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

April 1, 2024

Liberation Aesthetics

The Department of African American Studies was awarded a mini-grant from the “Addressing bias and bigotry” mini-grant program from the Chancellor’s Office for a project created by graduate student Jasmine Flowers. 

March 27, 2024

From the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation:

By Anthony Balas

March 26, 2024

 Michael Cohen & Barbara Montano

UC Berkeley African American Studies launches Banned Scholars Project with a Mellon Foundation grant