Department will commemorate anniversary all year with lecture series.
By Sergio Ramos, Staff Reporter
Thirty years after its founding, CSUDH’s Africana Studies Department is marking a milestone that’s as much about the future as it is about the past. The department will commemorate its 30th anniversary this year with a series of lectures, celebrations, and reflections honoring its legacy of scholarship, activism, and community.
Africana Studies has evolved from a program in African American Studies into an academic department offering both a major and a minor. The department emphasizes the historical, cultural, political, and social experiences of people of African descent throughout the African Diaspora. Graduates have moved into careers in education, social work, art, and politics—and some now serve as faculty within the department.
“The department became a degree giving independent optimists department in ‘95—that’s really the distinction,” said Salim Faraji, professor and chair of the Africana Studies Department. “That’s really the shift of why this particular celebration is important.”
That impact extends well beyond the classroom. The department has helped shape the university’s identity by promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion across campus. Working alongside its counterparts in Chicana and Chicano Studies and Asian Pacific Studies, the coalition hosts cultural events and supports student clubs and organizations.
The 30th anniversary is not only a celebration but also a moment to reflect and envision the department’s future. It honors the pioneers who established the program, the faculty and staff who continue to innovate, and the students whose curiosity and resilience inspire its mission. The department has long stood as a powerful example of academic and cultural leadership at CSUDH.
The anniversary theme “Africana Studies Then, Africana Studies Now, Africana Studies Forever: Celebrating 30 Years of Nurturing Scholars, Thinkers & Leaders,” highlights the department’s motto. The yearlong celebration begins this semester with lectures by renowned scholars Bright Gyamfi of Rutgers University and Keston Perry of UCLA.
Africana Studies Week will take place in mid-February, followed by additional lectures in March and April by Tiffany Willoughby-Herard of UC Irvine and Safiya Umoja Noble of UCLA.
“These [lecture] series will definitely be about uplifting different voices…on empowerment and activism [and] using your voice not only on an academic level, but also on a community and artistic level,” said Kyro Davis, president of the Organization of Africana Studies. “It’s not only about academics and excellence, it’s also about community building.”
Even as CSUDH grapples with budget constraints and declining enrollment, the department remains optimistic about the future. Conversations are already underway to expand course offerings, introduce graduate programs, and hire additional faculty.
“We as a department, of course, are doing our due diligence, but also as a campus in terms of ensuring that we are able to weather this storm,” said Akua T.J. Robinson, a full-time lecturer in the department. “That all departments are able to weather the storm so we can continue to move forward and serve the campus, our students, our society, and the world.”
AFRICANA STUDIES 30TH ANNIVERSARY EVENTS
Oct. 21—Embers of Pan-Africanism: Nkrumahist Intellectuals and Decolonization, 1960-1980 (Cain Library, 5th Floor Common at 4 p.m.)
Nov. 4—The Yvonne Brathwaite-Burke & Herbert Carter Lecture (Instruction & Innovation Building, Rm. 3320 at 4 p.m.)
Feb. 9–14—Africana Studies Week
Mar. 24—Pedagogy, Laughter and Solidarity in Africana Studies Classrooms (Claudia Hampton Hall, WH-D 165 at 4 p.m.)
Apr. 21—The W.E.B Du Bois Distinguished Lecture: “Black Studies in the Age of AI” (Cain Library, 5th Floor Common at 4 p.m.)