About our Program

Malcom X

The goal of the Africana Studies Program is to research, acquire, and disseminate information about the historical and social experiences of Africans and people of African descent on all sides of the Atlantic basin. The program provides rigorous interdisciplinary training about the experiences of Africans and African-descended peoples in the Americas, the Caribbean, Latin America and Europe.

The Program is determined to promote excitement and excellence in the study of African-descended peoples and thus foster multicultural and multiethnic understanding of society in a complex and globalized world. It also seeks to promote critical interdisciplinary inquiry into the origins and transplantation of people of African descent across the world. As well, the Program seeks to bring to students cutting-edge research findings that continue to shape the field of Africana Studies.

Rosa Parks

In short, the program aims to teach students to think critically about the global black experience. Mastery of the discipline of Africana Studies is important to students who will be functioning in a diversified, multicultural, multiethnic society.

Student Learning Outcomes

• By the time students complete the program they should be able to analyze primary documents and think critically about the interpretation of the black experience in the Atlantic basin through several courses.

Toussaint L'Ouverture
• Students should be very knowledgeable about African, African-American, Caribbean and Latin American issues as they relate to African-descended peoples. Such skills would serve students very well in the globalized workplace.
• Another significant goal of the Program is that students would leave the university with an appreciation of the interconnectedness and the interdependence of the human family. This appreciation, it is hoped, would encourage a spirit of community work as well as volunteer work in the African-descended communities in particular and the world at large.