Welcome to Africana Studies

Be sure to visit this site frequently for up-to-date news and events.

History

The Africana Studies Program dates back to the late 1960s when the Civil Rights Movement across the nation and the Southern New Jersey region led to the establishment of the King Scholar Program (The Educational Opportunity Fund or EOF Program) in the Fall of 1968. Following the offering of the first Black History course by the History Department in 1969 in response to Black student demands, a slow but steady growth in African American and African curricular offerings over the course of the next two decades culminated in the formal establishment of the African American Studies concentration in 1989.

Since its inception, the concentration and related co-curricular program has been maintained through support from several sources inclucing the following:

  • The cooperation of academic departments in proposing and scheduling core and related courses.

  • Leadership by Black and other faculty and staff in educating about cultural diversity and intercultural relations and in advocating for equitable and inclusive institutional practices.

  • The development and active functioning of African American student organizations.
Increasing recognition of the importance of multicultural and global understanding in planning for the institution as a whole resulted in a approval by the Rowan University Board of Trustees on February 13, 2008 of an interdisciplinary undergraduate major in Africana Studies.

Mission

Rowan University's Africana Studies Program is a significant component of the institution's commitment to multidisciplinary education and the inclusion of the study of the experiences of diverse peoples within its academic programs and services. The program offers a Bachelor's degree in Africana Studies and an undergraduate concentration in African American Studies, through cooperative arrangements with about 12 academic departments of the university. The program emphasizes two major goals:

  • Discovering, mastering, and creating knowledge;
  • Promoting human rights and social justice through service to institutions, communities, and the wider society.