Throughout Columbia’s history, scholars such as anthropologist Franz Boas, his graduate student Zora Neale Hurston, and decades later, political scientist Charles Hamilton and historian Hollis Lynch, among others, contributed to the development of African American and African Diaspora Studies. The founding of IRAAS — the Institute for Research in African-American Studies — in 1993 by Manning Marable was a major step toward firmly establishing Columbia as a leader in the study of Black political thought and socially engaged scholarship.
Become educators and intellectual leaders
Our doctoral program provides a comprehensive education in the interdisciplinary field of African American and African Diaspora Studies. The doctoral degree is geared toward graduate students who wish to study the intellectual traditions, histories, and the social and cultural studies of African descended people in the United States as well as those throughout the African diaspora in North and South America, the Caribbean and other parts of the world.
The program prepares students to become educators and intellectual leaders in the academy, in public service, and in institutional stewardship. Each student follows a carefully crafted sequence of core courses in African American and African Diaspora Studies and other allied disciplines that provides a rigorous foundation in Black intellectual traditions and theoretical frameworks.
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For question on our PhD Program contact the department at [email protected].
Watch department leaders share ambitions for the new PhD program.
Learn from expert faculty
Students work with faculty whose expertise in histories of political, religious, and social movements, the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism and race, and the centrality of Black cultural traditions and artistic productions. Students gain competency in methodologies and theoretical approaches in African American and African Diaspora Studies that are interdisciplinary, comparative, and transnational. Each student is supported by consultations with the Director of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Education Committee.
Before the end of the third year each student must demonstrate proficiency in the interdisciplinary field of African American and African Diaspora studies by passing written M.Phil. qualifying examinations that are developed and completed with three faculty members. Each student must also successfully craft a dissertation prospectus with the support of a sponsor and a committee, who will work with the student to also develop dissertation grant proposals.
To be eligible for an MPhil degree students must pass an exam in a language other than English. Every student is encouraged to submit a refereed journal article for publication that demonstrates a high level of methodological competence with strong theoretical and empirical incorporation and make at least one presentation at a professional conference. Each student works closely with their dissertation committee to complete the research, writing, and defense of the dissertation. The department supports student efforts to secure dissertation fellowships, postdoctoral fellowships, tenure-track teaching positions, and other professional opportunities.