Academics

DAFS major and minor course sequences are structured to provide a grounded familiarity with topics of history, language, philosophy, education, literature, art, music, science, cultural anthropology, and sociology as they relate to peoples of African descent throughout the world.

The AFS curriculum includes courses which cover a broad spectrum of the Pan-African experience. The curriculum seeks also to investigate African connections and influences among and with other ethnic groups in the United States and other parts of the Americas, whether Native North Americans and Latino communities in the U.S., or communities in Brazil, Haiti, etc. Study in the Department of Africana Studies is preparation for a global future with a cultivated understanding of local conditions and challenges. The Department is also a site of lively and empathetic engagement over issues of gender, pressures of LGBT identity in black communities, and other problems and opportunities facing young black men and women in the 21st century.

B.A in Africana Studies

Undergraduate Minors

Students majoring in any field – from Business or Education to the Humanities and Fine and Professional Arts – are encouraged to consider Africana Studies as a minor.

A minor in Africana Studies often enhances the employability of students who major in other fields. Those who take the African Studies or Identity, Globalization and Space minor will find themselves with a competitive advantage in the private sector, particularly in such areas as global health, agricultural processing, information technology, climate study, mineral trades and strong cultural competency skill sets.

The department offers three undergraduate minors:

  • Africana Studies, which covers the study of peoples of the Caribbean, the United States and Canada, with selected studies of Africa and other diasporic communities,
  • African Studies, which focuses on the study the African continent, with selected studies of diasporic communities of the past and in contemporary times, and a
  • Globalization, Identity and Space, which offers students a broad understanding of our global world. In each case, the curriculum addresses the topic of Pan-African frameworks of reading history and culture.
Graduate Minor

The Race, Gender and Social Justice graduate minor allows students to develop a global understanding of the complex inter-sectional systems of oppression that shape the lives of people of African descent, including other people of color.

Students also gain specialized knowledge in the interdisciplinary field of Africana studies. In enhancing civic engagement as an interdisciplinary minor, the minor includes a focus on public policy, policy advocacy and the practice and methodology of community activism. The knowledge and skills gained through the minor prepares students for professional and academic positions.

The minor is designed for master's and doctoral students who wish to complement and strengthen their research and pedagogical framework in their degree program, as well as those who are interested in working towards equity with regard to gender, race, class, sexuality and other categories.

Race, Gender and Social Justice Minor

Student Groups

Affectionately known as "the House that BUS built," CPAC, today, is the home base for several student groups including:

Research

The Institute for African American Affairs is the research arm of the department, also known as IAAA.

Affiliated Organizations

The Department of Pan-African Studies is also affiliated with the following organizations:

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