Africana Studies

Center for Interdisciplinary Study

The Minor in Africana Studies program is a collective of dedicated members and other interested partners who explore and situate topics such as the culture, history, medical and health concerns, economics, race and racism and other social complexities — including migration of Africa and its peoples in various diasporas. Our community studies these subjects within the larger context of global history, political, economic and cultural movements.

A primary goal of the program is to demonstrate and interrogate how African and African diasporic identities acknowledge, engage, and highlight: race, gender, sexuality, class, religion and regions —among many other topics— as intersecting categories across our curriculum and practice.

Recognizing that Africans and African diasporic communities make up a vast and disparate group of people united not only by a common heritage and by experiences of exploitation and racism, but also with some obvious cultural diversities, drives an imperative objective of our program:

The search for and putting into practice of innovative ways of responding to and tackling critical and, at times even life-threatening, issues that constantly affect black people. Such issues include: true social justice, the effects of systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, post-colonial shocks and aftershocks — and more.

About the Minor

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Community Groups

Latest News

I am psyched poster reading "this is what a psychologist looks like"

National Traveling Exhibit Returns to Celebrate Women of Color in Psychology

The I Am Psyched! national touring exhibit has returned to Drexel and is being presented in person this month after last year’s virtual presentation due to the pandemic.

A copy of the book A Legacy to Share held up on Drexel's campus

Student Interns in Drexel Publishing Group Produce Book Honoring Black Alumni Experience

During Homecoming Weekend, the Drexel Black Alumni Council (DUBAC) launched a special collection of essays. Titled A Legacy to Share, the new book honors over 50 years of history since the first wave of Black students arrived on Drexel's campus in the late 1960s. Student interns in the Drexel Publishing Group were responsible for copy editing, proofreading and applying styles for formatting the book.

Chris Bolden-Newsome and Lessons of Da Land participants gather in the picnic area and read passages from The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty

Resilience & Joy: Lessons of Da Land

Led by environmental science major Alexis Wiley, a twelve-week cocurricular program introduced Drexel students and community members to food sovereignty and land justice issues in Black Philadelphia. The course worked with community partners and explored a wide variety of sources to deliver Lessons of Da Land.

Faculty Members	Contact	Specialization
	Jakeya Caruthers, PhD Assistant Professor of English and Africana Studies 5016 MacAlister jakeya.caruthers@drexel.edu	Black Political Aesthetics; Black Popular Culture, Literature, and Media Representation; Black Feminist Thought; Anti-Carceral Feminism; Art and Visual Culture
	Abioseh Porter, PhD Director, Africana Studies; Professor of English 5016 MacAlister abiosehp@drexel.edu	Comparative Literature; Postcolonial Literatures
	Nic John Ramos, PhD Assistant Professor of History 5009 MacAlister nfr38@drexel.edu	History of Medicine; History of Psychiatry; Black, African, African American History; Queer and LGBT History; History of Capitalism; Gender and Sexuality
	Tasneem A. Siddiqui, PhD Assistant Professor of History MacAlister Hall, room 5013 tas434@drexel.edu	The Black Radical Tradition; Land-based struggles; Black social movements; Labor; Black Geographies; Africana spiritual systems; Self-determination
	Sonia Vaz Borges, PhD Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies 4020 MacAlister sonia.vazborges@drexel.edu	African History; Black Studies; Liberation Struggles Studies; Social Movements Studies; History of Education; Decolonial Studies and Methodologies; Oral History; Militant Research; Walking archives; Migration and diasporas

Affiliated Faculty

Faculty Members	Contact	Specialization
	Ayana Allen-Handy Associate Professor Department Chair, Policy, Organization, and Leadership 3rd Floor, 3401 Market Room 3234 ayana.allen@drexel.edu
	Veronica Carey, PhD, CPRP, CDE^® Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Associate Clinical Professor; Chair Board of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Health Sciences Building, 11E33 vdc22@drexel.edu	A national and international guest lecturer and workshop presenter, Carey has presented on evidence-based best practices in recovery-oriented services, psychiatric rehabilitation services, diversity, inclusion and belonging. Carey has trained in Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Italy, Korea, Pakistan, Malaysa and Singapore. Carey authored her first book: Frame Your Degree: How to Avoid Pain while Seeking a College Degree in June 2023 and an inaugural TEDxTalk in spring of 2023 entitled Pain, Pain Go Away! Her articles on direct-care staff development in community-based treatment settings have been published in the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, PSY Connections and Psychiatric Services.
	H. Bernard Hall Assistant Professor of Urban Teacher Education 3rd Floor, 3401 Market Room 3223 h.bernard.hall@drexel.edu
	Deanna Hill Associate Clinical Professor Program Director for EdD in Educational Leadership and Management deanna.hill@drexel.edu
	Emmanuel F. Koku, PhD Associate Professor of Sociology; Department Head; Graduate Faculty Member, Communication, Culture & Media 3201 Arch Street, 288 emmanuelkoku@drexel.edu	Social Network Analysis; Quantitative Analysis; Mixed Methods; Medical Sociology; Social Epidemiology; Global/Immigrant Health; Globalization, Development and Underdevelopment
	Parfait Kouacou, PhD Associate Teaching Professor, Global Studies and Modern Languages Academic Building, 320 pk595@drexel.edu	Postcolonial Francophone African Literature, Human Rights Critical Theories, Childhood Studies, Oral Literature
	Roger Kurtz, PhD Professor of English; Department Head 5016 MacAlister Hall jrk353@drexel.edu	World literatures; Postcolonial literature; East African literature and culture; Trauma theory
	Sharrona Pearl, PhD Associate Teaching Professor Health Sciences Building, Room 11W46 shp72@drexel.edu	Science studies, history of science and medicine, critical race, gender, and disability studies, media studies
	Rachel Reynolds, PhD Associate Professor of Communication; Graduate Faculty Member, Communication, Culture & Media 3201 Arch Street, Suite 340, Room 354 rrr28@drexel.edu	Sociolinguistics, Ethnography of Communication and Discourse Analysis; Violence Against Women in Mass Media; Political Economy of Migration – Brain Drain, Immigrants and Transnational Immigration; Semiotics including the Textual, the Visual and the Multimodal
	Vincent Williams, PhD Associate Teaching Professor of English 5016 MacAlister Hall avw22@drexel.edu
	Jennifer Yusin, PhD Professor of English; Director, Women’s and Gender Studies 5016 MacAlister Hall jyusin@drexel.edu	Comparative Race and Empire Studies, Philosophies of Race and Gender, Global Modernisms, LGBTQ+ Studies, Trans Studies, Psychoanalytic Studies, Postcolonial and Global Anglophone Literatures, Transatlantic Studies, and the Global South