2024-2025 Catalog

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Overview

Black Studies at Occidental College provides a transnational and transdisciplinary perspective on the history, scholarship, arts and culture of the African diaspora. Students of Black Studies learn to examine the world and their local communities with an eye to Black people's important and sometimes overlooked contributions, and to understand the ways the experiences of people of African descent have shaped and continue to inform campaigns for justice and human rights.

Emphasizing the enduring traditions of scholarship, activism, and community throughout the African diaspora, the program of study encourages students to examine the ways that class, geographic location, gender and sexuality have shaped Black identities, cultural productions and forms of political engagement across the diaspora in both the past and present, and understand how such considerations are critical for future possibilities.

Students who major in Black Studies will:

  • Learn about the history and contemporary cultures of people of African descent across the diaspora, including the development of foundational ideas and documents for our contemporary understanding of social justice and human rights;

  • Engage in transdisciplinary and intersectional analysis of Black communities in the U.S. and abroad, both past and present;

  • Contribute to longstanding discussions about the enduring effects of slavery and colonization, the place of race in conceptions of citizenship and justice, the centrality of people of African descent to major developments (social, artistic, political and scientific) throughout the world;

  • Experience Black communities outside the United States through study abroad;

  • Have the opportunity to get involved in the local community through community-based partnerships in Los Angeles and surrounding communities;

  • Graduate prepared for careers in law, medicine, education, entertainment, international business, and several others that involve communicating with and understanding people across differences and within specific communities.