What is African American Studies

Although African American Studies has been taught in institutions of higher learning for close to half a century in this country, the question is still asked, What is African American Studies? 

It is important to emphasize from the outset that African American Studies is NOT African American history--African American history is only one component of it. Having said this, one must also note that African American Studies has as many definitions as the number of people willing to define it. However, from the perspective of the Department of African American Studies at this university African American Studies is defined as an interdisciplinary field of study that considers as its subject matter anything and everything concerning the experiences of people in Africa, and the African Diaspora--in relation to themselves, as well as to others--from whatever disciplinary perspective(s) one cares to examine these experiences: history, law, politics, literature, economics, education, the environment, science, medicine, music, religion; and so on. 

From the perspective of this department, those who make up the African Diaspora include: Africans in the U.S. (African Americans); Africans in the Caribbean (Afro-Caribbeans); Africans in Latin America (Afro-Latinos); Africans in Europe (Afro-Europeans), Africans in Asia (Afro-Asians), and so on. Given, then, that African American Studies is concerned with the experiences of all peoples of African ancestry, where ever they may have lived in the past, or where ever they may be living today, it should be noted that this field is also some times referred to as Africana Studies.

One should re-emphasize here that African American Studies, as hinted above, also places a great stress on the study of interrelations between, on one hand, Africa and the African Diaspora, and on the other, between Africa and the African Diaspora and other peoples throughout the world, and throughout history from antiquity to the present. Consider this, for example, with reference to the latter: Is it at all possible to study the history of Europe or the history of the Americas without, at the one and the same time, studying the history of Africa? Therefore, just as African American Studies is not simply African American history, it is also NOT ethnic studies!

Last Modified: December 20, 2006