Our courses draw on literature, philosophy, history, and many other disciplines to examine African, African-American, and Caribbean/Latin American themes. We also study the social construction of racial differences and its relation to the perpetuation of racism and racial domination.
Department Highlights
The Major
Our majors begin by studying the central debates and problems within our field. They go on to take courses on various Black cultures and to examine the links among them.
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Student Research
Students explore topics such as gender and class issues in diasporic literature; international hip hop dance culture; the use of statistical models in predicting the spread of AIDS in Africa; and representations of Black children in picture books.
From our College Archives
Our History
Founded in the early 1970s in response to student protests and demands, we explore issues of race and the cultural connections between Africa and the Black diaspora. (Pictured: Amherst's first black faculty member, Professor James Q. Denton.)
From our College Archives
After Amherst
Our majors go on to careers in education, business, medicine, law and other fields in which an understanding of racial and cultural differences is important. Many complete graduate programs at top national research institutions.
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Scholar-in-Residence
Each year, through the Charles Hamilton Houston Scholar-in-Residence program, we invite an important intellectual in the field to campus for a week to deliver a lecture, direct a faculty seminar and participate in the intellectual life on campus.
A Conversation With Derecka Purnell
Sponsored by the departments of Black Studies, Environmental Studies and Political Science
October 3, 2023
Derecka Purnell is a human rights lawyer, writer and author of Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom. She works to end police and prison violence by providing legal assistance, research and training in community-based organizations through an abolitionist framework.
Video of “Becoming Abolitionists”
2023 Senior Reception & Commencement
Enjoy some photos from the 2023 Black Studies’ Senior Reception & Commencement ceremonies, which took place in May 2023.
Family Weekend 2022
family weekend
family weekend
family weekend
family weekend
family weekend
family weekend
Black Studies Courses
Current Courses
BLST 193
The Postcolonial City
Description
This course engages the buildings, cities, and landscapes of the former colonies of Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean. This class will examine the buildings, urban spaces, rural landscapes, and national capitals that emerged in response to these political histories.
BLST 208
African Migrations and Globalization
Description
To explore the political, social, and economic consequences of waves of migration in African states and among countries receiving African migrants, this course will examine the topics at the core of the transformation of African states in the global age.
BLST 311
Africa before the European Conquest
Description
We will explore this varied history of states and cultures in the African past—this course will focus primarily on the period between 1400 and 1885.
Congratulations Joan Flores-Villalobos '10
Congratulations Joan Flores-Villalobos '10
Congratulations to Joan Flores-Villalobos '10, former Black Studies major, for winning the 2024 Organization of American Historians (OAH) David Montgomery Award. Joan is a Assistant Professor of African Diaspora History at the University of Southern California.
2024 - OAH AwardsFeatured Article
The BREHA Collective
The Black Feminist Reproductive Justice, Equity & HIV/AIDS Activism (BREHA) Collective is a new interdisciplinary lab that foregrounds the experiences, labor, and political visions of Afro-Diasporic girls, women, and gender-diverse people in our shared and divergent struggles against reproductive injustice.
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