Benin Internship for Undergraduate Students

The African Studies Department partners with the UCSC Archaeological Research Center for the UC-HBCU Graduate Pathways Internship in African Diaspora Archaeology. The internship is a five-week summer training program designed to introduce undergraduate students enrolled at accredited Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to the methods and results of archaeological research on African Diaspora sites. Since 2018, interns from multiple HBCUs have participated in archaeological excavations at three sites of key importance to the African Diaspora: 1) Sans-Souci, the royal palace of Henry Christophe located in Milot, Haiti, 2) Estate Little Princess, a former Danish plantation in St. Croix, USVI, and 3) Saclo, Bénin, a rural village that emerged on the outskirts of Abomey, capital of the precolonial Kingdom of Dahomey. For this 2024 field season, we are excited to bring Howard U. students to Bénin. Students will spend one week in residence at UC Santa Cruz, California and another four weeks in Bénin doing field work and visiting heritage sites.