Kent State University’s Department of Pan-African Studies will be renamed the Department of Africana Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, effective Fall 2021, Kent Wired reported.
“The material being taught in the department of Africana Studies captures the history, culture and experiences of those on the continent of Africa but it also captures the experiences of African Americans and Africans in the Caribbeans,” Kumah-Abiwu said. “The only difference is the name.”
“Africana Studies represents the multi-disciplinary focus we bring to the study of the ways of life of the global community of Africans and peoples of African descent,” said Dr. Mwatabu Okantah, interim chair for the department of Pan-African studies. “Our new name reflects both the history, as well as the forward direction of what began as the discipline of Black studies.”
