Africana Studies
The goal of the Africana Studies department is to take up the field's central questions and debates in multiple contexts and by means of multiple methodologies. In keeping with this goal, many of the department’s course offerings focus extensively and transdisciplinarily on issues of social, structural, and institutional hierarchy as they pertain to race and a host of other dimensions of identity.
The Senior Program
The Senior Program in Africana studies is a culminating intellectual experience in which students integrate the knowledge and skills they have acquired in the first three years. At its center is the senior project, an interdisciplinary project that leads to a thesis, performance or exhibition. The project is carried out under the close supervision of the thesis advisor in consultation with other faculty members.
Recent projects in Africana studies include:
- Breaking the Cycle of Black Male Gun Violence
- Kendrick Lamar and the M.A.A.D. City - a Comprehensive Study of the Musical Poetics of Rap Music as a Reflection of the Urban Pathologies of American Society
- Ghetto, Ratchet, and Chongalicious: How Perceptions and Stereotypes Are Affecting Girls of Color's Levels of Academic Ambitions and Achievements in Urban Public Schools
- “Though she has claim, she is not claimed”: Being versus Thriving in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
- Racism Turned Inward: Colorism in The Context of Haiti and the Dominican Republic
- A Seat at the Table: The Role of Music in a Black Feminist Discourse
- To What Must We Be True?: The Black Writer’s Paradox
- The Disproportionate Placement of Black Students in Special Education: A Legacy of Systematic Inequalities in American Education
- Enough: Toni Morrison and the Black American Experience
- Racial Profiling, Police Brutality, and the Policing of Black Communities
- Examining Chappelle’s Show: Social Commentary and Performing ‘Blackness’
Contact
Department Name
Africana Studies Program
Contact Name
Nigel Westmaas, Chair
Clinton, NY 13323
