The Africana Studies program at the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis is an interdisciplinary undertaking devoted to scholarship on the histories, political and cultural movements, institutions, economies and identities of Africans and the African diaspora across the globe. Africa’s own overlapping modernities and the transnational migrations of its peoples—whether forced or voluntary—have complicated the meanings of “black” and “African” identities and experiences, prompting us to rethink the geographical boundaries and conceptual paradigms surrounding the production of knowledge about Africa and its diasporic communities.
NYU's location in one of the western hemisphere’s most cosmopolitan cities—home to many of the broad constituencies we aim to study in relation to their other continental settings—places us in a privileged position to lead and shape the development of Africana Studies in the21stcentury. Accordingly, the program is a site for interdisciplinary and cross-cultural teaching and research in the histories, cultures, economies, politics, and languages and cultural practices of Africans in Africa, the Americas—North and South, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle-East. The program maintains close relationships with community programming and research activities by NYU's Institute of African-American Affairs and Africa House.
At the undergraduate level, the department offers both a major and a minor in Africana Studies. Students can also combine Africana Studies with another concentration in the SCA major. Other SCA programs include American Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Asian/Pacific/American Studies, Latino Studies and Metropolitan Studies.
At the graduate level, the department also offers an M.A. in Africana Studies, and joint M.A. degrees with Journalism, Economics, and Museum Studies.