University of Connecticut |Message from the Director
Since its establishment in 1989, the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut (IAAS) has developed and overseen teaching, research, and cultural programs that focus on the African American experience. Over the past 20 years, IAAS has provided the University and the larger community with an enriched and diversified educational experience and environment, while actively promoting its conviction that the culture and history of African Americans must be recognized, validated, supported and studied as an important part of the American story and the greater human heritage.
The mission of IAAS is to enlighten and inform the University of Connecticut community and the people of the state of Connecticut, the nation and the world about the heritage, struggles, and aspirations of people of African descent in the United States, while advancing the highest quality research and teaching of African American studies. The IAAS seeks to develop a strong, viable academic program that focuses on African American studies from interdisciplinary perspectives and through three interrelated spheres of activity: teaching, research, and cultural programming.
IAAS administers an interdisciplinary major and minor concentration in African American Studies that provides university students with an understanding and appreciation of the heritage, culture, contributions, experiences, socioeconomic conditions and political life of people of African descent. This program familiarizes students with the issues that African Americans have faced, and continue to face, in the United States. It also prepares them for careers in numerous different fields as well as further studies in fields such as pshychology, political science, history, the humanities, art, theatre, sociology, music and language studies. Our majors go on to pursue career paths in diplomacy, administration, teaching, the creative arts, civil service and politics while taking with them a world of information, preparation, and deeper understanding and appreciation of the history and role of African Americans in America and the world.
Our faculty are nationally and internationally renowned scholars and practitioners whose specializations include popular culture, the history of African American music from the blues to hip-hop, Black psychology, the history of the Civil Rights movement, race and society, Black women in American history, Afro-Caribbean history and culture, African American art and literature, and many others. Many of them have authored critical and widely recognized books on African American history and the Black Experience. Some are highly sought national commentators on television and the media.
IAAS also hosts general tours of the Storrs campus for elementary and secondary school students. These tours include meetings with University students, faculty, staff, IAAS Advisory Board members, and classroom visits. Visits have successfully encouraged young people to make a commitment to pursue a college education, and to consider attending the University of Connecticut.
In addition to its academic component, IAAS has a public outreach program and continues to develop a strong network between state and city governmental officials, community leaders, and the University community. Our visiting speakers program, Critical Issues, has brought to campus a long list of eminent speakers ranging from Cornel West to Spike Lee, to speak to our students and engage in positive exchanges with the university and larger community. Our annual national conferences also bring to campus dozens of prominent scholars and community activists to discuss issues of national and international importance that affect the lives of African Americans.
Through our programs and workshops IAAS has become a positive link between the academy and the Black community as well as the larger New England region, while serving as an active participant in addressing the most critical issues facing African Americans today. We hope you will pay us a visit, or better still, join us at IAAS in exploring our history, our heritage, and our unique destiny.
Dr. Olu Oguibe
Professor of Art, Art History, and African American Studies
Interim Director