The phenomenon known as the "Africana Studies Effect" is gaining growing attention due to its relationship to student engagement on college campuses. The present study includes an examination of twelve empirical studies on the impact of Africana studies on Black students on college campuses. The most prominent features of the impact of…

In an attempt to contribute to the advancement of Africana Studies as a discipline, it is vital that scholars of the field continue to assess the effectiveness of the various departments under the umbrella of Africana Studies. This research explores and assesses the departmental activities of two Africana Studies departments within the California…

This study presents findings from a case study of 18 second- and 1.5-generation West African immigrants. We draw upon notions of elusive culture and indigenous knowledges to highlight participants' complex cultural identities and respond to anti-immigration discourses through positioning West African immigrant students as assets in American…

A paradigm is presented for preparing teachers to develop a broader knowledge and perspective of African American history and culture. The approach was designed to instruct nonminority elementary preservice teachers to begin to acquire the knowledge and understanding of critical aspects of the African-Afro-American history and culture necessary to…

Africentrism is a culturally grounded philosophical perspective that reflects the intellectual traditions of both African and African American culture. Africentrism is understood as an attempt to reclaim a sense of identity, community, and power in the face of Eurocentric cultural hegemony. Four orientations to Africentrism are observed: the…

The visionary social struggle that resulted in the 1954 "Brown v. Board of Education" decision did not take into account the ways ideologically distorted knowledge sustains societal injustice, particularly academic and school knowledge about black history and culture. This delimited vision of equal justice raises a number of questions of…

Although the systematic study of black people is much needed and long overdue, black studies programs as they exist are faced with problems and pressures concerning the way they have been created. Responding to black students demand for such programs, in some cases colleges have acted in haste and neither have recruited well-trained,…