Led by experienced faculty members, the supervised two-week educational field trip to Ethiopia aimed to provide an opportunity for students of Linguistics and African Studies to have first-hand experience and carry out empirical investigations on various issues. The rationale was to use Ethiopia as a case study that would illustrate knowledge of Africa acquired in Linguistics and/or African Studies courses.

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For Linguistics students, the linguistic diversity in Ethiopia provides a precious opportunity to study specific aspects of a language on the field. Using Amharic as an example, topics such as lexical borrowing, language policy, phonology and morphosyntax have been studied. The fieldtrip was essentially the best way of putting knowledge about language structure and use into practice, and formed a crucial part of a linguist’s training. For students of African Studies, the journey of exploration included a glimpse into Ethiopian politics, music, culture and history, and allowed a deeper understanding of the country. With a wide range of interesting activities, the trip enabled all participants to gather a more balanced understanding and feeling of Ethiopia, and gave an introduction of contemporary Africa, which is dynamic but full of challenges.

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All students had completed their preliminary research on their topics based on the readings and presentations made before the trip. Click HERE to see the research outcome of the trip.