Letter from the Chair

As a vibrant intellectual enterprise, African American and African Diaspora Studies has transformed the way we think about Africa, the Americas, and the world. The breadth of philosophical frameworks that shape the field range from Pan Africanism, Négritude, Black Internationalism, Civil Rights, Black Feminism, to Critical Race Theory. The innovative research and scholarship produced by Black Studies scholars has enhanced and advanced disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and in the professional fields of law, journalism, architecture, and more. By engaging critical histories of its diasporic geographies, the field provides insights on modernity’s formation and futures. In establishing the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies in 2019, Columbia University strengthens its leadership in the field.

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 the Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS) in 1993 was a major step toward strengthening the University’s visibility both in Harlem and in the field of Black Studies. The appointment of Dr. Manning Marable, inaugural director of IRAAS, firmly established Columbia as a leader in the study of Black political thought and socially engaged scholarship. IRAAS’s explicit focus on the Black experience in Harlem and other parts of New York gave, and continues to give, Columbia’s African American and African Diaspora Studies its distinctive mission to examine the historical and contemporary formations in Black politics, culture, and society. The return to Columbia of Souls (founded in 1999 by Marable) and it's relaunch as an open access peer reviewed journal continues our unwavering commitment to critically examine contemporary Black diasporic life.

The African American and African Diaspora Studies Department takes IRAAS’s foundational scholarship and teaching on the African Diaspora, Black political and religious thought, Black cultural and visual studies, Black geographies and urbanism, Black sociological and anthropological theories, and critically engaged research in new and exciting directions. Our faculty publishes across several disciplines that speak to audiences both within the University and communities nationally and internationally. Given this rich and diverse background—along with the ongoing production of award-winning scholarship, innovative teaching, and impactful programming—our faculty trains students to engage and shape contemporary conversations and debates about the study of the African Diaspora. Through rigorous intellectual exploration, students learn to address always important policy concerns regarding neoliberalism, housing inequities, education accessibility, mass incarceration, social justice, health equity, human rights, environmental justice, and other pressing issues that affect Black life.

We are uniquely positioned to pursue a research program on the cutting edge of scholarly and policy debates. Our proximity to and longstanding relationship with Harlem provide a wealth of opportunities for students and faculty to pursue these interests in partnership with neighboring institutions. Thanks to a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, we continue to highlight and sustain the centrality of the arts in African American and African Diaspora Studies and its broader intellectual community. Programs with the Artist-in-Residence and our Black Arts Dialogues, and courses with our International Scholar-In-Residence emphasizing music, creative writing, and visual arts continue to attract students as well as community members. This is an exciting time of growth and opportunity for our department, and we are thrilled to build upon our legacy while extending our intellectual and pedagogical mission into the future.

At this time in the history of our university and our nation, African American and African Diaspora Studies Department plays a vital role in training students to be engaged and informed global citizens, conducting research that helps to foster a greater understanding of the histories that have shaped us and the challenges that confront us. We remain committed to building and sustaining strong community ties both within and outside of the gates of Columbia University.

Mabel O. Wilson
Chair, Department of African American & African Diaspora Studies and Nancy and George E. Rupp Professor of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation