Skip to content

Unit Contributions to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion 6442

Academic Years: 
2017-2018
Department: 
African Studies
Division: 
Social Sciences
Academics
1. Faculty: 

Faculty who teach courses in the African Studies program come from nearly all UO colleges and schools, and include people with provenance from Africa, women, and men. All AFR faculty have research concerns that address diversity issues including: improving access to education, health, and economic mobility by marginalized groups; gender and identity; majority-minority dynamics within African countries, the Black diaspora (in the U.S., Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe and other world regions), etc. The African Studies Program works hard to promote the teaching and scholarship of our faculty of color, and to make the UO a strong supportive community for their careers -- especially as they are drammatically of minority status on the UO campus. We highlight their scholarship via the African Studies Lecture Series, advertising their classes, and helping them make connections with others across campus.

We would be delighted to be involved in hiring more faculty with African and/or Africanist backgrounds across campus.

2. Staff: 

We are staffed by the OCIAS office.

3. Graduate Programs: 

African Studies has an African Studies Graduate list and holds occasional events for graduate students with interests in Africa and African Studies. We rely on individual departments and colleges graduate-student recruiting processes; but attempt to foster community among such students via RIG groups, the African Studies Lecture Series, and mentoring research projects. We have a Graduate Specialization in African Studies which has attracted minority graduate students, and which provides some much needed intellectual community for students with Africa related research.

4. Undergraduate Programs: 

African Studies promotes undergraduate engagement with Africa and the African diaspora via a minor, study abroad programs, and Swahili and Arabic language study. We offer the undergraduate "Introduction to African Studies" course which engages students with a broad range of diversity issues (from economic, to justice, to gender, to religious, etc. factors). The course introduces undergraduate students to a wide range of faculty with whom they can continue to take courses that address African- and African-diasporic related topics. AFR faculty mentor undergraduate and honors theses on Africanist issues.

5. Outreach and Partnerships: 

- African Studies Lecture series (typically three speakers a term)
- Support of on-campus symposia and conferences (past conferences and symposia include: Annual Conference on African Linguistics; Health in Africa; Everyday Life on the Continent: Fun, Leisure & Expressivity)