African American Studies

All college students today will have to make their way in an increasingly multi-ethnic U.S. society.  Our program is specifically designed to engage students in critical analysis and intellectual exploration of the African-American presence in and contributions to the United States.

African American Studies and other ethnic studies programs contextualize the often underrepresented and underappreciated historical, literary/artistic, and ideological contributions of minority groups in the United States as well as chart the contemporary landscape of United States racial, ethnic, and class relations.

Specifically designed to engage students in critical analysis and intellectual exploration of the African-American presence in and contributions to the United States, the program considers the diversity among Black Americans and examines the complexities of and interrelations among multiple “minority” identities as we consider gender, sex and sexuality, spirituality, class, and political and cultural ideologies in various African-American and Black immigrant communities.