Department Mission Statement

The Department of African American Studies at UCLA offers critical interdisciplinary training at both the undergraduate and the graduate levels. Our scholarship, curriculum and programming focuses on the histories, cultures, politics, and intellectual traditions of the African Diaspora with an especial focus on the continued importance of social justice. African American Studies faculty play a significant role in generating innovative paradigms for the social sciences and the humanities. Through rigorous training in multiple methodologies across disciplines, our students are afforded a global appreciation and awareness of Blackness specifically and Black people more generally. The Department of African American Studies at UCLA continues in the legacy of developing global citizen-scholars focused on analyzing and writing about the lived experiences and freedom dreams of people throughout Africa and the African Diaspora.