Chair

Professor Renata Ferdinand
Library Building, room L-643
Phone: 718-260-5205
Email: africanamerstudies@citytech.cuny.edu

Description

The African American Studies Department is designed to bring into disciplinary focus the history and culture of Africans and their descendants throughout the diaspora from antiquity to the present. Our courses challenge students to think critically about a broad range of topics and issues, including but not limited to race, gender, class, sexuality, and culture. It is through these courses that our students learn the complexities of Africana people throughout the world. Whether it’s a course in art like Introduction to the Art of Africa, or literature courses like Black Women in Literature or Current Caribbean Literature, students learn the cultural connections between and amongst people of African descent, and the ways that a particular landscape shapes the culture of a specific group of people.

Mission

The mission of the Department of African American Studies at New York City College of Technology is to bring research, critical analysis, synthesis, and interpretation to bear on the contributions of peoples of African descent to the genesis and the development of human civilization. African American Studies is fundamentally concerned with the stimulation of intellectual growth and the development of humanist principles. With an unwavering commitment to students, the faculty exemplify the ways of being in the world, not only as scholars but as global citizens committed to addressing issues of equality and social justice.

Programs

The academic minor in program is available to all students in any academic major who can take 12 or more credits in their General Education Flexible Common Core and College Option Requirements. The minor encompasses a study of the history of traditional arts within Africa, the United States, and the Caribbean such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking, in addition to topics that fall within our more expansive visual culture including the history of photography, illustration, the graphic arts, and media. There is also a place-based learning component to the minor.