Center for Africana & African American Studies

What is Africana/African American Studies

African American Studies, or Africana Studies more broadly, is an interdisciplinary academic discipline that highlights the philosophical, social, cultural, historical, and contemporary experiences and practices of people of African descent in the western world. Through its examination of African descendent people both in the United States and across the Diaspora, African American Studies helps students to better understand the robust and expansive array of human experiences both in the West and across the globe. Originally called Black Studies, Africana/African American Studies structurally and critically examines Black experiences through its seven core academic fields. Those fields include:

• Black History
• Black Religion
• Black Politics/Political Science
• Black Social Organizations/Sociology
• Black Psychology
• Black Economics
• Black Creative Production (i.e. music, arts, literature, dance, etc.)

About the Center for Africana & African American Studies (CAAAS)

The Center for Africana & African American Studies (CAAAS) is composed of professors, visiting scholars, adjunct lecturers, and staff who are working to bridge the historical, theoretical, and intellectual offerings of the discipline with real life and global issues facing our world today. This scholarly collaboration benefits our students’ academic and career goals, impacts the health and wellbeing of our communities, and enhances our understanding of society and culture. Thus, the vision of CAAAS is to build a multidisciplinary Africana/African American Studies Program and Interdisciplinary Academic Research Center that serves as a vital resource for student and community development by highlighting both the emergence and relevance of the discipline through its intellectual and academic pursuit.

MISSION: Our Mission at CAAAS is to uplift Black intellectual thought by expanding its exposure and engagement to the diverse communities we serve and to whom our research is most invested.

We strive to meet this goal through by wholistic service model, which encompasses our three pillars of engagement. Those pillars include serving as a(n):

• Academic Institutional Research Center
• Community Partner and Convener
• Student Resource Hub
  • Since the Africana & African American Studies (AAS) Program is an interdisciplinary field of study it allows students to explore both the emergence and relevance of the discipline in relation to their academic majors and personal areas of interest as well as assists students from all majors to see how AAS can expand their intellectual pursuits as a part of their educational experience

The Value of an African American Studies Minor

The University of South Carolina Upstate’s minor in African American Studies provides an opportunity for students to interrogate the African American experience from an interdisciplinary perspective. The eighteen credit hour curriculum takes students on an intellectual journey exploring the major ideas of leading African American thinkers, the historical and cultural dynamics of the African American experience, and the literary voices of African American writers, all while helping students build valuable critical thinking and communication skills relevant for the 21st century workforce.

To meet this goal the minor has five distinct objectives that will allow USC Upstate students the opportunity to:

• Examine the complexities of the Black experience from different perspectives within their chosen majors.
• Introduce students to the seven basic subject areas within Africana/African American Studies
• Develop a more holistic understanding and approach to the inquiry of the Black experience.
• Enable students to engage content from their chosen major, think critically about the issues illuminated within Africana/African American Studies courses, integrate its methodological practices, and produce work at the intersections of disciplines to arrive at a fuller understanding of the condition of Black people occupying various regions of the globe.
• Enrich and complement students’ central area(s) of study and prepare students for life in an increasingly multi-ethnic and global society.

CAAAS Initiatives:

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Africana Scholars Public Voices Initiative.

The goals for the initiative are to:

• Assist Black intellectual scholars transpose some of their academic writings into thought pieces that can speak to a broader community through opinion editorials, industry publications, and non-academic journals.
• Recenter Black Scholars as vital voices on issues pertinent to the Black experience.
• Serve as a reservoir of Black intellectual work for public media and communication organizations.

Black Male Achievement Initiatives:

The Black male achievement initiative works to reconfigure how we talk to, think about, and engage with Black Males ages 12-25 through structured engagement activities, strategic organizational partnerships, informative symposiums and conferences, and data driven research and evaluation. The Black Male Achievement Initiative understands the value in centering Black males in the United States to positively impact the educational achievement, workforce development, and mental and physical well-being of Black males.  

The Black Male Achievement Initiative focuses on:

• Improving access to assessment and evaluation data on Black males for Black Male Studies Programs and other academic disciplines focusing on the educational, economic, physical and emotional wellbeing of Black males.
• Developing strategies to increase engagement among both black male students and Black males in communities through targeted programs and initiatives
• Connecting Black males to each other and to the broader fields of Black social, political, and familial spaces to remove isolation and increase connectivity.

Africana Scholars Community Conversations Initiative:

This initiative, led by the Center for African American Studies at USC Upstate, is an ongoing nationwide community conversation that Black academic centers and historically Black institutions coordinate to highlight the role and significance of Black intellectual thought in the age of anti-Black intellectualism and anti-Black freedom. The goal of this initiative is to:

• Highlight the significance of Black intellectual thought
• Build institutional collaborations among and between Black servicing institutions and Black academic centers
• Connect Black intellectual work to broader Black communities
• Develop a reservoir of Black intellectual scholarship that will show the impact and relevance of Black academic institutions to Black communities.

RSVP to host an Africana Scholars Community Conversation

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Faculty:

Faculty Include:

Marlon A. Smith, PhD., Director of the Center for Africana & African American Studies

Assistant Professor for Interdisciplinary Studies

The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies

Affiliated Faculty:

Carmen Harris, Ph.D.
Professor of History
The Department of History, Political Science, Philosophy, and American Studies

Walter Lee, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Middle Level Education 
Program Coordinator for Call Me MiSTER 

Colleen O’Brien, Ph.D.
Professor of African American Studies, Literature and Women’s Studies
The Division of Languages, Literature, and Composition

Griffin Woodworth, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Popular Music Studies
Department of Fine Arts and Communication Studies

Adjunct Professors:

Marceo Keith McDaniel
Doctor of Ministry, United Theological Seminary
Master of Divinity, Duke University
Bachelor of Arts, Shaw University

Andriea Wardlaw
Master of Arts in African American Studies, Columbia University
Bachelor of Arts, History; Minor: African American Studies, University of South Carolina

CAAAS Events:

Fall 2024:

Spring 2025: