African American Studies Department Mission Statement

The Department of African American Studies is an interdisciplinary intellectual community committed to advancing knowledge about Black people in the United States. The department strives to explore the historical meanings and dimensions of cultural identity, power, colonialism, resistance, and freedom, and to explore their implications for contemporary political, social, and cultural expressions of Black identity. We examine the issues affecting Black communities in Orange County and the United States that continue to shape and define Black communities in the post-Civil Rights Era in the United States including Black intra-racial dynamics, gender relations, marriage and family patterns, mixed raced identities, sexuality, creative expression, and hip-hop culture. We aim to transform, serve and connect to Black community partners in Southern California.