people, traditions and lifestyles of Ghanaians form the structure of the experience. Professor Joyner and Professor Boone will return to Ghana for first summer session and Ghana Study Abroad 2005. They will be joined by Chandra Cox, professor and chair of Art and Design, and she will lead the Art and Design studio with Charles Joyner.