Academics
Major & Curriculum
DPAS major and minor course sequences are structured to provide a grounded familiarity with topics of history, language, philosophy, education, literature, art, music, science, cultural anthropology, and sociology as they relate to peoples of African descent throughout the world. The PAS curriculum includes courses which cover a broad spectrum of the Pan-African experience. The curriculum seeks also to investigate African connections and influences among and with other ethnic groups in the United States and other parts of the Americas, whether Native North Americans and Latino communities in the U.S., or communities in Brazil, Haiti, etc. Study in the Department of Pan African Studies is preparation for a global future with a cultivated understanding of local conditions and challenges. The Department is also a site of lively and empathetic engagement over issues of gender, pressures of LGBT identity in black communities, and other problems and opportunities facing young black men and women in the 21st century.
B.A in Pan-African Studies
Students may choose from four concentrations:
- Community Activism, Strategy and Development
- The Arts in Culture and Society
- Race, Sex, and Gender
- Global and Government Systems
Minors in Pan-African Studies
Students majoring in any field – from Business or Education to the Humanities and Fine and Professional Arts – are encouraged to consider Pan-African Studies as a minor. A minor in Pan-African Studies often enhances the employability of students who major in other fields. Those who take the African Studies or Identity, Globalization and Space minor will find themselves with a competitive advantage in the private sector, particularly in such areas as global health, agricultural processing, information technology, climate study, mineral trades and strong cultural competency skill sets.
The department offers three minors:
- Pan-African Studies, which covers the study of peoples of the Caribbean, the United States and Canada, with selected studies of Africa and other diasporic communities,
- African Studies, which focuses on the study the African continent, with selected studies of diasporic communities of the past and in contemporary times, and a
- Globalization, Identity and Space, which offers students a broad understanding of our global world. In each case, the curriculum addresses the topic of Pan-African frameworks of reading history and culture.
Living-Learning Community
The Ida B. Wells/Atonkwa Village (WAV) is a Living-Learning Community.
Student Groups
Affectionately known as "the House that BUS built," CPAC, today, is the home base for several student groups including:
- Black United Students
- Harambee
- Black & Latino Greek Council
- Voices of Testimony Gospel Choir
- Uhuru Magazine
- National Association of Black Journalists KSU Chapter
- Kent African Student Association
- Native American Student Association
- Black Graduate Student Association
- NAACP
- College Summit
Research
The Institute for African American Affairs is the research arm of the department, also known as IAAA.
AFFILIATed Organizations
The Department of Pan-African Studies is also affiliated with the following organizations: