Wake Forest University Program in African American Studies renamed Program in African American and African Studies
by Site Administrator
Wake Forest University’s Program in African American Studies is now the Program in African American and African Studies, marking a significant milestone in the program’s continued evolution and affirming its commitment to the interdisciplinary study of Africa, the African diaspora, and African American life, thought, and culture.
The name change reflects the evolution of the discipline and formally brings together the Program in African American Studies and Wake Forest’s African Studies minor, creating a unified academic home for the comprehensive and integrated study of Africa, the African diaspora, and African American life.
Corey D. B. Walker, Dean of Wake Forest University School of Divinity, Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities, and Founding Director of the Program in African American and African Studies
“The new name reflects the intellectual breadth and global scope of the discipline and Wake Forest University’s enduring commitment to academic excellence, interdisciplinary innovation, and our motto, Pro Humanitate – for humanity,” said Corey D. B. Walker, Dean of Wake Forest University School of Divinity, Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities, and founding director of the program. “African American and African Studies is essential to understanding our interconnected world and the human experience. By bringing African American Studies and African Studies together in a single academic home, we fully embrace the discipline’s expansive intellectual vision while advancing an ambitious agenda for scholarship, teaching, and public engagement that positions us among the nation’s premier programs.”
Founded in 2021, the Program in African American Studies has rapidly emerged as a vibrant center for teaching, research, and public engagement. The program has developed an innovative curriculum that equips students to examine the histories, cultures, politics, philosophies, religions, literatures, and artistic traditions of Africans and people of African descent while engaging some of the most pressing challenges facing society.
Grounded in Wake Forest University’s distinctive teacher-scholar tradition, the Program in African American and African Studies will continue to expand opportunities for innovative teaching, transformative research, and engaged public scholarship, preparing students to lead with intellectual imagination, ethical purpose, and a global perspective in an increasingly interconnected world.
For more information about the Program in African American and African Studies, visit afam.wfu.edu.
