Welcome to African and Black Diaspora Studies at DePaul! We examine the cultures, histories and consciousness of people of African descent around the globe. Our students work with us, or with our many affiliated faculty members, to pursue meaningful avenues of inquiry that speak to students' own goals and interests. We think it especially important that students of all races, ethnic groups, and national origins understand the contributions of Black people to worldwide histories and cultures, particularly in the United States. ABD stresses the ways that, as Bob Marley once sang, "half the story has never been told."
In the ABD Studies department, we offer students a significant degree of flexibility that allows our students to pursue their own interests and approaches to the study of Black and African peoples' histories and cultures. African and Black Diaspora Studies at DePaul works across the humanities and social sciences, with notable emphasis on literary, cultural, and media studies, the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, and historical inquiry.
African and Black Diaspora Studies offers a major and minor course of undergraduate study and is also closely linked to the new Master's of Arts in Critical Ethnic Studies. Our faculty have strong connections to other academic units at DePaul such as American Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, English, Women's and Gender Studies, History, Community Service Studies, International Studies, Global Asian Studies, the Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) and more.
Many of our majors and minors combine their coursework in African and Black Diaspora Studies with the more established disciplines such as English, History, Sociology, Political Science, and Education or with allied programs and departments such as Women's and Gender Studies and American Studies. Other students, such as those following a path in fields such as Mathematics, Biology, or the Health Sciences have found that double majoring or minoring in ABD provides them a way to follow their multiple interests without having to sacrifice one for the other. Some of our students who have been training in the Health Sciences have also found that coursework in African and Black Diaspora Studies gives their major coursework important dimensions and directions.
African and Black Diaspora Studies is always on the lookout for motivated, self-directed students who seek challenges and are interested in critical reflection and a desire to understand and change the world around them.
Contact us to discuss how African and Black Diaspora Studies might work for you!
Dr. Amor Kohli
Director, African and Black Diaspora Studies