African and African Diaspora Studies

Master of Arts
Doctor of Philosophy

For More Information

 Campus address: Bellmont Hall (BEL) 242, phone (512) 471-5203, fax (512) 471-6999; campus mail code: E3400

Mailing address: The University of Texas at Austin, Graduate Program, Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, 1 University Station E3400, Austin TX 78712

E-mail: nthompsonbeavers@austin.utexas.edu

URL: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/aads

Facilities for Graduate Work

Graduate students in African and African diaspora studies have access to three highly-specialized units dedicated to rigorous scholarship in black studies. With more than forty full-time or jointly-affiliated faculty members representing the interdisciplinary aspects of the program, the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies promotes activist academics and is dedicated to the study of the intellectual, political, artistic, and social experiences of people of African descent throughout Africa and the African diaspora, including the United States. The Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis produces cutting-edge policy research and analysis related to urban issues. The institute's staff, academic fellows, and graduate students generate publications, reports, briefs, grants, and contracts with the aim of shaping policy to enhance the lives of African Americans and other people of color in the state of Texas. The John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies offers research opportunities and programming across a broad variety of disciplines focused on black people in Texas, the United States, and the African diaspora including Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe.

Black studies graduate students have access to the University’s extensive and world-renowned research library system, including the Perry-Castañeda Library with over 2.5 million volumes, the Human Rights Documentation Initiative, the Benson Latin American Collection, and the Harry Ransom Center. The Black Queer Studies Collection, meant to feature, promote, and increase the discoverability of the UT Libraries’ unique holdings in the area of African American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) studies, is a groundbreaking project in librarianship that addresses standard obstacles posed by the Library of Congress Subject Headings and information retrieval systems to locating materials by and about black diasporic LGBTQ people. Students also are encouraged to utilize campus-wide arts facilities including the Fine Arts Library, the Texas Performing Arts Center, and the Blanton Museum of Art. Housed within the Warfield Center, the ISESE Gallery is a living arts space designed to encourage, promote, and sustain black artistic expression. Also featured in the Warfield Center is the recently-acquired African Art Collection, comprised of 827 artifacts from sub-Saharan Africa. 

Areas of Study

The graduate program in African and African diaspora studies is designed to provide students with the skills and analytical frameworks necessary to engage interdisciplinary approaches for examining the lives of people of African descent throughout Africa and the African diaspora, including the United States. Students will explore key works within the subfields of black feminism, black history, black queer theory, critical race theory, critical educational studies, performance studies, political economy, and political philosophy. The program's objective is to provide students with the broad foundational knowledge necessary to pursue an academic career, or to conduct scholarly research in African and African diaspora studies (also known as African, black, African and African American, or African and/or black diaspora studies), or related fields. 

Graduate Studies Committee

The following faculty members served on the Graduate Studies Committee in the spring semester 2013.

Omoniyi Afolabi Charles O Anderson Jossianna Arroyo Martinez Daina R Berry Simone A Browne Kevin O Cokley King E Davis Kevin M Foster Maria Franklin Lyndon K Gill Edmund T Gordon Kali N Gross Frank A Guridy Charles R Hale Juliet A Hooker

Omi Osun Joni L Jones Minkah Makalani Stephen H Marshall Fehintola A Mosadomi Eric Darnell Pritchard Matt U Richardson Cherise Smith Christen Smith Eric Tang Lisa Thompson Shirley E Thompson Natasha Tinsley Joao H Vargas Samuel C Watkins