The program required only two new positions to be created—a director of the African Language Program and a language preceptor.

Mugane, who comes to Harvard from Ohio University, has been hired to fill the director position, while Boston University’s John Hutchison has temporarily stepped into the role of preceptor this year as a visiting professor of African and African American Studies. The department has yet to make a permanent appointment.

After the flurry of negative press that surrounded the high-profile departures of two of its star professors in recent years, the language program could be an important step in reaffirming the department’s reputation.

“With the addition of the African Languages Program, Harvard is now one of the places to come if not the place to come to study Africa,” said Elkins. “Now that we have the languages, it puts us in the forefront.”

—Staff writer Ella A. Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@fas.harvard.edu.