Academics
Source: https://africana.cornell.edu/academics Parent: https://africana.cornell.edu/support-asrc
Explore the centrality of Africa and the African Diaspora to the modern world
Academics
In Africana studies, you’ll have the chance to explore the centrality of Africa and the African Diaspora to the modern world and previous eras in the fields of literature, history, philosophy, international relations, cultural studies, music and the visual arts.
Explore Africana Studies Academics
ASRC 3507 African American Literature Through the 1930's
One way to think of African American literature is to recognize that certain themes and motifs recur and tell a story that one can study across time from slavery to freedom. Solid literacies in this field not only provide valuable interpretive contexts for analyzing various aspects of African American and diasporan life and culture, but can reinforce work in a range of other fields, from Africana studies to American literature. Additionally, they reinforce skills in reading and analysis of literature, as well as writing, that will pay off now and as time goes on.
We will examine selections from authors in African American literary history from the 18th century into the 1930s. Authors who will be examined include Phillis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, David Walker, Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Wilson, Charles Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, James Weldon Johnson, Jean Toomer, Nella Larsen, and Langston Hughes.
Instructor: Riche Richardson (rdr83)
ASRC 4602 Women and Gender Issues in Africa
There are two contrasting views of the status and role of women in Africa. One view portrays African women as controlled by men in all social institutions. Another view projects women as having a relatively favorable position in indigenous societies they were active with an identity independent of men's and no concentration of women in a private sphere while men controlled the public sphere. This course examines critical gender theories and women in historical and contemporary periods. The topics covered include: non-westernized/pre-colonial societies; the impact and legacy of colonial policies; access to education and knowledge; women in politics and the economy in local and global contexts; women's organizations; armed conflicts and peace; same gender love and evolving family values; the law and health challenges; the United Nations and World Conferences on Women: Mexico 1975, Copenhagen 1980, Nairobi 1985, Beijing 1995 and post-Beijing meetings, and the 2010 superstructure of UN Women, and Beijing +20 in 2015 with the UN Women's slogan "Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!"
Instructor: N'Dri Assie-Lumumba (na12)
Africana Studies News
Historical marker commemorates Toni Morrison’s time in Ithaca
2/20/2026
Cornell faculty, staff, students and community members celebrated the 95th birthday of Toni Morrison, M.A. ’55, by unveiling a new historical marker in front of 513 N. Albany St., where she lived while in graduate school.
CAU Summer Courses: From wine pairings to town-gown history
2/06/2026
Registration is now open for the two sessions of weeklong offerings, with the option to stay in a newly renovated Balch Hall
Nigeria's Tinubu 'should be commended' for accepting US counterterrorism assistance, says Cornell expert
2/05/2026
Olúfémi Táíwò, professor of Africana studies, shares insight into Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu's deployment of an army battalion to central Kwara state after suspected jihadist fighters killed at least 170 people on Tuesday night, hours after the United States said it had a small number of troops in the country.
Composer Michael Abels, famous for work on Jordan Peele films, to visit March 6-7
2/04/2026
Events include film screenings, panel discussions and a concert by the Barbara & Richard T. Silver Wind Symphony.
How music galvanized the fight for civil rights
1/15/2026
Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches tapped into a Black musical tradition that animated the Civil Rights Movement, says Ambre Dromgoole, assistant professor of Africana religions and music.
Combining humanities and tech for research gains
11/07/2025
An interdisciplinary project is sparking collaborations among those interested in digital approaches to the study of history, languages and culture.
Redbones and racial nuance in Louisiana Lumber War
11/05/2025
Klarman Fellow Kendall Artz wants to push beyond the assumption – one replicated by scholars – that company rosters and state records hold all there is to know about racial expression.
Medical anthropologist to deliver annual Society for Humanities lecture
11/04/2025
Stacey Langwick, associate professor of anthropology in the College of Arts & Sciences, will speak on "Healing in a Toxic World: Reimagining the Times and Spaces of the Therapeutic."
Upcoming Africana Events
Mar
11
Wednesday
12:00 AM
Wunpini Mohammed, "Media, Culture and Decolonization: Re-righting the Subaltern Histories of Ghana"
Goldwin Smith Hall G22
Mar
19
Thursday
05:00 PM
Claude McKay: The Wanderings of a Rebellious Poet
Goldwin Smith Hall HEC Auditorium, room 132
Mar
24
Tuesday
04:45 PM
Amiel Bize, "The Post-Agrarian Question”
Klarman Hall KG 42
Apr
14
Tuesday
05:00 PM
Pop after Empire: Disco, Decolonization, and the Re-Making of Europe's Pop Music Industry
A. D. White House Guerlac Room
May
22
Friday
12:00 AM
University Commencement Weekend
Schoellkopf Field
May
23
Saturday
12:00 AM
University Commencement Weekend
Schoellkopf Field