FACULTY:
Josephine Wright, Chair
Boubacar N’Diaye
Nicosia Shakes
Africana Studies is an academic discipline rooted in a social, historical, and cultural context that seeks to introduce students to knowledge and perspectives about the peoples of Africa and of the African Diaspora that are not typically covered in traditional disciplines. The knowledge and perspectives Africana Studies seek to impart to students are principally corrective. They tend to challenge long-standing epistemic and paradigmatic approaches of traditional disciplines to the study of people of African descent and their struggles for equality and social justice.
Our interdisciplinary-trained faculty help students investigate, analyze, and develop multidisciplinary competencies to interpret critically all facets of the historical and contemporary experiences of black women and men in the global community. Since its inception in 1968, the Department of Africana Studies (formerly the Black Studies Program) has prepared College of Wooster graduates to succeed and become leaders in an interdependent, multicultural world.
By the end of the senior year, a Wooster Africana Studies graduate should be able to: identify and articulate the intellectual history, origin, purposes, and challenges of Africana Studies within the academy; identify and explain the connections between Africana Studies to historic Africa and the contemporary experiences of people of African descent around the world; identify and explain major historical events crucial to Africana people and their experiences in Africa, North America, the Caribbean, Europe, and other parts of the world; identify, articulate, and apply relevant Africancentered theories and methodologies to the investigation or critical analysis of topics, texts, artistic productions, events, or phenomena related to the African diaspora; and conceptualize, research, organize, and write an independent study project that meets the learning outcomes of the department.
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