Dr. Toni King and Dr. Jerrell Beckham share a "Poetic Tribute" to student, faculty and staff at the Spring Senior Symposium.

The Black Studies Program invites students to investigate the Black experience as it manifests itself in Africa, North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, and in other parts of the African diaspora.

While the program's primary focus is the study of the Black experience in North America, fundamental to this enterprise is a recognition of the triangular relationship between Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as the United States.

Mission Statement
The Black Studies Center is committed to excellence in education, service and research. As an academic unit, the Center is dedicated to providing an interdisciplinary Black Studies Program designed to investigate the Black experience in the United States, Africa and the Caribbean. This program draws on the expertise of faculty members in all four academic divisions of the College humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and the fine arts. It encourages teaching across disciplines and academic divisions. It is consistent with the liberal arts philosophy of exploring issues fundamental to the development of a broadly educated person and the creation of a humane spirit.

The center offers majors in Black Studies a rigorous and broad approach to the discipline, which includes a comprehensive background in Black American history and literature. Majors are expected to acquire a grasp of significant literature on race and gender issues and to think critically about the Black experience and related fields of knowledge.

The Black Studies Center has a well established tradition and commitment to providing a range of services to the University and the broader community. It is a resource center open to the University and the Granville-Newark communities. It encourages other academic units to develop Black Studies related courses and to integrate Black Studies material into existing courses. It supports the University in promoting multiculturalism.

The Center is dedicated to stimulating research among faculty and students. While faculty members affiliated with the Center are engaged in their own studies, the Center encourages cross-disciplinary collaborative research. It creates forums and seminars on critical Black issues and provides mechanisms by which faculty, students and guest lecturers share knowledge and exchange ideas.

The Black Studies Major and Minor
The program seeks to serve the general needs of the college by providing course offerings across the full range of academic divisions. At the same time, it is designed to meet the specialized interests of students through an interdisciplinary major and minor. Therefore, many appropriate courses are found under the rubric of other departments.

A Black studies major must fulfill a minimum of 32 credit hours including the following requirements:

• Three core courses in Black studies: Introduction to Black Studies, Ethnic Literature, and The History of Blacks in America
• One course in Women's Studies
• One course whose primary subject matter is Africa or the Caribbean or Latin America
• A senior research project.

A Black studies minor must fulfill a minimum of 24 credit hours including the following requirements:

• Three core courses in Black studies: Introduction to Black Studies, Ethnic Literature, and The History of Blacks in America
• One course in women's studies
• One course whose primary subject matter is Africa or the Caribbean or Latin America
• A senior research project as a directed study.

Honors Graduate DiTalliana Patterson enjoys the program.

Student Research
The senior research project should be designed in consultation with the director of the Center for Black Studies. Field research or field experience may comprise a portion of the senior research project. A wide range of field opportunities in local Black communities is available to students through the Center for Black Studies.

What do Black Studies Majors do After Denison?
A liberal arts education allows our graduates to go on to many varied careers. Many continue on to teaching, business and postgraduate education in professional programs.

Who Are Our Professors?
The Black studies curriculum is administered by a faculty committee and the director of the Center for Black Studies. This committee reviews and approves the educational plans developed by majors and minors in consultation with the director of the Center for Black Studies.

• John L. Jackson: Director and Associate Professor of Black Studies ( B.S. degree from Miles College; M. Div. Harvard Divinity School; Ph.D. from Ohio State University).Teaches: Introduction to Black Studies; and Black Religion and Black Theology, Rebellion, Resistance and Black Religion.
• Suzanne Condray: Associate Professor of Communication (B.A. East Texas Baptist College, M. A., Colorado State U., Ph.D. Louisiana State University). Teaches: Gender,Race and the Media.
• Susan Diduk: Associate Professor of Sociology/Anthropology (B.A. College of William and Mary; M.A., University of London, U.K.; M. A. , Ph.D., Indiana University). Teaches: The Cross Cultural Study of Art and People & Culture of Sub-Saharan Africa, Hunger in Africa.
• Toni C. King: Associate Provost (B. A. Oklahoma State University, M.A. The Ohio State University, Ph.D. Case Western University). Teaches: Introduction to Black Studies, Black Women and Organizational Leadership, and Black Women’s Lives: Autobiography as Protest (FYS)..
• Linda Krumholz: Associate Professor and Lorena Woodrow Burke Chair of English (B.A., Reed College; M.A., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison). Teaches: Ethnic Literature, African-American Women’s Literature, The Harlem Renaissance, Narratives of Black America.
• Donald G. Schilling: Professor of History (B.A., DePauw University; M.A., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin) Teaches: History of Southern Africa.
• Anita Waters: Associate Professor of Sociology/Anthropology (B.A. Mary Washington College; M.A., M. Phil., Ph.D., Columbia University) Teaches: Race and Ethnicity, Cultural Identity and Politics in Caribbean Society
• Joanna Grabski: Associate Professor and Chair, Art History (B.A., 1992, M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (2000) Indiana University. Teaches: African Art and Visual Culture, Representing African Art on Film, Arts of Post Colonial Africa, Visual Life in African Cities.
• Mitchell Snay: Associate Professor of History, B.A., University of Michigan, Ph.D. Brandeis University. Teaches: History of the American South.
• Veerendra Lele: Assistant Professor, Sociology/Anthropology . A.B. from Cornell University, an M.A. from Georgetown University, an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, and was awarded his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University. Teaches: Race and Ethnicity.
• Lauren Araiza: Instructor/Asst. Professor of History (B.A. degree from Williams College: M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) Teaches: African-American history, the Civil Rights Movement, the American West and post-1865 U.S. history.
• Tina D. Pierce: Visiting Asst. Professor of Black Studies and Women’s Studies (B.A., M.A, and Ph.D., The Ohio State University). Teaches: Intro to Black Studies, Urban Politics, Black Politics
• Philip Misevich: Assistant Professor of History (Ph.D, Emory University) Teaches: Pre-Colonial Africa and Modern African surveys, Southern African History, African and Atlantic Slave Trade.
• Jerrell Beckham: Assistant Professor of Education (B.A. Denison University, M.A. and Ph.D. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign). Teaches: Introduction to Black Studies, History of African-American Education.
• Diana A. Mafe: Assistant Professor of English (B.A. McMaster University, M.A. University of Guelph, Ph.D. McMaster University) Teaches: Topics in Black Studies
• Freeda M. Griffith: Assistant Professor of Sociology/Anthropology (B.A. Paine College, M.A., Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania) Teaches: Race and Ethnicity
• Frank “Trey” Proctor: Assistant Professor of History (BA from University of California at Davis, his MA from the University of Arizona, and his PhD from Emory University) Teaches: history of Latin America and the Atlantic World.
• Mark Seamon: Assistant Professor of Theatre (B.A., Notre Dame, M.A., University of Miami, Ohio, Ph.D., The Ohio State University) Teaches: Acting and Directing.