BA Black Studies

Welcome to UIC’s department of Black Studies! Black Studies takes as its analytic starting point the lived experiences and community formations of Black people across the African diaspora, including Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. We place our in-depth analyses of Black people in critical conversation with those of other communities, recognizing the need to understand both parallels and divergences.

Black Studies uses robust multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to studying complex social problems and recognizes the importance of generating insights from beyond a single disciplinary perspective. Core and affiliated faculty in Black Studies hail from a variety of fields, including English, Political Science, History, Sociology, Performance Studies, Gender Studies, and Anthropology.