FIFTY YEARS OF AFRICANA STUDIES AT WILLIAMS COLLEGE
During the 2018-2019 academic year, Williams College will commemorate 50 years of Africana Studies, an interdisciplinary field of study that emerged during the 1960s Freedom Movements, and that expands our knowledge of the vast experiences of people of Africa and the African Diaspora. Founded in 1969 as Afro-American Studies in the aftermath of student action and protest, the Department of Africana Studies at Williams College will celebrate the institutionalization of Black Studies on campus while also recognizing the ways that, even in the rural hills of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Black Lives have always and continue to matter.
Through intentional, critical reflection on the intersections of the past, the present and the future, the Department of Africana Studies has developed a year-long series of events to commemorate AFR50, and many in collaboration with other campus partners including The Davis Center (who celebrates 30 years at Williams in 2018), Special Collections, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, Alumni Relations, and the W. Ford Schumann Faculty Fellow in Democratic Studies.
Many of these events will be open to the public. For more information, see https://africana-studies.williams.edu, https://events.williams.edu, or contact Greg Shook, Director of Media Relations.
Main Social Nav