Welcome

African American and African Studies at MSU consists of three components: a Ph.D. degree program in African American and African Studies (hereafter AAAS); an undergraduate specialization in Black American and Diasporic Studies (hereafter BADS); a Plan B Master of Arts degree in AAAS for those students in the Ph.D. program who don't complete the requirements for the Ph.D. degree. Though these three programs have their distinctive emphases and requirements (as can be seen elsewhere on our website), there is much commonality among them. Among these commonalities are the following:

• Our program embaces genuinely diverse intellectual and idelogical approaches to researching and teaching the global Black experience.
  
  
• Though anchored in the Black experience in the United States, our deeply comparative, cross-national and cross-cultural program is committed to teacheing and researching the Black experience in Africa and elsewhere in the Black Diaspora.
  
  
• We examine how the experiences of Blacks and other communities of color in the U.S., including Latinos, Native Americans, Asians, and Pacific Islanders intersect and the implications of these historical and contemporary interactions for empowerment struggles of Black peoples in the 21st century.
  
  
• Formal linking of graduate and undergraduate courses requiring mentor-mentee relations between undergraduate students in BADS and doctoral students in AAAS.
  
  
• Through our curriculum and varied internships, located in the U.S. and elsewhere in the Black world, we are developing scholars and socially responsible citizens.
  
  
• Other dimensions of AAAS are its close affiliation with MSU's nationally reconized, biennial Race in 21st Century America Conference project, the Midwest Consortium for Black Studies and MSU Press's book series Black American and Diasporic Studies. Against this backdrop, African American and African Studies at MSU helps to inaugurate Black Studies in 21st century America.