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Undergraduate Program

The mission of the Department of African-American Studies is to provide an intellectual arena in which students learn to critically examine, analyze, and interpret the experiences, traditions, and dynamics of people of African descent. The Department's guiding philosophy is African-centered in that we believe that the specific cultural and historical experiences of African people must inform and guide research, analysis, interpretation, and action involving African peoples.

The Department offers a broad selection of courses addressing historical, cultural, sociological, political, economic, and psychological factors that affect the lives of African peoples. The curriculum stresses the skills necessary to think critically, write clearly, argue persuasively, and problem solve effectively. Students are exposed to theory and research in a variety of subject matter and are encouraged to engage in active service and research beyond the classroom. The Temple Undergraduate Research Forum (TURF), founded in African-American Studies in 1994, is now a college-wide conference that gives outstanding undergraduate students the opportunity to present their own research to a forum of peers, family, faculty, and friends.

The goal of the department of African-American Studies is to prepare its majors and minors to take roles of effective agency, participation, and leadership in the intellectual, research, and social activist domains of professional and community life. Temple's African-American Studies majors are represented in such diverse career arenas as law, primary and secondary education and administration, social work, medicine, cultural and artistic institutions, law enforcement, and city government.