Black studies

Not to be confused with African studies.

Black studies or Africana studies (with nationally specific terms, such as African American studies and Black Canadian studies), is an interdisciplinary academic field that primarily focuses on the study of the history, culture, and politics of the peoples of the African diaspora and Africa. The field includes scholars of African-American, Afro-Canadian, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latino, Afro-European, Afro-Asian, African Australian, and African literature, history, politics, and religion as well as those from disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, education, and many other disciplines within the humanities and social sciences. The field also uses various types of research methods.^[1]

Map of Africa and the African diaspora throughout the world

Intensive academic efforts to reconstruct African-American history began in the late 19th century (W. E. B. Du Bois, The Suppression of the African Slave-trade to the United States of America, 1896). Among the pioneers in the first half of the 20th century were Carter G. Woodson,^[2] Herbert Aptheker, Melville Herskovits, and Lorenzo Dow Turner.^[3][4]

Programs and departments of Black studies in the United States were first created in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of inter-ethnic student and faculty activism at many universities, sparked by a five-month strike for Black studies at San Francisco State University. In February 1968, San Francisco State hired sociologist Nathan Hare to coordinate the first Black studies program and write a proposal for the first Department of Black Studies; the department was created in September 1968 and gained official status at the end of the five-month strike in the spring of 1969. Hare's views reflected those of the black power movement, and he believed that the department should empower Black students. The creation of programs and departments in Black studies was a common demand of protests and sit-ins by minority students and their allies, who felt that their cultures and interests were underserved by the traditional academic structures.^{[citation needed]}

Black studies departments, programs, and courses were also created in the United Kingdom,^[5][6] the Caribbean,^[7] Brazil,^[8] Canada,^[9] Colombia,^[10][11] Ecuador,^[12] and Venezuela.^[13]

Nomenclature

The academic discipline is known by various names.^[24] In 2009, Ama Mazama expounded:

In the appendix to their recently published Handbook of Black Studies, Asante and Karenga note that "the naming of the discipline" remains "unsettled" (Asante & Karenga, 2006, p. 421). This remark came as a result of an extensive survey of existing Black Studies programs, which led to the editors identifying a multiplicity of names for the discipline: Africana Studies, African and African Diaspora Studies, African/Black World Studies, Pan-African Studies, Africology, African and New World Studies, African Studies–Major, Black World Studies, Latin American Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Black and Hispanic Studies, Africana and Latin American Studies, African and African-American Studies, Black and Hispanic Studies, African American Studies, Afro-American Studies, African American Education Program, Afro-Ethnic Studies, American Ethnic Studies, American Studies–African-American Emphasis, Black Studies, Comparative American Cultures, Ethnic Studies Programs, Race and Ethnic Studies.^[25]

In 2014 Victor Okafor clarified:

What appears to drive these distinctive names is a combination of factors: the composite expertise of their faculty, their faculty's areas of specialization, and the worldviews of the faculty that make up each unit. By worldview, I am referring to the question of whether the constituent faculty in a given setting manifests any or a combination of the following visions of our project:

• a domestic vision of black studies that sees it as focusing exclusively on the affairs of only United States African Americans who descended from the generation of enslaved Africans
• a diasporic vision of black studies that is inclusive of the affairs of all of African descendants in the New World—that is, the Americas: North America, South America and the Caribbean
• a globalistic vision of the black studies—that is, a viewpoint that thinks in terms of an African world—a world encompassing African-origin communities that are scattered across the globe and the continent of Africa itself.^[26]

The range of names also reflects the historical and sociopolitical contexts in which these programs emerged. For example, terms like "Afro-American studies" originated during the civil rights movement. In contrast, more contemporary terms like "Africana studies" and "Pan-African studies" reflect a broader engagement with the global Black experience, including connections across the African diaspora and an acknowledgment of transnational influences.

History by region

Argentina

Since the 1980s, Afro-Argentine studies has undergone renewed growth.^[27]

Brazil

Abdias Nascimento, Brazil

In 1980, Abdias Nascimento gave a presentation in Panama of his scholarship on Kilombismo at the 2nd Congress of Black Culture in the Americas.^[8] His scholarship on Kilombismo detailed how the economic and political affairs of Africans throughout the Americas contributed to how they socially organized themselves.^[28] Afterward, Nascimento went back to Brazil and began institutionalization of Africana studies in 1981.^[8] While at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Nascimento developed the Afro-Brazilian Studies and Research Institute (IPEAFRO).^[8] A course for professors was provided by IPEAFRO between 1985 and 1995.^[8]

Canada

In 1991, the national chair for Black Canadian Studies, which was named after James Robinson Johnston, was created at Dalhousie University for the purpose of advancing the development and presence of Black studies in Canada.^[9] Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin was studied by the Black Canadian Studies chairman, John Barnstead.^[9]

Caribbean

Among English-speaking countries of the Caribbean, scholars educated in the United States and Britain added considerably to the development of Black studies.^[7] Scholars, such as Fitzroy Baptiste, Richard Goodridge, Elsa Goveia, Allister Hinds, Rupert Lewis, Bernard Marshall, James Millette, and Alvin Thompson, added to the development of Black studies at the University of the West Indies campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad.^[7]

Cuba

During the early 1900s, Fernando Ortiz pioneered the emerging field of Afro-Cuban studies.^[29] On January 16, 1937, the Society for Afro-Cuban Studies was established.^[29] Afro-Cuban Studies (Estudios Afrocubanos) is the academic journal for the Society for Afro-Cuban Studies (SEAC/Sociedad de Estudios Afrocubanos).^[29] In 1939, Rómulo Lachatañeré's academic work appeared in a volume of this journal.^[29]

Dominican Republic

In 1967, Carlos Larrazábal Blanco authored, Los Negros Y La Esclavitud En Santo Domingo, which is considered to be a foundational academic work in Afro-Dominican studies.^[30] Even in areas of the Dominican Republic with many Afro-Dominicans and where Afro-Dominican culture is predominant, there has been an ongoing challenge in Afro-Dominican studies to find linguistic evidence of a remnant Afro-Dominican language.^[31]

Haiti

Lorimer Denis, Francois Duvalier, and Jean Price-Mars, as founders of the Bureau of Ethnology and leading figures in the Noirisme movement in Haiti, were also influential in the publishing of the foundational Afro-Haitian studies journal, Les Griots.^[32] One of the most influential academics in Afro-Haitian studies is René Piquion.^[33]

Chile

From the 1920s to the 1950s, publications that included the presence of Afro-Chileans were not systematized, and, from the 1960s to the 1980s, publications continued to group Afro-Chileans with other groups.^[34] Since the 2000s, there has been increasing systematization and a more formal development of Afro-Chilean studies, along with a greater focus on Afro-Chileans and the recovery of Afro-Chilean cultural heritage.^[34]

Colombia

Scholars, such as Rogerio Velásquez, Aquiles Escalante, José Rafael Arboleda, and Thomas Price, were forerunners in the development of Afro-Colombian studies in the 1940s and 1950s.^[35] In the 1960s, as social science programs became incorporated into university institutions, contributions from anthropologists and social scientists added to its emergence.^[35] Following the promulgation of the Colombian Constitution, particularly Article 55, in 1991,^[35] Law 70 in 1993,^[35][10][11] and Decree 804 by the Ministry of Education in 1995,^[10][11] the elements for Afro-Colombian studies began to come together,^[35] and historic discrimination of Afro-Colombians was able to begin being addressed, with the development of national educational content about Afro-Colombians and Africa.^[36][10][11] At the University City of Bogotá, of the National University of Colombia, the Afro-Colombian Studies Group developed and established a training program in Afro-Colombian studies for primary and secondary school teachers.^[36] In February 2002, a continuing education diploma program in Afro-Colombian studies was developed and began to be offered at the University of Cauca in Belalcázar, Caldas.^[37][38][39] At the Pontifical Xavierian University, there is a master's degree program in Afro-Colombian studies.^[40][41] There is also a study abroad program for Afro-Colombian students and African-American students existing between the Afro-Colombian studies program at the Pontifical Xavierian University in Colombia and African-American studies programs at historically black colleges and universities in the United States.^[41]

Costa Rica

The Executive branch created a law to establish a Committee for Afro-Costa Rican Studies, as one, among other laws, to increase the level of inclusion of Afro-Costa Ricans in Costa Rica.^[42]

Ecuador

Afro-Ecuadorians initiated the development of the Center of Afro-Ecuadorian Studies in the late 1970s, which served as a means of organizing academic questions relating to Afro-Ecuadorian identity and history.^[12] Though it dissolved in the early 1980s, by the 1990s, organizations that followed in the example of the Center of Afro-Ecuadorian Studies ushered in the development of the Afro-Ecuadorian Etnoeducación program at the National High School, in Chota Valley, Ecuador, and a master's degree program in Afro-Andean Studies at the Simón Bolívar Andean University (UASB), in Quito, Ecuador.^[12] With the promulgation of Article 84 of the 1998 Constitution of Ecuador, gave formal recognition was given to Afro-Ecuadorian Etnoeducación.^[12] Juan Garcia, who was one of the founders of the Center of Afro-Ecuadorian Studies, is a leading scholar in Afro-Ecuadorian studies and has contributed considerably to the development of the programs in Chota Valley and Quito.^[12]

Guatemala

Christopher H. Lutz authored, Santiago de Guatemala, 1541–1773, which is considered to be one of the foundational literatures of Afro-Guatemalan studies.^[43]

Honduras

Due to a history of scarce resources and anti-black racism, Afro-Hondurans have largely been excluded from academic publications about Honduras; consequently, Afro-Honduran studies has remained limited in its formal development.^[44]

Mexico

Through development of the publication, The black population in Mexico (1946), Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán made way for the development of Afro-Mexican studies.^[45]

Panama

In March 1980, along with the Panamanian government, the Afro-Panamanian Studies Center hosted the Second Congress on Black Culture in the Americas.^[46]

Paraguay

In 1971, Carvalho Neto authored, Afro-Paraguayan studies.^[47]

Peru

While the presence of Afro-Peruvian studies may not be strong in Peru,^[10][11] the body of scholarship is undergoing growth.^[48] There have been efforts to organize the elements of Afro-Peruvian studies in Peru, such as by LUNDU, which organized an international conference for Afro-Peruvian studies in Peru^[49] on November 13, 2009.^[50] During this LUNDU-organized conference, Luis Rocca, who co-founded the National Afro-Peruvian Museum, and is also a historian, presented on his research regarding Afro-Peruvians.^[49] A university student group focused on Afro-Peruvian studies was also created near San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima, Peru.^[51] Additionally, there has been some scholarship in Afro-Peruvian studies developed in the United States^[52] and a panel on Afro-Peruvian studies at a conference hosted on December 11, 2019, by the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research in the United States.^[53]

United Kingdom

Kehinde Andrews, United Kingdom

Following the rise and decline of Black British Cultural Studies between the early 1980s and late 1990s, Black studies in the United States reinvigorated Black Critical Thought in the United Kingdom.^[54] Kehinde Andrews, who initiated the development of the Black Studies Association in the United Kingdom as well as the development of a course in Black studies at Birmingham City University,^[54] continues to advocate for the advancement of the presence of Black studies in the United Kingdom.^[5][6]

United States

Carter G. Woodson, United States

Robert Harris Jr. outlined the development of Africana studies in four stages:^{[citation needed]}

• The first stage, from the 1890s until World War II, was marked by grassroots organizations that sought to illuminate the histories and cultures of African peoples. This foundational work laid the groundwork for future scholarship.
• The second stage shifted the focus to African Americans themselves, emphasized the significance of African American history, culture, and identity within a broader American context, and fostered greater understanding of systemic racism and social justice.
• The third stage saw the establishment of formal academic programs labeled as Black Studies, which further institutionalized the discipline within higher education. These programs aimed to create a rigorous academic framework for studying the Black experience and incorporated interdisciplinary approaches that draw from history, sociology, literature, and the arts. This formalization legitimized the field and contributed to a growing body of scholarship.
• As Africana studies continues to evolve, the fourth stage emphasized global connections and an Afro-centric perspective and sought to explore the interconnectedness of African and African diaspora experiences.

In the United States, the 1960s is known as the "Turbulent Sixties."^{[citation needed]} During this time period, the nation experienced great social unrest as citizens challenged the social order in radical ways. Many movements took place in the United States during this time period, including the women's rights movement, labor rights movement, and the civil rights movement.^[55]

The students at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) were witnesses to the Civil Rights Movement, and by 1964, they were thrust into activism.^[56] On October 1, 1964, Jack Weinberg, a former graduate student, was sitting at a table where the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was distributing literature encouraging students to protest against institutional racism. Police asked Weinberg to produce his ID to confirm that he was a student, but he refused to do so and was, therefore, arrested. In support of Weinberg, 3,000 students surrounded the police vehicle, and even used the car as a podium, from where they spoke about their right to engage in political protest on campus.^[57] This impromptu demonstration was the first of many protests, culminating in the institutionalization of Black studies.

Two months later, students at UC Berkeley organized a sit-in at the Sproul Hall Administration building to protest a rule that prohibited political clubs from fundraising, except for the democrat and republican clubs.^[56] Police arrested 800 students. Students formed a "freedom of speech movement" and Mario Savio became its poetic leader, stating that "freedom of speech was something that represents the very dignity of what a human is."^[57] The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a well-connected and organized club, hosted a conference entitled "Black Power and its Challenges."^[56] Black leaders, who were directly tied to then ongoing civil rights movements, spoke to a predominantly white audience about their respective goals and challenges. These leaders included Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and James Bevel of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Educational conferences, like that of the SDS, forced the university to take some measures to correct the most obvious racial issue on campus—the sparse black student population.^[58] In 1966, the school held its first official racial and ethnic survey, in which it was discovered that the "American Negro" represented 1.02% of the university population.^[59] In 1968, the university instituted its Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), facilitated the increased minority student enrollment, and offered financial aid to minority students with high potential.^[58] By 1970, there were 1,400 EOP students. As the minority student population increased, tension between activists, clubs and minorities rose because minorities wanted the reins of the movement that affected them directly. One student asserted that it was "backward to educate white people about Black Power when many black people are still uneducated on the matter.^[60] "The members of the Afro-American Student Union (AASU) proposed an academic department called "Black Studies" in April 1968.^[56] "We demand a program of 'Black Studies', a program that will be of and for black people. We demand to be educated realistically and that no form of education which attempts to lie to us, or otherwise mis-educate us will be accepted."^[61]

AASU members asserted: "The young people of America are the inheritors of what is undoubtedly one of the most challenging, and threatening set of social circumstances that has ever fallen upon a generation of young people in history."^[61] Everyone learns differently and teaching only one way is a cause for students to not want to learn, which eventually leads to dropping out. All students have their specialties, but teachers don't use that to help them in their learning community. Instead, they use a broad way of teaching just to get the information out.^[62] AASU used these claims to gain ground on their proposal to create a Black studies department. Nathan Hare, a sociology professor at San Francisco State University, created what was known as the "A Conceptual Proposal for Black Studies" and AASU used Hare's framework to create a set of criteria.^[63] A Black studies program was implemented by the UC Berkeley administration on January 13, 1969. In 1969, St. Clair Drake was named the first chair of the degree granting, Program in African and Afro-American Studies at Stanford University.^[64] Many Black studies programs and departments and programs around the nation were created in subsequent years.^{[citation needed]}

At University of California, Santa Barbara, similarly, student activism led to the establishment of a Black studies department, amidst great targeting and discrimination of student leaders of color on the University of California campuses. In the Autumn season of 1968, black students from UCSB joined the national civil rights movement to end racial segregation and exclusion of Black history and studies from college campuses. Triggered by the insensitivity of the administration and general campus life, they occupied North Hall and presented the administration with a set of demands. Such efforts led to the eventual creation of the Black studies department and the Center for Black Studies.^[65]

Similar activism was happening outside of California. At Yale University, a committee, headed by political scientist, Robert Dahl, recommended establishing an undergraduate major in African-American culture, one of the first of such at an American university.^[66]

When Ernie Davis, who was from Syracuse University, became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy in college football, it renewed debates about race on college campuses in the country. Inspired by the Davis win, civil rights movement, and nationwide student activism, in 1969, black and white students, led by the Student African American Society (SAS), at Syracuse University, marched in front of the building at Newhouse and demanded for Black studies to be taught at Syracuse.^[67] It existed as an independent, underfunded non-degree offering program from 1971 until 1979.^[68] In 1979, the program became the Department of African American Studies, offering degrees within the College of Arts and Sciences.^[68]

Unlike the other stages, Black studies grew out of mass rebellions of black college students and faculty in search of a scholarship of change.^{[citation needed]} The fourth stage, the new name "Africana studies" involved a theoretical elaboration of the discipline of Black studies according to African cultural reclamation and disparate tenets in the historical and cultural issues of Africanity within a professorial interpretation of the interactions between these fields and college administrations.^[69]

Thus, Africana studies reflected the mellowing and institutionalization of the Black studies movement in the course of its integration into the mainstream academic curriculum. Black studies and Africana studies differ primarily in that Africana studies focuses on Africanity and the historical and cultural issues of Africa and its descendants, while Black studies was designed to deal with the uplift and development of the black (African-American) community in relationship to education and its "relevance" to the black community. The adaptation of the term, "Africana studies", appears to have derived from the encyclopedic work of W. E. B. Du Bois and Carter G. Woodson. James Turner, who was recruited from graduate school at Northwestern on the heels of the student rebellions of 1969, first used the term to describe a global approach to Black studies and name the "Africana Studies and Research Center" at Cornell, where he acted as the founding director.^[70]

Studia Africana, subtitled "An International Journal of Africana Studies", was published by the Department for African American Studies at the University of Cincinnati in a single issue in 1977 (an unrelated journal called Studia Africana is published by the Centro de Estudios Africanos, in Barcelona, since 1990). The International Journal of Africana Studies (ISSN 1056-8689) has been appearing since 1992, published by the National Council for Black Studies.

Africana philosophy is a part of and developed within the field of Africana studies.^[71][72]

In 1988 and 1990, publications on African-American studies were funded by the Ford Foundation, and the African-American academics who produced the publications used traditional disciplinary orthodoxies, from outside of African-American studies, to analyze and evaluate the boundaries, structure, and legitimacy of African-American studies.^[73] To the detriment of the field, an abundance of research on African American studies has been developed by academics who are not within the discipline of African American studies.^[73] Rather, the academics, and the scholarship they have produced about African American studies, has been characterized as bearing an "Aryan hegemonic worldview."^[73] It has been argued that due to a staffing shortage in the field of African American studies, academics in the field, who are trained in traditional fields, carry with them presumptions of the primacy of their field of training's viewpoints, which tends to result in the marginalization of the African phenomena that are the subjects of study and even the field of African American studies at-large.^[73] Consequently, matters of development of theory as well as the development of historical and African consciousness frequently go overlooked.^[73] As the focus of African American studies is the study of the African diaspora and Africa, including the problems of the African diaspora and Africa, Conyers claims that this makes the theory of Afrocentricity increasingly relevant.^[73]

The National Council for Black Studies has also recognized the problem of academics, who have been trained in fields such as education, economics, history, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology – fields outside of African American studies – and are committed to their disciplinary training, yet are not able to recognize the shortcomings of their training, as it relates to the field of African American studies that they are entering into.^[73] Furthermore, such academics, who would also recognize themselves as experts in the discipline of African American studies, would also attempt to assess the legitimacy of Africology – done so, through analysis based on critical rhetoric rather than based on pensive research.^[73][who?]

Following the Black studies movement and Africana studies movement, Molefi Kete Asante identifies the Africological movement as a subsequent academic movement.^[74] Asante authored the book Afrocentricity, in 1980.^[74] Within the book, Asante used the term "Afrology" as the name for the interdisciplinary field of Black studies, and defined it as "the Afrocentric study of African phenomena."^[74] Later, Winston Van Horne changed Asante's use of the term "Afrology" to "Africology."^[74] Asante then went on to use his earlier definition for "Afrology" as the definition for his newly adopted term, "Africology".^[74] Systematic Africology,^[73][1] which is a research method in the field of Black studies that was developed by Asante,^[1] utilizes the theory of Afrocentricity to analyze and evaluate African phenomena.^[73] In an effort to shift Black studies away from its interdisciplinary status toward disciplinary status, Asante recommended that Afrocentricity should be the meta-paradigm for Black studies and that the new name for Black studies should be Africology; this is intended to shift Black studies away from having a "topical definition" of studying African peoples, which is shared with other disciplines, toward having a "perspectival definition" that is unique in how African peoples are studied – that is, the study of African peoples, through a centered perspective, which is rooted in and derives from the cultures and experiences of African peoples.^[75] By doing so, as Ama Mazama indicates, this should increase how relevant Black studies is and strengthen its disciplinary presence.^[75]

Puerto Rico

As of 2019, Afro-Puerto Rican studies is not offered as a degree program by the University of Puerto Rico.^[76] Numerous academic publications, such as Arrancando Mitos De Raiz: Guia Para La Ensenanza Antirracista De La Herencia Africana En Puerto Rico, were scholarly works that established Isar Godreau as a leading academic in Afro-Puerto Rican Studies.^[77]

Uruguay

Since 1996, the amount of scholarship of Afro-Uruguayan studies has increased as a result of increased global focus on Afro-Latin American studies.^[78]

Venezuela

The curriculum for Afro-Venezuelan studies was developed at Universidad Politécnica Territorial de Barlovento Argelia Laya (UPTBAL), in Higuerote, Barlovento, by Alejandro Correa.^[13] In 2006, Afro-Epistemology and African Culture were formally developed as the initial courses for students in this curriculum.^[13]

Research methods

Method/framework	Researcher who developed it	Methodology	Notes
African self-consciousness	Kobi K. K. Kambon	The states and changes of the African mind are analyzed.[1]
Africana womanism	Delores P. Aldridge	Matters are analyzed from the viewpoint of black women.[1] Rather than the importance of the individual (e.g., needs, wants) being considered greater than the family unit, the importance of the family unit is regarded as greater than the individual.[1]
Afrocentricity	Molefi Kete Asante	Researchers seek to center the experiences and peoples of Africa and the African diaspora within their own historical, cultural, and sociological contexts.[79][80][81][82]	First developed as a systematized methodology in 1980, Asante drew inspiration from a number of African and African diaspora intellectuals including Cheikh Anta Diop, George James, Harold Cruse, Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, and W. E. B. Du Bois.[79] The Temple Circle,[83][84] also known as the Temple School of Thought,[84] Temple Circle of Afrocentricity,[85] or Temple School of Afrocentricity,[86] was an early group of Africologists during the late 1980s and early 1990s that helped to further develop Afrocentricity, which is based on concepts of agency, centeredness, location, and orientation.[83]
Black male studies		The primary research focus is on the study of Black men and boys[87] and includes the study of Black manhood and Black masculinity. It draws from disciplines such as history, philosophy, and sociology.[87] A Black male-centered paradigm is used that is designed to critique past and present gender studies publications on Black males, and the problem of anti-Black misandry ("disdain for Black men and boys") is centered on and contended with.[88]	Past and present gender studies publications tend to carry assumptions of Black men and boys being criminals and assailants of Black women and white women.[88] Consequently, past and present gender studies publications tend to contain paradigms, theories, and narratives that are grounded in anti-Black misandry, along with a theoretically constructed language of hypermasculinity, and tend to be ill-equipped at understanding Black males as victims.[88] The past and present vulnerability of Black males to experiences including rape, sexual abuse, and death tends to be overlooked and downplayed by rhetoric about hypermasculinity, which necessitates the development of new language, narratives, and theories for understanding Black males.[88]
Blues culture	James B. Stewart	The traits (e.g., versatility, vibration) of Black culture are examined through various means from an assortment of disciplines (e.g., economics, history, sociology).[1]
Double consciousness	W. E. B. DuBois	The ways that Black people (and phenomena) exist in a dual racialized (black-white) world and subsequently develop a dual consciousness is analyzed.[1] Rather than succumb to various forms of external pressure (e.g., assimilation, harassment, prejudice, racism, sexism, surveillance), Black people discover how to steer through them.[1]
Four basic tasks of the Black studies scholar	James Turner	The problems that affect the experiences of Black peoples are investigated, and four related criteria (e.g., defend, disseminate, generate, and preserve new knowledge) are addressed through various means of examination from an assortment of disciplines (e.g., conceptual history, economics, political science, sociology).[1]
Interpretative analysis	Charles H. Wesley	A structural or cultural system is utilized to gather, analyze, and interpret data.[1]
Kawaida theory	Maulana Karenga	Seven factors (e.g., creative production, ethos, history, religion, economic organization, political organization, social organization) are utilized to examine the experiences of Black people, which is set within a Pan-Africanist context.[1]	Karenga drew from the concept of Nguzo Saba to develop this research method.[1]
	Carter G. Woodson	The history and culture of Black people are analyzed and assessed, and their loss of such is notated as being due to Black people being decentered from their own historic and cultural contexts.[1]	This is the research method of and conceptual framework for Woodson's book, The Mis-Education of the Negro.
Nigrescence	William E. Cross Jr.	Africana culture and the behavioral dimensions of its psycho-adaptive traits are analyzed along with a timeline of Black culture (which is composed of five steps).[1]	This is a psychological framework.
Optimal worldview of psychology	Linda Meyers	The African mind is utilized and investigated through a cultural framework (e.g., surface-level structure of culture, deep structure of culture).	Its sub-optimal viewpoint highlights the demerits of an African mind that has an assimilated mentality, and its optimal viewpoint corresponds with African minds that have Africana mentalities.[1]
Paradigm of unity	Abdul Alkalimat	Considerable focus is placed on relationships between social classes, via Marxist analysis, and gender is utilized as a determining factor and an undefined notion of Afrocentricity.[1][89]
Shared authority	Michael Frisch	Orature, which recognizes Black individuals' personhood (e.g., subject, agency) and experiences, is investigated.[1] Through this methodological recognition, information that may not have been captured in prior publications is able to be optimally acquired.[1]
Social legitimacy	Winston Van Horn	In three steps, researchers analyze the experiences of Black peoples and Africana phenomena in their political and sociological contexts.[1]
Two-cradle theory	Cheikh Anta Diop	The differences between African and European cultures (which are characterized and viewed as the southern and northern cradles respectively) are assessed.[1]	Diop drew from anthropology, archaeology, history, and sociology to develop this research method and cultural metric.
Ujimaa	James L. Conyers Jr.	Philosophy, sociology, and conceptual history are drawn from with the understanding that culture is utilized to analyze and assess Pan-Africanist phenomena from around the world. This methodological framework is also used to analyze social responsibility and the work of the collective.[1]	Conyers drew from the concept of Nguzo Saba to develop this research method.

Recent challenges and criticism

One of the major setbacks with Black studies programs or departments is that there is a lack of financial resources available to students and faculty.^[90] Many universities and colleges around the United States provided Black studies programs with small budgets and, therefore, it is difficult for the department to purchase materials and hire staff. Due to the budget allocated to Black studies being limited, some faculty are jointly appointed, therefore, causing faculty to leave their home disciplines to teach a discipline with which they may not be familiar. Budgetary issues make it difficult for Black studies programs and departments to function and to promote themselves.^[91]

Racism, perpetrated by many administrators, is alleged to hinder the institutionalization of Black studies at major universities.^[90] As with the case of UC Berkeley, most of the Black studies programs across the country were instituted because of the urging and demanding of black students to create the program. In many instances, black students also called for the increased enrollment of black students and financial assistance to these students.^[90] Also seen in the case of UC Berkeley is the constant demand to have such a program, but place the power of control in the hands of black people. The idea was that Black studies could not be "realistic" if it were taught by someone who was not accustomed to the black experience. On many campuses, directors of Black studies have little to no autonomy—they do not have the power to hire or grant tenure to faculty. On many campuses, an overall lack of respect for the discipline has caused instability for the students and for the program.

In the past thirty years, there has been a steady decline of Black studies scholars.^[90]

Universities and colleges with Black studies departments, programs, and courses

Brazil

• Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo^[8]

Canada

• Brock University^[92]
• Concordia University^[93]
• Dalhousie University^[94][9]
• Queen's University^[95]
• York University^[96]

Caribbean

• University of the Virgin Islands
• University of the West Indies^[7]

Colombia

• National University of Colombia^[36]
• Pontifical Xavierian University^[40][41]
• University of Cauca^[37]

Ecuador

• Simón Bolívar Andean University^[12]

United Kingdom

• Birmingham City University^[97][54]

United States

• American University
• Amherst College
• Bowdoin College
• Baruch College
• Brandeis University
• Brown University
• California State University, Dominguez Hills
• California State University, Fullerton
• California State University, Northridge
• Carleton College
• Cleveland State University
• College of William and Mary
• Columbia University
• Dartmouth College
• Davidson College
• DePaul University
• Dominican University
• Duke University^[98]
• Eastern Kentucky University
• Eastern Michigan University^[99]
• Emory University
• Fordham University
• Georgetown University
• Georgia State University
• Guilford College
• Hunter College
• Indiana University
• Kent State University^[100]
• Oberlin College^[101]
• Ohio State University
• Landmark College
• Loyola Marymount University
• Luther College
• Middle Tennessee State University
• Mount Holyoke College
• Nassau Community College
• Northwestern University
• Pennsylvania State University^[102]
• Portland State University^[103]
• Princeton University
• Purdue University
• Queens College
• Rutgers University^[104]
• San Jose State University^[105]
• Southern Illinois University
• Syracuse University
• Temple University
• The City College of New York
• The College of New Jersey
• Towson University
• Tufts University
• Tulane University
• University at Albany^[106]
• University of Arizona
• University of Arkansas
• University at Buffalo
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of California, Davis
• University of California, Irvine^[107]
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of California, San Diego
• University of California, Santa Barbara
• University of Florida
• University of Houston
• University of Kansas
• University of Louisville
• University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• University of Michigan
• University of Missouri
• University of Montana
• University of Nebraska at Omaha
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill^[108]
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte^[109]
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro^[110]
• University of North Texas
• University of Oklahoma
• University of Oregon
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Puget Sound
• University of Rochester
• University of South Carolina
• University of Texas at Arlington
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Virginia
• University of Wisconsin
• Valdosta State University
• Vassar College
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• Washington University in St. Louis
• Western Illinois University
• Wesleyan University
• Wright State University
• Yale University

Venezuela

• Universidad Politécnica Territorial de Barlovento Argelia Laya^[13]

Universities with Ph.D. programs in Black studies

United States

• Brown University
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Harvard University
• Indiana University
• Michigan State University
• Northwestern University
• Ohio State University
• Pennsylvania State University^[111]
• Temple University
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of Louisville
• University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• University of Pennsylvania^[112]
• University of Texas at Austin^[113]
• University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
• Yale University

Prominent academics

Africa

• Micere Mugo

Brazil

• Lélia Gonzalez
• Abdias Nascimento
• Beatriz Nascimento

Caribbean

• Carole Boyce Davies
• Horace Campbell
• Oliver Cromwell Cox
• Elsa Goveia
• C.L.R. James
• Walter Rodney
• Kwame Ture
• Sylvia Wynter

United Kingdom

• Kehinde Andrews
• Kwame Anthony Appiah
• Hazel Carby
• Paul Gilroy

United States

• Abdul Alkalimat
• Shawn Alexander
• Molefi Kete Asante
• M.K. Asante Jr.
• Houston A. Baker Jr.
• Robert Chrisman
• Bill Cole
• Patricia Hill Collins
• Edward W. Crosby
• Allison Davis
• Angela Y. Davis
• St. Clair Drake
• W. E. B. Du Bois
• Michael Eric Dyson
• Gerald Early
• John Hope Franklin
• E. Franklin Frazier
• Henry Louis Gates Jr.
• Farah Griffin
• Vincent Harding
• Nathan Hare
• Melissa Harris-Perry
• Saidiya Hartman
• Melville Herskovits
• Lena Hill
• bell hooks
• Charles S. Johnson
• Maulana Karenga
• Robin D.G. Kelley
• Glenn C. Loury
• Manning Marable
• Janis Mayes
• Fred Moten
• Mark Anthony Neal
• Adolph Reed
• Cedric Robinson
• Tricia Rose
• Milton Sernett
• Christina Sharpe
• Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting
• Renate Simson
• Geneva Smitherman
• Robert B. Stepto
• Conrad Tillard
• Akinyele Umoja
• Cornel West
• William Julius Wilson
• Carter G. Woodson
• Cynthia A. Young

Scholarly and academic journals

• African American Review
• Africana – Journal of Ideas on Africa and the Diaspora
• Africana Online: Journal of the Africana Center for Cultural Literacy and Research
• Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies (since 1987)
• Afro-Americans in New York Life and History (since 1976)
• The Black Scholar (since 1969)
• Callaloo
• Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography – coverage includes any aspect of Africa, its peoples, their homes, cities, towns, districts, states, countries, regions, including social, economic sustainable development, creative literature, the arts, and the Diaspora.
• The Griot: The Journal of African American Studies
• International Journal of Africana Studies – designed to interrogate and analyze the lived experiences of Africana people.
• The Journal of African Civilizations (since 1979)
• Journal of African American History
• Journal of African American Males in Education (JAAME)
• Journal of Black Studies
• Journal of Negro Education
• Journal of Negro History
• Western Journal of Black Studies
• Negro Digest
• Negro Educational Review
• Negro History Bulletin
• Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art – focuses on publishing critical work that examines the newly developing field of contemporary African and African Diaspora art within the modernist and postmodernist experience, thereby contributing to the intellectual dialogue on world art and the discourse on internationalism and multiculturalism in the arts.
• Phylon
• Race & Class
• Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society
• Transition Magazine

See also

• AP African American Studies
• Critical race theory
• Whiteness studies