Africana Studies

Charles Peterson, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Chair, Gertrude B. Lemle Center, Director
Yveline Alexis, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Comparative American Studies
Pam Brooks, Jane and Eric Nord Associate Professor of Africana Studies
Talise Campbell, Visiting Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Dance
Johnny Coleman, Professor of Africana Studies and Studio Art
Samantha Davis, Mellon Post Doc, Africana Studies and Politics
Meredith M. Gadsby, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Comparative American Studies
Caroline Jackson Smith, Professor of Africana Studies and Theater
Darko Opoku, Associate Professor of Africana Studies
Candice Raynor, Lecturer and Director and Faculty-in-Residence, Afrikan Heritage House
Michael Roman, Assistant Professor of Design and Black Visual Cultures

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The Africana Studies Department is a multidisciplinary program of study that seeks, through the humanities and social sciences, to explore key aspects of the Black experience in a systematic and structurally integrated fashion. Its broad educational purposes are to engender among all students an intellectual appreciation of life, culture and history in Africa, the Americas and the Diaspora; to enrich the Oberlin College curriculum; and to increase the relevance of an Oberlin education to a culturally diverse world. Thus, the department strives to provide the general student body with substantive knowledge of the Africana experience and to provide majors with a range of critical, intellectual, artistic and evaluative skills useful in any of their future pursuits. The department is aided in its efforts by the Afrikan Heritage House, which serves as the college’s African Diasporan communal and cultural center.

Curriculum
The Africana Studies Department curriculum offers extensive study of the Black experience in a diasporic setting, including but not limited to, Africa, North America, and the Caribbean. These offerings are arranged in three categories: introductory, intermediate, and advanced. All introductory courses are open without prerequisite, except as indicated in the course description. AAST 101 and other beginning courses may serve as prerequisites to all intermediate and advanced courses.

See information about Research, Internships, Study Away, and Experiential Learning (RISE).

Transfer of Credit

Students transferring credits in Africana Studies from courses taken at other institutions may apply a maximum of three full courses or the equivalent toward the major with the approval of the department. Individual cases for students who transfer into the college after their sophomore year will be reviewed by the department.

Private Reading

Students may schedule a private reading course during their junior or senior years. No more than one reading course may be taken in any one semester, nor more than two during the undergraduate program. Normally the private readings may not duplicate a regularly scheduled course.

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Majors and Minors

Courses

Africana Studies