African American Studies

Our overarching mission is building people-to-people bridges across nations and cultures.

Founded in 1969 the African American Studies Program at Boston University is the oldest graduate program in African American Studies in the nation. It offers the Master of Arts degree in the African American Experience in Global and Comparative Perspective, and an undergraduate minor. Courses, research, and public lectures and colloquia address the global dimensions of the African American experience, including connections between African Americans and other global populations; cultural exchanges; the African American influence in the world; the impact of global forces on the shaping of African American history and culture; and the critical interrogation of race and ethnic identities globally.

As part of its mission the program promotes appreciation of the value of the African American experience to the global community through the recruitment of international students, fellows, and visiting scholars, and through collaboration with foreign faculty, universities, institutes, and educational agencies interested in international education. At the same time the program works to develop the global consciousness of all Americans. Our program is an ideal home for all intellectual workers dedicated to the study of human connectedness.

— Ronald K. Richardson, Director