African Diaspora Studies

The African Diaspora Studies Ph.D. program focuses on the life, culture, and social organization (broadly defined) of persons of African descent. The study of Africa, North America and the Caribbean are central components of the program. Students are expected to apply a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the international and national divisions of race as these pertain to persons of African descent, wherever they may find themselves. Such an approach is to be employed for the study and understanding of development and underdevelopment, domination and power, self-determination, mutual cooperation, and aesthetic and creative expression. Issues of identity construction, marginality, territoriality and the universal role of race in the organization of political economy and in class formation are critical to the program's intellectual agenda.