As stated earlier, DAAS is committed to teach, inspire, enlighten, and challenge students in the interdisciplinary study of Africa and its diaspora. DAAS classrooms offer experiential learning and intercultural exchanges that sharpen undergraduate students’ critical thinking on the histories of black communities across the globe as well as on racial ideologies and the current state of race relations. The DAAS curriculum also seeks to prepare students for a complex world characterized by interethnic, interracial, and international relations. DAAS also offers graduate certificate programs with a focus on either African or African diaspora studies. This commitment has provided a hospitable atmosphere for students from all backgrounds that awakens a yearning to make an impact in Africa and its diaspora.
Tiffany Harris, an Afroamerican and African Studies and Political Science Major, has resolved to be a civil rights lawyer after being an African-American Studies Major. In her own words: “African-American people are still marginalized and are in a new Jim Crow System because of mass incarceration. Our world and especially our country need more civil rights lawyers in order to fix our broken system”
Emmanuel Saint-Phard, on the other hand, is pursuing a minor with DAAS after taking the introductory course for a distribution credit for his Biopsychology, Cognition and Neuroscience Major. In his own words: “It has been amazing to learn about BLACK history, a history that is personally relevant to me….this course work has challenged my thinking on questions about the current condition of Black individuals which led to the creation of my senior thesis through the psychology department, researching current and future outcomes for Black students at predominantly white institutions.” He believes that if he had not pursued this minor with DAAS, his current trajectory of pursuing an MPH and eventually a PhD in health and educational disparities would have been completely different.
Finally, Thomas Vance, an Afroamerican and African Studies and Political Science Major, agrees that DAAS provides a supportive environment for students to feel inclusive in an evolving community with racial discrimination. Also, in his own words: “DAAS is a place I truly feel at home; in upper-level political science classes, I am one of few Black students. DAAS courses allow me to disregard my minority status and focus instead on the community that surrounds me.”
