Welcome to African American Studies

About the Program

Upcoming Events

The Department of African American Studies is an intellectual community committed to producing, refining and advancing knowledge of Black people in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and Africa. A key component of our mission is to interrogate the meanings and dimensions of slavery and colonialism, and their continuing political, social and cultural implications.

Our faculty is drawn from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, cultural studies, linguistics, literature, history, sociology, performance, and creative writing. We are united by a relentless commitment to pushing the boundaries of knowledge through excellence in scholarship and pedagogy that are at once interdisciplinary and innovative.

News

October 28, 2020

Racial unrest and violence between armed white militias and Black Lives Matter protestors. Millions of acres burned in California wildfires. The appointment of a new Supreme Court justice. A pandemic that has left more than 225,000 Americans dead and over 20 million unemployed.

August 4, 2020

“Berkeley Conversations: Race & The Criminal Justice System” featuring African American Studies Professor, Nikki Jones.

Link: https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/07/28/race-the-criminal-justice-system/

July 15, 2020

Ula Y. TaylorSpotlight on Berkeley Teaching exposes first-year undergraduate students to an awesome set of classes that they may not have even imagined possible.