Welcome to the Center for Africana Studies & Race and Social Policy Research at Virginia Tech!
Housed within the Department of Sociology, the Center represents a melding of undergraduate and graduate education with scholarship and outreach. The primary emphasis of our work is to understand race and ethnicity as facets of structure, culture and identity and to ameliorate their negative influences on life chances through effective social policy.
As distinct, but cooperating, elements of the Center, Africana Studies (AFST) and Race and Social Policy (RSP) pursue the Center's purpose through a range of programs and offerings.
Africana Studies
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Undergraduate study
- IDST major
- Africana studies minor
- specializations in African and African American studies
- Graduate study as a concentration in the Sociology M.S. and Ph.D. degree programs
- Offering a graduate certificate in Africana Studies for students not affiliated with the Sociology Department
- Guided by the principles of Scholar Activism
- Pursuing scholarship and teaching through an intersectional lens - recognizing the interplay of race and ethnicity with class, gender, sexuality and other facets of identity and inequality
- Affiliated faculty in the departments of History, English, Foreign Languages, Art and Art History, and Sociology
Race and Social Policy
- Research on topics relevant to understanding the interplay between race, ethnicity and policy
- Welfare reform
- Educational disparities
- Health disparities
- Affirmative Action and diversity
- Segregation
- Outreach and partnership efforts involving state, county, and local government, nonprofit and civic organizations, and schools
- Christiansburg Institute
- Voices/Choices initiative in Martinsville and Henry County, Virginia (in cooperation with the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at UVa)
- Offering a graduate certificate for students enrolled at the Blacksburg campus
- Race and Social Policy Lecture Series
- Coordinating research and obtaining funding for projects involving affiliated faculty
Participants at the Voices/Choices Community
Forum held at Patrick Henry CC in Henry County
Please explore our site to see what we have to offer. We hope the information provided here gives you a sense of the capacities of the Center, and will lead you to consider joining our endeavors. If you have any questions or suggestions, please use the links above or below to access our contact information.
Student Spotlight
Lawrence "Jahi" Johnson - Each month we will highlight one of the graduate students associated with the Center. Jahi, a Chicago native, is enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Sociology. His research interests center around African American leadership. Jahi is also one of the Center's graduate assistants for this academic year.
