The mission of the Department of African Cultural Studies is to provide research and teaching in the languages and expressive cultures of Africa and Africans around the world.

The department is the only one of its kind in the United States. It offers curricula leading to both the master of arts degree and the doctor of philosophy degree. Its students come from all over the world, including many African countries.

Graduate students interested in completing the minor in African cultural studies should contact the director of graduate studies.

Students must maintain a GPA of 3.5 or better in courses taken for the minor.

FACULTY

To view full faculty profiles, visit our website.

Matthew H. Brown: African screen media (particularly "Nollywood"), oral traditions, literature
Vlad Dima: French New Wave cinema, Francophone cinemas, film theory, television studies
Ainehi Edoro: Form, theory, and history of the African novel
Névine El Nossery: Francophone & Middle Eastern literature and culture, postcolonial studies
Samuel England: Classical Arabic poetry and prose, modern Arabic literature
Colleen Hamilton: Second language acquisition
Luis Madureira: Colonial and postcolonial studies, modernism, theater and performance
Mustafa Mustafa: Arabic
Tejumola Olaniyan:  African, African American, and Caribbean literature and culture
Ronald Radano: Ethnomusicology, US Black music and its transnational circulation
Damon Sajnani: Africana cultural studies, social and political theory, HipHop studies
Katrina Daly Thompson: African discourse, linguistic ethnography, language pedagogy

Emeritus FACULTY

Patrick Bennett
Dustin Cowell
Jo Ellen Fair
Magdalena Hauner
Linda Hunter
Edris Makward
Michael Schatzberg
Harold Scheub
Aliko Songolo

ACADEMIC STAFF

Bill Bach, Department Administrator
Toni Landis, Academic Advisor/Student Services Coordinator