Africana Studies is an interdisciplinary field focused on the experiences and perspectives of African and African descended people across the globe in the past and present. The field recognizes and celebrates the diverse expressions of Blackness and Africanness across the world in terms of religion, language, sexuality and gender, while also recognizing the interconnected and shared struggle for liberation among Africans and African Diasporans in the Americas, Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
Support our Initiatives:
The Africana Studies Program at Xavier is seeking donations to support student-centered programming to recruit new students to join our minor and to help our existing minors build community. The donations will be used in two ways:
1. To expand our Africana Studies reading group, which currently meets annually in the Spring semester. Additional funds would allow us to meet in the Fall semester as well. Funds would be used to purchase books for students and light refreshments for our monthly meetings, as well as a guest speaker who will give a lecture based on the reading group's book of the semester.
2. To help fund our annual Black History Month programming, which includes the African American read-in and the "Diaspora Dialogue" Dinner.
Why we need support:
We do not have a large operations budget, which limits our ability to grow our program and build community with our students. We have recently revised our program requirements to allow for more flexibility in the hopes of recruiting more students to declare the Africana Studies minor. Our goal is to increase our declared minors by 50% within the next three years. Having a more active presence on campus through programming will help us meet our goals.
Thank you for your consideration!