Department of Africana Studies — The Department

The multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary academic field known as Africana studies seeks to explore, in an orderly, systematic, and structurally integrated fashion, Africa and the African diaspora. The broad educational purpose of the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston is to document and disseminate a specialized body of knowledge about the African experience in Africa, the West Indies, and especially the United States. As a center of applied learning, the department will assist in preparing students for careers relevant to the development of the African world community and to the rectification of social ills created world-wide by individual and institutional racism. Please note: The Department of Africana Studies was formerly known as the Department of Black Studies.