The Center for Africana Studies is a space for the critical examination of the human, cultural, social, political, economic, and historical factors that have created and shaped the African, African American and other African Diaspora experiences throughout the world. As an academic and research center, we place primary emphasis on the ways that African diasporic experiences and traditions have functioned on a global scale and resonated within the spaces of a variety of national projects. The Center provides an intellectual setting in which interdisciplinary dialogues are encouraged. For 40 years we have initiated a variety of student- and faculty-based programs to expand the understanding of ideas, knowledge, experiences and approaches to the study of African and African Diaspora history, society, and culture. The Center sponsors the Africana Studies Summer Institute for incoming first-year students and several co-curricular programs including: the Artist- and Scholar-in-Residence Programs, The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture in Social Justice, The Africana Media Project, and The Honorable A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. Memorial Lecture.
The Center for Africana Studies’ work transforms the methods of traditional disciplines to present a more inclusive narrative of the human story – one that cuts across national, ethnic, racial, and scholarly boundaries.
