What You’ll Study
Africana Studies is multicultural, interdisciplinary, and transnational in its orientation; its reach extends from Africa to North America, the Caribbean, South and Central America, Asia, and Europe.
The curriculum of the program focuses on:
- The diversity and complexity of indigenous African cultures, histories, religions, and civilizations;
- the impacts of slavery, colonialism, war, terrorism, genocide, racism, and imperialism;
- the consequences of social inequalities in the form of race/ethnicity, class, and gender;
- the disparities in health and education and environmental problems;
- the issues of globalization and the fast changing world of science and technology;
- training students for leadership and service;
- the positive impacts of social and national/civil rights movements; and,
- the importance of education, democracy, human rights, self-determination, multiculturalism, and sustainable development.
Reach out to these Faculty Advisors:
- Fatuma Guyo, Ph.D. (Faculty Advisor, African Student Association) fguyo@utk.edu
- Walter Isaac, Ph.D. (Faculty Advisor, Africana Studies Students Association) wisaac@utk.edu
Featured Course
AFST 160 – Art of Africa, Oceania, and Pre-Columbian America
Survey of the traditional arts of the cultures of Black Africa, the Pacific and the Americas (focusing primarily on the period before the European conquest). Sculpture, painting, pottery, textiles, architecture, and human adornment will all be examined. (This course is also called ARTH 162, and satisfies the general education requirement.)
