Greetings from the Director

Welcome to the Africana Studies Program at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). On behalf of our affiliated faculty, students, our Africana Studies minors, staff and administrators, we are honored by your interest and desire to find out more about our program and the resources we offer. It is my distinct honor to serve as Director and to work every day alongside committed faculty, administrators, students and staff here at UTC to expand our academic, social and communal reach across this campus and the larger Chattanooga communities we serve. Africana Studies is committed to academic excellence and equipping our students with the necessary tools to succeed in whatever endeavors they pursue. More importantly, we are dedicated to ensuring that our students understand their responsibilities to the larger community and the importance of engaged activist-inspired servant leaderships.

For the past thirty-six years the Africana Studies Program has remained true to its mission of exploring and understanding old and new scholarship and actively engaging in intellectual rigor and debate. We are committed to curricula transformation, maintaining a distinct and collaborative presence in the community, involvement in public policy matters, and training special research attention upon questions and issues arising and radiating first and foremost from the Black experience.

As such, Africana Studies operates in the spirit of Chattanooga’s Mrs. Mary Hardway Walker, Mr. James R. Mapp, Dr. Horace Traylor, Mr. Randolph Miller, and the 1960 Howard High School student activists. We stand in the spirit of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, Pan-Africanist John Henrik Clarke, NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Wiley Evers, bibliophile and collector Arturo “Arthur” Schomburg, Civil and Human Rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Angela Davis and other noted academic and community leaders. And in our standing, we shall continue pushing the envelope of knowledge with the expressed purpose of training up the next generation of servant leaders to address problems plaguing the community, the state, the nation and the global society. We fully believe in the value and power of an interdisciplinary education and expose students to a variety of courses, programs and events designed to cultivate student development, expression, and academic and civic engagement.

Through its diverse affiliated faculty and engaging curricula, our program exemplifies multidisciplinary approaches to teaching, scholarship, and learning. Faculty who teach courses related to Africana Studies span the social sciences and humanities. Our courses pull deeply from the wells of History, Political Science, Criminal Justice, Sociology, Anthropology, Religion, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies to Music, Communication, Modern and Classical Languages and Literature and a host of other academic disciplines. Africana Studies listed courses are designed to teach students critical thinking skills, research methodologies, effective writing and speaking and how to craft and defend arguments and ideas. Classes are stimulating, challenging and provide opportunities for students to explore past and current sociopolitical issues. Thus, I am excited to be a part of the mission of the Africana Studies Program and look forward to opportunities to extend its contributions to UTC and the larger communities we link ourselves to.

I maintain an open-door policy and will gladly speak to faculty, colleagues, staff, administrators and students who wish to stop by my office. I am currently located in Patten House room 116 and always look forward to speaking with visitors about the Africana Studies Program. We sincerely hope that you visit Africana Studies soon and that you view our website and social media platforms often for continuous programmatic updates and scheduled events. Welcome again to the Africana Studies Program!