African Diaspora Studies

Member of the Social Studies Division

African Diaspora Studies is not offered as a major or concentration at Grinnell College

Chair: 

Thabiti Willis

Centering the experiences of people of African descent across time and geography, the Department of African Diaspora Studies explores the histories, cultural expressions, social formations, political struggles, and contemporary lived realities of African diasporic communities. Drawing on theories and methods from Black, pan-Africanist, Africana, and Black feminist intellectual traditions, we critically examine the systems and structures that produce and sustain Blackness, and how race intersects with other dimensions of social life—such as gender, class, sexuality, labor, caste, and ability. Our curriculum and co-curricular programming cultivate spaces for engaging the rich, multiform expressions of memory, resistance, joy, and future-making. We employ a range of interdisciplinary approaches to interrogate dominant epistemologies and critique the ways disciplinary canons have historically constructed, distorted, or excluded knowledge about Africa, its diaspora, and the broader non-Western world.