African American studies
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African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. It is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of African Americans. Taken broadly, the field studies not only the cultures of people of African descent in the United States, but the cultures of the entire African diaspora, from the British Isles to the Caribbean. The field includes scholars of African American literature, history, politics, religion and religious studies, sociology, and many other disciplines within the humanities and social sciences.
Programs and departments of African American studies were first created in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of inter-ethnic student and faculty activism at many universities, sparked by a five months strike for black studies at San Francisco State. In February of 1968, San Francisco State hired sociologist Nathan Hare to coordinate the first black studies program and write a proposal for the first Department of Black Studies; the department was created in September 1968 and gained official status at the end of the five-months strike in the spring of 1969. The creation of programs and departments in Black studies was a common demand of protests and sit-ins by minority students and their allies, who felt that their cultures and interests were underserved by the traditional academic structures.
Black studies is a systematic way of studying black people in the world - such as their history, culture, sociology, and religion. It is a study of the black experience and the effect of society on them and their affect within society. This study can serve to erradicate many racial stereotypes. Black Studies implements: history, family structure, social and economic pressures, stereotypes, and gender relationships. According to Victor Oguejiofor Okafor, concepts of Afrocentricity lie at the core of the disciplines such as African American studies.[1]
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[edit] Scholars in African American studies
Well-known authors in the field include:
- John Hope Franklin
- W.E.B. DuBois
- E.Franklin Frazier
- Melville Herskovits
- Nathan Hare
- Allison Davis
- Reynolds Farley
- Molefi Kete Asante
- Angela Y. Davis
- Bell Hooks
- Makungu Akinyela
- Dwight A. McBride
- Manning Marable
- Cornel West
- Patricia Hill Collins
- Patricia Dixon
- Hazel Carby
- Akinyele Umoja
- Kwame Anthony Appiah
- Cora Presley
- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- Gerald Early
- Houston A. Baker Jr.
- Akil Houston
- Charles E. Jones
- Jawanza Kunjufu
- Abdul Alkalimat
[edit] Scholarly and Academic Journals
- Negro History Bulletin
- Journal of Black Studies
- African American Review
- Negro Digest
- Phylon
- Journal of Negro History
- The Callaloo Journal
- Journal of African American History
- Journal of Negro Education
- Journal of Pan African Studies
- Transition
- Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society
[edit] References
- ^ The Place of Africalogy in the University Curriculum. Victor Oguejiofor Okafor Journal of Black Studies, v26 n6 p688-712 Jul 199
[edit] External Links
- Afro-American Studies Newsletter/The Vision (MUM00511) at the University of Mississippi, Archives and Special Collections.
[edit] See also
- Pan-African Studies
- African studies
- Ethnic Studies
- Asian American Studies
- Chicano Studies
- Native American Studies
- Africology
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