The interdisciplinary program in African American Studies at USC was established in 1971 to broaden the University's curricular offerings to include analysis of the many aspects of African American experience including social, political, religious, artistic, intellectual, and historical.

Much has changed in the world since 1971. The intervening decades have brought a massive and still-growing body of new scholarship on the life and culture of peoples of African descent in the western world. Increasing public interest in the African American experience has spurred radical changes in popular culture and American society. Greater awareness of black intellectual traditions has enriched current studies. More extensive access to scholarship across the African Diaspora has reconfigured the possibilities for all black scholars.

These changes are evident in increased student demand for courses about African American and African Diaspora life and meaning. Today students of diverse ethnic backgrounds are attracted to the study of another aspect of the American experience. Most often, better-prepared students are those who have knowledge of African American cultures. With enhances job opportunities in the corporate world, the public service arena, and public school education.

Program Goals

Second is the responsibility to implement an academic program and policies in such a way as to enhance research about African-American and African Diaspora peoples through teaching, research, and service.

With these principles, the University of South Carolina's African American Studies Program aims to provide exciting, rigorous, interdisciplinary, and thorough analysis into the many aspects of the lives of black people.

William H. Johnson