Faculty News - Professor LaNitra Berger

In summer 2018, Professor LaNitra Berger orchestrated an intense and varied trip for Mason undergraduates to South Africa. The three-week program – Monuments, Museums, and Memory in South Africa – was organized around exposing students to a diversity of viewpoints on the nation's past and future.

The participants, three of whom were members of the Honors College, comprised a diverse group: two were African American, three were STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors, one was an athlete – all categories underrepresented in study-abroad programs. Garey Davis, a staff member from Mason's Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Education + LGBTQ Resources who has worked on HIV and AIDS issues in South Africa, joined the group.

The group spent two weeks in Cape Town and one week in Johannesburg. They met early on with Chumani Maxwele, who organized the Rhodes Must Fall movement that ultimately resulted in the removal of the Cecil Rhodes statue. A visit to Robben Island on July 4 was a high point, as was a meeting with a number of young black artists who brought critical perspectives on the country's colonial past and history with slavery. A visit to the Irma Stern museum offered more conservative white views, while the group visited Soweto and the Mandela House on Nelson Mandela's birthday.

The participants are currently curating some of the photographs they took on the trip. Professor Berger hope to organize a similar venture this coming summer, with renewed opportunities for interactions with younger artists.