Welcome to the Program in African American & Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University
The Program in African American and Diaspora Studies (PAADS) offers an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and comparative curriculum of study of the histories, literatures, music, visual cultures, and politics of people of African descent around the world. To that end, PAADS focuses on several geographic areas: Africa, the Americas (North & Latin America), and the Caribbean. The Program examines equally the interactions of those diverse geographic areas, whose African-descended multiracial and multicultural inhabitants makeup the African diaspora, with Europe. The program recognizes as well that there is a growing population of blacks dispersed throughout Europe, that is, Black Europeans; hence we are equally committed to exploring intellectually Black Europe and the particularities of the Black European experience.
While developing students' analytical and critical thinking skills through the exploration of the Atlantic World, African American and Diaspora Studies as a discipline contributes to broader debates about race, religion, gender, culture, class, politics, sexuality, and color. As an intellectual endeavor, the Program in African American and Diaspora Studies also advances research and scholarship within the growing field of African diaspora studies via academic conferences, lecture series, fora, and faculty publications.
Why Study African American & Diaspora Studies?
Courses in African American and Diaspora Studies will allow you to better grapple with the ideas of plurality and diversity in our multicultural and multiethnic society; such ideas and ideals are integral to understanding today’s complex global realities. The contributions of people of African descent are considerable human achievements in the areas of literature, philosophy, science, music, politics, and visual culture. Concentrators in African American and Diaspora Studies go on to pursue Graduate Studies in a variety of fields as well as careers in government, journalism, business, law, K-12 and post-secondary education, engineering and public service.
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