Graduate Program Home

Since its establishment in 1975, the Master of Arts Program of the Department of African American and African Studies has endeavored to stimulate teaching and research about the Black experience in the United States, Africa and throughout the African Diaspora. This experience is examined not only in the context of its uniqueness, but also in its complexity and diversity, as well as in its dynamism across cultures, space and time. Towards this end, the Program maintains an international core faculty, and associated faculty from a wide range of academic units throughout The Ohio State University, committed to interdisciplinary thinking about the role of "race" in human behavior and relations within a global context, about how "race" interacts with class, gender and nation, and about the critical relationship between theory and practice.

Particularly distinctive in the program is the African American and African Studies Department Community Extension Center, located in the heart of the historically Black community in Columbus, Ohio. Through a variety of projects sponsored by the Center graduate students have the opportunity to participate in community-based learning, research and service. The Department also has one of the largest African languages programs in the country that provides study-abroad opportunities for interested students.

The Master of Arts degree in African American and African Studies prepares students for further studies in discipline-based Ph.D. programs with specialization in any aspect of the Black experience, as well as in professional programs like law and education. Graduates of the program have gone to pursue careers in public policy and administration, social work, international relations, and in a wide range of agencies and organizations that address issues and concerns related to racial inequities within the United States of America, to the economic and political welfare of the Africana World.

For further information on the Graduate Program, you may contact:

Graduate Studies Committee
Department of African American and African Studies
The Ohio State University
486 University Hall
230 North Oval Mall
Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Phone: 614-292-3570
Fax: 614-292-2293
E-mail Address: aaasmail@osu.edu