At William & Mary, Africana Studies launched in 2009 when Black Studies merged with the Global Studies concentration in Africana. Studies. The program offers its undergraduate students the opportunity to study one of three interdisciplinary, academic tracks: African Studies, African-American Studies, and African-Diaspora Studies. The program’s dedicated core and affiliated faculty comes from all corners of the college: the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Professional Schools.  Additionally, the program offers a unique residential experience through the Africana House, a learning community that engages students further with Africana Studies in their daily lives.

Here, the multi-faceted and interdisciplinary scholarship of Africana Studies’ core faculty is on display. Joint-appointed in Anthropology, Economics, English, Dance, Theatre, and History, these professors’ research covers a diverse array of topics. From poetry and black speculative fiction, to race in science and society;  from direction and dramaturgy to linguistic constructions of identity;  from the economics of sub-Saharan Africa to black female authors, like Maya Angelou and Nella Larsen; from Latin American history to the reconstruction of historical dance; from minstrelsy as pop cultural export to African diasporic histories, each professor offers their students innovative perspectives and prospectives to examine the cross-cultural, diasporic world of Africana.

View Africana Studies faculty profiles on W&M ScholarWorks, a W&M Libraries service that provides open access to the active research & scholarship produced by our faculty, staff, and students.

Library Liaison to the Africana Studies Program: Natasha McFarland, Reference & Instruction Librarian
Exhibit preparation: Mariaelena DiBenigno, Special Collections Exhibits Apprentice and PhD Candidate in American Studies; Mallory Walker, Mosaic Fellow; Marian Taliaferro, Digital Scholarship Librarian; and Jennie Davy, Exhibits Manager
Exhibit design: Abram Clear, SCRC Graphics Student Assistant