African Diaspora and Transnational Connections

The study of the African American experience is organically related to studies of the wider African Diaspora and Global Africa, of which the past and present trajectories of Black Americans are an integral part. Over the years, some of the department’s faculty and postdoctoral fellows have undertaken various projects that examine the navigation of diasporic landscapes of ethno-racial difference, social inequality, and struggles for the dignity of full humanity. Our research has focused on topics such as: Black teachers of English-as-a-Foreign-Language in South Korea, Black women’s antiracist activism and networks of diasporic solidarity in different parts of the Americas, campaigns to secure self-determining land rights and sustainable agricultural development in Brazil, the history and legacy of the Garvey movement narrated from the vantage point of organizers from the U.S. Midwest, and the transnational flow of hip-hop in popular music spheres in Cuba and Brazil.