Black Studies is a distinctly innovative discipline that
focuses on people of African descent whether they live in
Africa, in the Caribbean, or in North or South America.
Along with similar departments in the University of California
and in other universities, it consists of intellectual and
cross-cultural enterprises, incorporating historical reconstructions
and formulating hitherto unexplored and unexamined methodological,
theoretical, and analytical forms in the social sciences.
Interdisciplinary in nature, it includes professors trained
in comparative literature, film studies, ethnomusicology,
gender studies, history, linguistics, political science,
and other traditional disciplines. Besides exploring new
areas of contact between these disciplines, it prepares
students for life in an increasingly multi-ethnic and global
society, for graduate study, and for professional careers
in community service, education, government, law and private
industry.
The Department of Black Studies seeks to increase the general
awareness and understanding of the Black experience through
an examination of its historical and contemporary manifestations
in various societies. The department brings together scholars
who are concerned with Black America, the African Diaspora,
and Africa. It utilizes a cross-cultural approach, incorporating
the active participation of faculty, students, and the wide
community. The faculty of Professors and lecturers ground
their students in history, literature, cinema, religion,
the arts, and the social sciences, with particular concentrations
in the achievement of moral ideals such as democracy and
equality, cultural theory, and the social, aesthetic, and
political ideas emerging from historical and contemporary
societies.
Among the affiliated faculty are members of Art Studio,
English, Political Science, and Sociology Departments and
the Women's Studies Program. The department's resources
and partnerships include the Center for Black Studies, the
Ethnic Studies Library, the Multicultural Center, and various
student groups.
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