Published on Show Me Mizzou Dec. 17, 2025
Students in America are used to debating and reckoning with a challenging racial history. What's less common, says Matt Frierdich, an assistant teaching professor who directs the program with assistant professor of history Merve Fejzula, is viewing that history through an entirely different lens — hence the value of the Kinder Institute’s Study Abroad in South Africa program.
In a 10-day winter program full of seminars and guest lectures — paired with ongoing coursework back home at Mizzou — Kinder students visit sites such as Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. It’s part of the university’s longstanding partnership with the University of Western Cape. Students return with a new perspective on geopolitical challenges.
“They get to question their own understanding and think about how things play out in different places with different histories,” Frierdich says. “They study the South Africa experience and the efforts to live with a difficult past.”
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