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Africana Studies at the University of Delaware
is thrilled to have launched our graduate studies program this Fall. The
program, directed by Professor Monica Coleman, is a major victory in
the history of the department. It comes 50 years after the establishment
of the Black American Studies Program (now Africana Studies) in the
College of Arts and Science, which was a direct result of student
agitation and demand for studies devoted to the Black American
experience. The Africana M.A. program also comes 15 years after the
departmentalization of the program in 2006, which was nearly 35 years
after the program was founded in 1971. Even after Africana Studies
reached department status, it never had more than three core faculty
members until 2014. In recent years, the Department of Africana Studies
has secured nine (9) active faculty members whose scholarship and
service affirms the College’s Strategic Plan’s stated values of
excellence in teaching and research, diversity, and social
responsibility.
The graduate program in Africana Studies comes out of
these achievements. Though won in struggle, they are testament of the
commitment to the study of Africans and African descendants by Africana
Studies students and faculty. The graduate program of the
Department of Africana Studies provides students with critical exposure
to the multidisciplinary study of people and cultures of African descent
in the United States, Caribbean, Latin America, Africa and Europe. The
program provides a balance of a foundation in Africana Studies, and
multidisciplinary research methods in Africana Studies, with advanced
study in the four pillars of the Department: Pan African consciousness,
public humanities, gender and sexuality studies and visual and material
culture. The graduate program also offers interested students the
opportunity to continue in Africana Studies, History, Art History,
English or other related fields at the advanced graduate level.
The
Department of Africana Studies offers a regionally and nationally
competitive graduate program. Graduate programming in Africana Studies
serves to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the
Graduate College, in alignment with the University’s Strategic Plan
efforts. Notable features of the graduate program in Africana
Studies include (1) UD’s strong Africana Studies faculty; (2) the
University’s existing resources in historical studies, gender and Black
Women’s Studies, museum studies and material culture studies, the Paul
R. Jones Collection and the Biden Institute; (3) the opportunity for
greater marketability with knowledge of the history and status of
African heritage communities; and (4) a strong portfolio for entering
doctoral programs at UD thus diversifying the professoriate – including
the existing African American Public Humanities Initiative (AAPHI).
We
heartily welcome our inaugural cohort of graduate students: Afiya John,
Kayla Heard, Austen-Monet McClendon, and Chad Graham. Learn more about our graduate students and the work they are doing in Africana Studies on our graduate student page.
