Efforts to bring Africana studies to Hopkins have finally succeeded.
Beginning next year, students will have the option of selecting Africana Studies as a major and/or minor. This program has been developed over the last year by a collaborative effort between administration, faculty and students.
The major and minor will be part of the new Center for Africana Studies, which will be located in the greenhouse behind Gilman. The curriculum has been approved for next year and will be interdisciplinary, drawing on classes from many different subjects.
According to Sara Berry, a professor in the History department who is part of the Executive Committee of faculty that oversees the Center, the program is intended to be very flexible.
"We perceive it as drawing on African-American Studies, African Studies, and African Diaspora Studies," Berry said. "Students will be free to specialize in their interests."
To provide information, the council hopes to have a Web site up soon to inform interested students about the details of the curriculum.
Regarding the importance of the program, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Daniel Weiss said, "Most importantly it will bring a vibrant new area of studies [to our academics], and the second benefit [is it] helps to make the community more welcoming to the diverse students and faculty we are trying to attract here."
One year ago, a group of students formed from the student organization JHUnity drafted a proposal for the creation of an African-American Studies Department. After meeting with Weiss, a task force was formed to further research an appropriate program.
Morgan MacDonald, a sophomore who helped draft the proposal, said many other schools already had this field of study on their campuses and Hopkins was "lacking." He sees this as a "legitimate area of study, which will allow many students to branch out in their studies and will attract [new] students to Hopkins."
When the task force finalized their plans, they found that for Hopkins the program would be more fitting as a center than an academic discipline.
"A center is more interdisciplinary in nature and more appropriate for our model, drawing from faculty in other departments," said Weiss. He said having a center rather than a program "does not stop ... the development of this major and minor."
MacDonald said he hopes he will "be minoring or at least taking some classes" in the program next year.
