Department of African American Studies

Department of African American Studies
Name	Department of African American Studies
Established	1960s
Type	Academic department
Location	United States
Colors	Black and Gold

Contents

Department of African American Studies is an academic unit focused on the study of Black history, culture, politics, and intellectual traditions within the United States and the African diaspora. The department traces intellectual lineages to civil rights-era activism and Black Power movements associated with institutions such as Howard University, Spelman College, Tuskegee University, Fisk University, and Morehouse College, while engaging scholarship linked to figures like W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, and Birmingham Campaign. It fosters interdisciplinary links with programs at Columbia University, Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Chicago, and Yale University.

History

Departments emerged during the late 1960s and early 1970s amid student activism at campuses including San Francisco State University, University of California, Los Angeles, Cornell University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and City College of New York; these movements intersected with events such as the Civil Rights Movement, Watts riots, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Freedom Summer, and protests referencing the Long Hot Summer of 1967. Foundational scholarship drew on works by Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and institutional efforts like the Black Panther Party's community programs, while curricular design responded to debates involving Paul Robeson, Stokely Carmichael, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and advocacy networks connected to NAACP litigation and United States v. Nixon-era politics. Over decades, the department institutionalized methods influenced by projects at Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Du Bois's Atlanta University Studies, The Black Scholar, and archives associated with Library of Congress collections.

Programs typically offer undergraduate majors, minors, and graduate tracks, often housed within colleges related to Columbia College, Radcliffe College, Barnard College, Howard College, and professional schools such as Harvard Law School and Yale Law School where interdisciplinary coursework complements degrees in fields tied to National Endowment for the Humanities funding and fellowships like the MacArthur Fellowship. Curricula include seminars on texts and authors such as Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, August Wilson, and Chinua Achebe, as well as courses examining events like the Transatlantic slave trade, Reconstruction Era, Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, and legislation such as Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Graduate offerings often integrate research methodologies linked to archives like the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and projects funded by foundations such as the Ford Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Faculty profiles commonly include scholars with expertise comparable to figures such as Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Patricia Hill Collins, and Michael Eric Dyson, and research agendas intersect with institutions like Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Institute for Research in African American Studies, and centers modeled on W. E. B. Du Bois Institute. Research spans literary analysis of writers including Langston Hughes, Sonia Sanchez, Claude McKay, and Zadie Smith; historical studies of leaders like Booker T. Washington, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Nat Turner; and political theory engaging thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Amílcar Cabral, Kwame Nkrumah, and Aime Cesaire. Grants and collaborations often involve partnerships with National Endowment for the Arts, National Science Foundation, Center for Constitutional Rights, and museums like Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Student organizations frequently include chapters of national and campus groups such as Black Student Union, NAACP, National Black Law Students Association, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Delta Sigma Theta, and Omega Psi Phi; extracurricular programming highlights performances tied to traditions from African American Vernacular English communities, step shows inspired by Divine Nine fraternities, spoken-word events in the lineage of Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and cultural festivals recalling Juneteenth commemorations and Kwanzaa observances. Student media and activism engage with outlets like The Root, Ebony, Jet, The Crisis, and campus publications patterned after The Black Panther newspaper, while internships often connect students with organizations such as Teaching Tolerance, Color of Change, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and municipal initiatives in cities like Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles.

Departments build partnerships with community institutions including Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Black Lives Matter, ACLU, and local schools modeled after initiatives by Freedom Schools and service programs reminiscent of Peace Corps community work. Outreach projects address public history through exhibitions about events like Tulsa race massacre, Red Summer, Rosewood massacre, and oral-history initiatives connected to archives at Library of Congress and university museums such as Harambee House-style centers. Public programming often collaborates with legal clinics similar to NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, health initiatives paralleling efforts by Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and media partnerships with outlets like NPR and PBS.

Alumni include public intellectuals, elected officials, artists, and legal advocates comparable to Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama, Stacey Abrams, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ava DuVernay, Kendrick Lamar, Alice Walker, John Lewis, Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisholm, Assata Shakur, Colin Kaepernick, Bell Hooks, and Toni Cade Bambara; contributions range from scholarship recognized by awards like the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and MacArthur Fellowship to legal victories in cases associated with Brown v. Board of Education-era precedents and policy influence in municipal administrations of cities such as Detroit, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Alumni have founded organizations akin to Black Lives Matter, launched media enterprises similar to Blavity, and spearheaded cultural institutions modeled on the Studio Museum in Harlem and community archives that preserve histories of movements including Black Power and Civil Rights Movement.

Category:African American studies departments