UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A proposal to reunite the Department of African American Studies and the African Studies Program in the Penn State College of the Liberal Arts into a single academic unit — the Department of Africana Studies — has been approved by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost after receiving the endorsement of University Faculty Senate and faculty in the respective units. Penn’s State Board of Trustees also was informed of the reunification during its May 7-8 meeting.
“This is a pivotal next step for Penn State and our college to take to strengthen the interdisciplinary study of Africa and people of African descent as a critical component of a liberal arts education,” said Clarence Lang, Susan Welch Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts. “The reunification heightens our ability to solidify the academic and scholarly interconnections between African and African American Studies and build on the complexities that a unified field can advance. It also aligns our approach with those taken being taken by our counterparts in the Big Ten and elsewhere and better positions us as leaders in the field in terms of student success and faculty productivity.”
The reunification comes after an extensive and inclusive consultative process that sought input from core and affiliate faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, and administrative staff from both units. A joint African Studies/African American Studies Reunification Task Force, which included officers from both units and was chaired by Amy Allen, the college’s associate dean for faculty affairs and advancement, conducted a survey and held multiple listening sessions with stakeholders from both units before submitting its recommendations to Lang.
While the creation of the new Department of Africana Studies officially takes effect July 1, it will take approximately two years for the reunification to be completed. Work on creating and adopting the department’s bylaws, administrative and committee structure, promotion and tenure guidelines, and strategic plan will begin July 1 under the guidance of Sinfree Makoni, Liberal Arts Professor of African Studies and Applied Linguistics and current director of the African Studies Program, who will serve as the inaugural head of the department.
Work on the new department’s curriculum will take place over the next year as well in the hopes of having it reviewed and approved by the Faculty Senate in time for the start of the 2027-28 academic year.
“It’s important to note that any current undergraduate or graduate students pursuing degrees in African Studies or African American Studies will not be adversely affected by this transition,” Lang said. “They will be able to complete their respective degrees under the terms of their current programs."