Major Spotlight: Africana Studies
Being an Africana Studies major at Barnard has been a highlight of my experience here!
Barnard’s Africana Studies department aims to equip students with a knowledge of the history, struggles, cultures, political and social movements, and liberatory acts of Black people across the diaspora. The department is relatively small, creating an opportunity for amazing relationships with faculty and students alike.
The department strives to allow students autonomy to pick their own track of study, and advisors work closely with students to pick an area of interest and delve into it completely. The major also allows students flexibility to branch outside of the major. If there’s a class in another department that fits within both your field of interest and the goals of the department, majors have the ability to count those external classes towards the major as electives. For example, I was able to take the Sociology of African American Life in the sociology department and have that count towards completing my Africana Studies requirement. You can bring a class to your major advisor and they can help you get approval for cross-counting, which is the title of this process. This flexibility allows students the opportunity to expand their horizons and learn more about subjects for which they are passionate!
Classes
Students in the department will take classes focused on the African continent, classes focused on gender, and a class focused on Harlem and its history. Some of my favorites within the major include Introduction to the African Diaspora and Caribbean Women Herstories. In Introduction to the African Diaspora, students are encouraged to explore the ridges of the diaspora from the 1600s to today. We study the African slave trade, then expand our research to countries in Latin America, Africa, and North America. We read primary sources, study multi-media archives, and engage in stimulating conversation about our own diasporic histories and experiences. At the end, our work culminated in a multi-media project where we mapped primary sources and offered analysis through a timeline format. Caribbean Women Herstories, the Africana studies colloquia, challenges students to think about women within the diaspora, in a canon where their existence has often been erased. The class’s small size encourages intimate discussions about womanhood, placement in the canon, and how to continue recovering the experiences of women who were previously forgotten by history. In addition, students must take a language spoken within the African diaspora. This overlaps with Barnard’s language requirement, so by taking Spanish, I was able to accomplish two requirements at once!
Along with the aforementioned classes, some of the most popular courses include “Zora Neale Hurston: A Writing Life” and “Shange & Digital Story Telling”. These two classes are notable for the archival work students get to do and the study of two influential Barnard alumnae, Hurston ‘28, and Shange ‘70! In “Zora Neale Hurston: A Writing Life” for example, we are able to dive right into the Barnard Archive, which has tangible records of Hurston’s time at Barnard, in Harlem, and as an anthropological researcher. In this class, I have been able to look at documents from the 1920s, which helped transport us to the time at which Hurston attended, and reminds us about the robust history of the College. We also met outside of the classroom quite often, whether it be at the New York Historical to see the “Gay Harlem Renaissance” exhibit, in the Digital Humanities Center, or the Barnard Archives. These two classes are notable for the archival work students get to do and the study of two influential Barnard alumnae, Hurston ‘28, and Shange ‘70!
Faculty
While the classes are wonderful, the Africana Studies faculty is truly what makes it stand out. The department is full of professors who have completed international scholarship, written books canonical to the discipline, and conducted groundbreaking research that is foundational to Africana Studies today. For example, our department chair, Dr. Monica Miller, wrote Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, which inspired the theme of the 2025 Met Gala, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. In fact, she was a guest curator of the exhibit at the Met!
Along with the myriad of accomplishments, the faculty is notable for their passion in supporting their students. The professors want to support you in whatever way you need. Professors in Africana Studies do all they can to help students succeed, whether that's through office hours, connecting students with programs, or sharing resources or opportunities that might be relevant to students. It’s been an amazing experience to work so closely with professors who care about your well-being and can help you blend your passions into the larger mosaic of African diasporic study.
Location
One unique part of the Barnard Africana Studies department is its location, and the department takes full advantage of it. New York City is one of the greatest cities in the world, and is often coined as a melting pot because of the diversity of cultures, art, food, and music within the boroughs. The Africana Studies department encourages students to involve themselves in this culture, recommending art exhibits, bringing speakers to class, or taking class trips to museums. One incredible example of this is the Harlem Semester. The Harlem Semester is an initiative by the Africana Studies department to engage students in the incredible and iconic community we are surrounded by. Students, through their classes, have worked at the nearby Schomberg Center for Research on Black Culture doing archival research, toured the historic Apollo Theater, or participated in productions at the Studio Museum in Harlem. This semester allows students to involve themselves in the nearby epicenter of Black culture and take what we have learned outside of the classroom!
Research
Being an Africana Studies major has taught me about what research can look like, particularly in archival contexts. When I had previously considered research, I thought that it had to be totally empirical and easily measurable. However, I have quickly learned that research is wider than this. It can be archival, done through personal narratives, or practiced by examining present social conditions. The Africana Studies department emphasizes that point, making primary and secondary archival materials the heart of our learning. Students are encouraged by the department to use the myriad of resources available to Barnard students, like the Digital Humanities Center, the Barnard Archives, or the Barnard Center for Research on Women, training a new generation of students for humanities research.
Being an Africana Studies major has truly changed my perspective on research, diasporic studies, and the way we examine the communities around us. The interdisciplinary approaches and the flexibility the major offers make the program truly notable, and I highly encourage anyone considering Africana Studies to take a class and experience this lovely department for themselves!