Studying the African Diaspora and African American History at Northwestern University

The History Department, African American Studies, and African Studies have together assembled an outstanding roster of distinguished senior scholars and innovative young scholars working on all aspects of the black diaspora. Building on Northwestern's historic standing as the premier African history program in the United States thanks to our pioneering and unrivaled Herskovits Library of African Studies, we have in recent years hired new faculty at all levels in African American history, African history, Afro-Caribbean history and Latin American history. They work in varied subfields: history of pre-colonial Africa, history of slavery, women's history, black social and political history, history of religion, empire and anti-colonialism, comparative race and ethnicity, cultural history, and other diasporas. In 2004-05, Northwestern inaugurated a new Center for African American History that will support faculty and graduate student research and sponsor lectures, symposia, and other events.

In addition, our students can take advantage of outstanding faculty in the related disciplines of Anthropology, English, Law, Political Science, Religion, Performance Studies, Sociology, and Theater who have joint appointments with African American Studies and African Studies. Northwestern students have easy access to the vast resources of the Chicago area for research in the African Diaspora and African American history: among them the Chicago Historical Society, the DuSable Museum, the Harsch Collection, and the Newberry Library (see below for links). Northwestern's Institute for Policy Research also sponsors research, lectures, and seminars on related public policy matters.

Among the History and African American Studies faculty who work in these areas are: Henry Binford, Martha Biondi, T.H. Breen, Sherwin Bryant, Brodwyn Fischer, Jonathon Glassman, Darlene Clark Hine, Tessie Liu, Kate Masur, Dylan Penningroth, David Schoenbrun, and Ji-Yeon Yuh.

See also, at Northwestern:

• African American Studies
• Center for African American History
• Institute for Policy Research
• Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies
• Program of African Studies

In Chicago:

• The Chicago Historical Society
• The DuSable Museum of African American History
• The Newberry Library
• The Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature