Mission Statement
The academic mission and curriculum of the Department of Africana Studies are rooted in the history and traditions of African American and Black Studies programs, and is dynamic in its recognition of new trends in the discipline, the objectives of the College of Arts and Sciences, the strategic goals of the University of South Florida, and the changing needs of our society and the wider world.
Africana Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on the history and lived experience of continental and Diasporan Africans. The mission of Africana Studies at USF evolved out of these specific historical circumstances: 1) the general neglect or misrepresentation of the history and culture of Africans in Western historiography; 2) the marginalization of people of African descent in the West and their consequent reduced ability to investigate, document and systematically pass on their own history; 3) the large-scale entrance of people of African heritage and other marginalized peoples into Western higher educational systems and their demand that knowledge and theories reflective of their experiences be represented in the higher education curriculum; and 4) the questioning by intellectuals of African heritage of the epistemological foundations of Western historiography and notions of the civilized, Students, cutting across ethnic, class, gender, and age differences, recognize the evolutionary, socio-historical and cultural relevance of Africa in human society, and are often appalled at the misrepresentation of Africa and the Diaspora in popular and academic discourses. These historical occurrences not only define the academic mission of Africana Studies, but also help to determine how that mission is executed.
Africana Studies recognizes that the African and Diasporan experiences are part of the history of the wider world of which it is a part, and that that history is best understood from a humanistic perspective that is, at once, global and comparative. Integral to this global and comparative aspect is a recognition of the importance of local and community issues. To actualize this perspective, the Department is built on an interdisciplinary academic modality that combines social scientific, humanistic, and historical perspectives of race, culture, gender, political economy, and public health. In this way, Africana Studies aspires to promote and encourage in students an understanding of humanity in general, and the expression of that humanity, particularly as it is manifested in the history and cultures of Black people. This pedagogical approach demonstrates the organic interrelationships among different aspects of life. We believe that mastery of these issues in our undergraduate and graduate programs will prepare our students to be effective and proactive agents in a diverse, complex, and global community.
Departments of Africana studies typically cover historical and cultural aspects of African and Diasporan experience. However, the USP's Department of Africana Studies incorporates that foundation but also has expanded to include the content areas of political economy and health and the Department emphasizes the Diasporan experience, focusing on the United States and the Caribbean-Latin American region. In research, scholarship and instruction the Department seeks to distinguish itself by promoting a comparative perspective that fosters understanding based on knowledge drawn from multiple geographic sites and disciplinary and theoretic orientations. Rather than study and teach about a single geographic area, our faculty focus attention on multiple sites that are analyzed and taught from a comparative perspective.
As a result of its current faculty strength, the curriculum of the Department of Africana Studies emphasizes the history and experiences of Africans in West, East, and Central Africa and that of Diasporan Africans in the United States (with particular emphasis on Florida), the Caribbean, and to some extent, Latin America. Consequently, the academic mission of the Department of Africana Studies encompasses the following:
1. Provide undergraduate and graduate students with a program of interdisciplinary studies on African and African Diaspora experiences, thus building an encompassing Liberal Arts program of education in the College of Arts and Sciences.
2. Through comparative research on Africa and its Diaspora, AFA will contribute to building the knowledge base on international affairs and globalization at USF, thereby contributing to the realization of the University's 2007-2012 Strategic Plan.
3. Give students a grounding within the discipline of Africana Studies that emphasizes history, theoretical perspectives, and methodological approaches to research and scholarly productivity.
4. Engage students in comparative research on the history and culture of continental and
Diaspora Africans.
5. Provide students with knowledge and skills relevant to community issues and development, with emphasis on Florida localities.
6. Contribute to the understanding of ethnic and gender diversity as aspects of the human condition rooted not only in culture, but also in evolution. . This mode of discourse seeks to temper contemporary Western thinking about diversity as a socio-political problem to be solved through state and local policy rather than as a social dynamic to be embraced.
7. Facilitate student appreciation of the role of indigenous knowledge in the
organization of human societies.
8. Provide a forum in which students can explore the concept of race; the means by which racism is institutionalized in such human organizational contexts as education, government, the economy, and the media, as well as the relationship between racial prejudice and the physical and mental health of Africans in the Diaspora.
9. Through the dissemination of research on the history of the development of the field of Africana Studies, AFA will contribute to an understanding of the historical and social foundations of marginalized knowledges and their role in the academy and in society.
10. To educate students in the political economy of health in Diasporan populations and train students to conduct research and produce scholarship that may contribute to the improvement of public policy relevant to Diasporan populations.
11. To train students and equip them with" all the tools of a liberal arts education: ability to develop and/or refine critical reading, thinking, analytical, oral and written communication skills.
12. Foster an atmosphere wherein students are encouraged to give due attention to their scholarly presentation and professional development.