About Us
Philosophy and Mission
The department of Africana Studies is dedicated to the critical examination of the theoretical, historical, literary, and artistic developments of the various cultures of Africa and the African Diaspora. Our commitment to rigorous scholarship and robust student and community development is grounded in a truly global understanding of the reach and implications of the Africana World.
A Meeting Place of Ideas
The department is a meeting place for faculty and students from across Brown University who are concerned, in the broadest sense, with Africana experiences in all their complexity. All faculty members have research and teaching specialties related to the impact of slavery, colonialism, and racialism on the modern world. Africana Studies at Brown is distinguished by its focus on the ways of thinking and the various knowledges produced by Africana thought, practice and experience.
Creative Intersections
Central to the work of the department is Rites and Reason Theatre, a forum for arts and ideas. This unique intellectual and artistic space allows artists to collaborate closely with scholars to discover the underlying harmonies between academic and artistic perceptions of the world. Rites and Reason provides the department with important means of interaction with various academic and non-academic communities.
The department also has special strengths in the literary arts. Several highly distinguished writers from Africa and the African Diaspora are members of the Africana Studies faculty. In addition, the department has several noted scholars of Africana literature and literary criticism.
Global Dialogues
The department is also involved in international collaborative research projects. Our partnership with the University of Cape Town, South Africa and the University of West Indies, Mona, Jamaica demonstrates the department’s strong interests in forging educational ties with scholars and research institutions in continental Africa and the African Diaspora. This research consortium provides undergraduate and graduate students with collaborative research and study aboard opportunities that enrich their understanding and analysis of Africa and the African diaspora. These and other collaborative research and teaching projects reflect the department’s interest in the global examination of Africa and the African Diaspora.
Local Roots
The Department has a proud history of commitment to engaging in the civic life of the Greater Providence community and continues to provide significant opportunities for students to become involved in a variety of social and civic activities in Providence.
Original Research Opportunities
The Brown University libraries provide numerous opportunities for original research in Africana Studies. The John Hay Library has the Harris Collection on American Poetry, Popular Entertainment and Plays; the McClellan Lincoln Collection; and the Metcalf Collection of Pamphlets. The John Carter Brown Library has one of the best collections in this hemisphere of works published in and about the New World before the nineteenth century. The libraries are particularly outstanding for their extensive holdings in the areas of slavery, colonialism, and race relations. Microfilm collections include the FBI files on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, as well as the papers of W. E. B. Du Bois, Alexander Crummell, and Carter G. Woodson.