Black Studies Major

Sample Courses

  • Black Humanities
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Intro to Black Studies

Popular Electives

  • African American Voting and Politics
  • Black Cinema
  • Black Masculinities
  • Connections in Film: Black Queer Cinema
  • Food, Nutrition, and Health
  • Major Authors: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Race, Racism, and the Black Experience in the Americas
  • Read, Eat, Subvert: Twentieth-Century Black Poetry
  • Sustainability and Literature: Black Ecopoetics

Recent Student Conferences & Fellowships

  • Huron University’s International Undergraduate Conference on Race and Anti-Slavery Activism
  • COPLAC NE Regional Undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity Conference
  • Rochester Urban Fellowships

Alumni Spotlight

Steph C. Iasiello '12, PhD

Majors: Black Studies; English Literature

Career: Iasiello is pursuing a JD at Georgia State University College of Law. In addition to working as a graduate assistant for the GSU Prison Education Project, they have also helped to develop GSU's Street Law program as a means to continue their social justice and advocacy work.

Black Studies Major

Why study Black studies at Geneseo?

The major is designed for students who want to understand why Black lives matter from an interdisciplinary standpoint. Our country is dealing with the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow, confronting the devastation of mass incarceration, and understanding recent events in the light of white supremacy. Students are looking for ways to act, challenge, and organize, and student activists and students of color often turn to Black studies faculty for allies, information, support, and a sense of belonging.

By working closely with faculty advisors, students design an individualized program of courses and internship experiences, drawing knowledge from the humanities, the sciences and social sciences, the arts, and other fields that will help prepare them to face the challenges of living in an increasingly global and diverse world.

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Program Options

Additional Options

Program Highlights

  • Black studies faculty, courses, and programming are central to Geneseo's priority to become a non-racist campus
  • Regularly offered courses include Black Lives Matter; Black Humanities: The 1619 Project; The History of Black Joy; and Hip Hop, which features an annual symposium
  • Performance as Social Change is a microcredential program for students interested in exploring the critical role arts-based performances play in facilitating and advancing social change
  • The department has a strong tradition of study abroad: Ghana, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Brazil, Cuba, Oxford, London, Iceland, and Madagascar
  • Geneseo has connections with Kwame Nkrumah University in Ghana and recently hosted Ghanaian scholars

Example Careers

  • Community Organizer
  • Government Professional
  • Lawyer
  • Psychologist
  • Public Interest Advocate
  • Public Relations Manager
  • Social Worker
  • Teacher or Professor

Recent Employers

  • Active Plus, Inc.
  • Amnesty International
  • The City College Urban Scholars Program
  • ESL Federal Credit Union
  • MadameNoire Online Magazine

Recent Grad Schools

  • Emory University
  • The Graduate College, North Carolina A&T State University
  • Nazareth College

Contact Info

Cathy Adams, Co-coordinator & Associate Professor of History
adamssc@geneseo.edu
Doty Hall 208A
585-245-5724

Maria Helena Lima, Co-coordinator & Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Lima@geneseo.edu
Welles Hall 225A
585-245-5242

Black Studies

Black Studies Faculty

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