Welcome to African American Studies

About the Program

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Bil Banks and James Baldwin
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African American Studies & African Diaspora Studies

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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.

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October 2, 2024

Robert Allen and The Black Scholar: A Tribute

Robert Allen’s life with The Black Scholar began in February, 1972, when his first article for the journal came into print. He was 29 years old. By September of that year, he had not only become Associate Editor of the journal, but had also been elected Vice-President of the Black World Foundation,--the non-profit that published and governed the journal.

Remarks by Janet Carter, Celebrating the Life of Robert Allen

I first met Robert when he was on the Board of the Oakland Men’s Project, a group in Oakland working with men to educate young men and boys about violence against women. 

I couldn't believe my eyes, or my heart. Here was this gorgeous, dimpled, well-read, smart, accomplished, empathetic, introspective man with acute intuitive intellect, who was a social justice warrior with a sense of humor and adventure, and one of only a few men in the country dedicating himself to ending violence against women, which was also my job then at Futures without Violence. 

Remarks by Lia Bascomb, Celebrating the Life of Robert Allen

Robert Lee Allen was lovely to me. He was certainly the calmest revolutionary I ever met. My first association with The Black Scholar was publishing in it, an experience wholly started by Dr. Allen. After a traumatic, but ultimately successful QE experience, it was Robert that helped me find my confidence again. JFinley and I were his GSIs for 5B, and he asked us each to do a guest lecture based on our own work. Then he asked me to review one of his articles.