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| Center for African Studies at UCLA | |
|---|---|
| Name | Center for African Studies at UCLA |
| Established | 1961 |
| Type | Academic research center |
| City | Los Angeles |
| State | California |
| Country | United States |
| Campus | University of California, Los Angeles |
Center for African Studies at UCLA is an interdisciplinary research and teaching hub within the University of California, Los Angeles that focuses on the study of African societies, histories, languages, cultures, and politics. The center brings together faculty, students, and community partners to support scholarship on Africa and the African diaspora, fostering links with regional studies programs, cultural institutions, and governmental and nongovernmental organizations. It serves as a focal point for curricular development, language training, research grants, and public programming that connect UCLA with scholarly networks across the United States, Africa, and beyond.
The center traces its origins to area studies initiatives in the Cold War era, drawing on models established by Title VI of the Higher Education Act, National Defense Education Act, Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, Rockefeller Foundation, Harvard University, Columbia University, Stanford University, and University of California regional programs. Early collaborations involved scholars associated with African Studies Association, ASA, British Institute in Eastern Africa, Institut Français d'Afrique Noire, School of Oriental and African Studies, Makerere University, University of Ibadan, University of Cape Town, and University of Nairobi. Over decades, the center expanded under influences from figures linked to Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Haile Selassie, Julius Nyerere, Patrice Lumumba, W. E. B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, and scholarship associated with Peasant Studies, Dependency Theory, Postcolonialism, and Decolonization. Funding and programmatic shifts reflected priorities of National Endowment for the Humanities, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, MacArthur Foundation, and various federal and state initiatives.
The center's mission aligns with priorities promoted by United Nations', UNESCO, and regional bodies such as the African Union, fostering research on topics relevant to Pan-Africanism, transnationalism, diaspora studies, human rights, public health, environmental policy, and urbanization in African contexts. Programmatic offerings include language instruction in Swahili language, Amharic language, Hausa language, Yoruba language, Zulu language, Afrikaans language, and regional studies seminars that intersect with work on Saharan trade, Trans-Saharan trade, Atlantic slave trade, Indian Ocean trade, Great Zimbabwe, Mali Empire, Songhai Empire, Aksumite Empire, Benin Kingdom, Kingdom of Kongo, and modern states such as Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Morocco. The center administers fellowship programs modeled on Fulbright Program, Ford Foundation Fellowship Program, Fulbright–Hays Program, and supports grants linked to National Science Foundation initiatives.
Scholarly work at the center encompasses historical research on figures like Mansa Musa, Shaka Zulu, Samori Ture, Sékou Touré, Leopold Sédar Senghor; literary studies engaging authors such as Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Ama Ata Aidoo, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; and interdisciplinary projects involving scholars with backgrounds at Princeton University, Yale University, University of Chicago, New York University, London School of Economics, Oxford University, Cambridge University, Johns Hopkins University, and Duke University. Research themes link to public health work associated with World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and studies informed by methodologies from oral history, archival studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, and geography—including projects on HIV/AIDS epidemic, Ebola virus epidemic, malaria, climate change in Africa, sustainable agriculture, and mining conflicts connected to entities like De Beers, Shell plc, and Glencore. The center hosts workshops, conferences, and visiting scholar residencies that bring participants from institutions such as Smithsonian Institution, Getty Research Institute, British Museum, Institut Français, and Max Planck Society.
Public programming engages local communities and cultural partners including African American Museum, California African American Museum, Watts Towers Arts Center, LACMA, Skirball Cultural Center, and community organizations like NAACP, Black Lives Matter, Africana Studies community groups, and student organizations such as Student African Union and United Students for Africa. The center curates exhibitions, film series, and speaker events featuring artists and activists linked to Fela Kuti, King Sunny Adé, Miriam Makeba, Brenda Fassie, Youssou N'Dour, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Soweto Gospel Choir, and filmmakers like Ousmane Sembène, Haile Gerima, Ava DuVernay, Raoul Peck, Abderrahmane Sissako, and Djibril Diop Mambéty. Community engagement includes partnerships with museums, schools, and media outlets such as NPR, PBS, and Los Angeles Times to disseminate research and cultural programming.
The center maintains formal and informal links with UCLA units including Department of History (UCLA), Department of Anthropology (UCLA), Department of African Languages and Cultures (UCLA), Institute of International, Global, and Area Studies (UCLA), Labor Center (UCLA), School of Public Affairs (UCLA), David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Luskin School of Public Affairs, and libraries such as William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Charles E. Young Research Library, and UCLA Library Special Collections. International partners include University of Cape Town, Makerere University, University of Ghana, University of Ibadan, Cairo University, University of Pretoria, Addis Ababa University, and NGOs like Doctors Without Borders, CARE International, Oxfam, International Rescue Committee, and Amnesty International.
Physical and digital resources include language laboratories, archival holdings, and special collections linking to materials from British Library, National Archives (United Kingdom), Library of Congress, Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, Royal Anthropological Institute, and digitized repositories used by researchers from Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science and Stanford Digital Repository. Facilities support multimedia performances, film screenings, and conferences, and provide funding administration for grants from National Institutes of Health, NEH, Mellon Foundation, and private donors.
Faculty and affiliates associated with the center include scholars and public intellectuals whose work intersects with figures and institutions like Walter Rodney, Basil Davidson, Homi K. Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Achille Mbembe, V. Y. Mudimbe, Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Ebenezer Obadare, Chinweizu, Ato Quayson, Craig Calhoun, Paul Kagame (as a regional political figure in scholarship), and alumni who have gone on to roles in academia, diplomacy, cultural institutions, and NGOs including placements at United Nations, African Union Commission, United States Agency for International Development, Foreign Service Institute, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Human Rights Watch, and leading universities worldwide.