The Department of Afro-American Studies has a two-fold mission a) providing quality undergraduate instruction from the general perspective of the social sciences b) and contributing to the understanding and resolution of the inherent experience, conditions and culture of communities of color in North America and the Caribbean.

The goals of the Department are to:

• present to undergraduates a curriculum which will facilitate their understanding of the various political, social and cultural forces shaping the  Black Experience;

• provide students with opportunities to study some of the major problems confronting blacks in the Western hemisphere; 

• explore the context in which the presence of  Blacks enriched the general social and economic orders of the U.S. and the Caribbean;

• assist in the preparation of students for graduate and professional careers and for leadership roles in the American and global communities.