Committed to Excellence

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.

Black Studies students should be able to write using various disciplinary frameworks to place Black life, experiences, and culture at the center of their analyses or to interrogate societal dynamics that shape and are shaped by Black life and culture.  To do this, our students’ writing might include personal narratives, formal essays, or theoretical discourses.  Our aim is to support students in selecting the mode of written expression and developing the tools to utilize those modes of expression in ways that reveal, articulate, and analyze Black life and culture and the relevant dynamics of society.

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.

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 education, business, social services, urban development and postgraduate education in professional programs such as: law, seminary, educational policy and leadership, clinical psychology, social work, etc.