The May 13 edition of the Express, the Washington Post for commuters, was encased by an advertisement for Marymount University, in Arlington, VA.
The four page advertisement highlights Marymount’s role “in the world, and for the world”, which seems like a bit of stretch given the greater global profile of several other universities in the DC area. The second inside page shows a young student who appears to be rather excited at her photo op and west African dress (I’m pretty confident that the picture was taken in Ghana, although there’s always the possibility that the student is posing with some Garveyites in the Caribbean). Two of the other three individuals look quite bored with the whole affair.
I don’t think too much analysis is necessary here, but I have a few very broad observations. Feel free to comment if you have more in depth thoughts.
1. It’s interesting that Marymount is using images of its students in Africa as a promotional tool.
2. Are today’s prospective students really swayed by these types of images? Do Marymount students really have the opportunity to spend substantive time getting to know less modern aspects of Ghanaian culture? What does this highlighting of traditional dress indicate in terms of perceptions of Africa (if anything)?
Africa in DC 