Centering the experiences of people of African descent across time and geography, the Department of African Diaspora Studies explores the histories, cultural expressions, social formations, political struggles, and contemporary lived realities of African diasporic communities. Drawing on theories and methods from Black, pan-Africanist, Africana, and Black feminist intellectual traditions, we critically examine the systems and structures that produce and sustain Blackness, and how race intersects with other dimensions of social life—such as gender, class, sexuality, labor, caste, and ability. Our curriculum and co-curricular programming cultivate spaces for engaging the rich, multiform expressions of memory, resistance, joy, and future-making. We employ a range of interdisciplinary approaches to interrogate dominant epistemologies and critique the ways disciplinary canons have historically constructed, distorted, or excluded knowledge about Africa, its diaspora, and the broader non-Western world.
The faculty of Grinnell College voted unanimously in April 2023 to create the Department of African Diaspora Studies. Since that time, with support from our alumni community, Thabiti Willis, Ph.D., the inaugural occupant of the Kesho Scott Endowed Chair in African Diaspora Studies, joined the Grinnell faculty to lead a collaborative process of building the new department. Willis is currently working with the department’s advisory board and partners across campus to develop a curriculum and major. The department began offering courses in the spring of 2025, with a goal of having the major available to students by the 2027–28 academic year.
