Yale Embraces The Black Diaspora With New Black Studies Department

Yale University’s African American Studies department has formally changed its name to Black Studies.

The new moniker comes 55 years after the department’s founding and years of internal discussion. The decision stemmed from a process begun in the 2022-23 academic year under then-chair Phillip Atiba Solomon. Critics of the original name argued it was U.S.-centric and too narrow to cover the department’s research in Brazil, the Caribbean, and West Africa.

Erica Edwards, chair of the newly renamed department, told the Yale Daily News that the name better encompasses the entire African diaspora, not just the United States.

“We study the lives and histories and movements and creative expressions of Black people around the world wherever they are, not just in North America and not even just in the Americas,” Edwards said.

Elleza Kelley, director of undergraduate studies, said the name shift affirms “commitment to the study of Black life, history, and culture beyond the continental United States.”

Faculty hires in recent years have reinforced the focus on professors whose scholarship centers on Haiti, Brazil, and diasporic art practices.

Some students have expressed optimism, though also caution, about whether the name will signal deeper institutional change or remain symbolic.

Professor Kaiama Glover, who researches anti-Black state violence in Brazil, remarked that the former name “conjured … something fairly U.S.-centric” in people’s minds.

Other institutions have also embraced the broadening of the discipline. In 2024, Georgetown changed the name of its department from “African American Studies” to “Black Studies.” Although the name has changed, internal administrative elements remain. The department’s course code is still “AFAM,” and Yale plans to host a panel commemorating Yale’s 1968 Black Studies in the University symposium on Oct. 27.

Yale’s website now describes the department’s mission as exploring “the experiences of people of African descent in Black Atlantic societies, including the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America.”

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