Department of Black Studies

In the fall of 1968, Black students from UCSB joined with the national civil rights movement to end racial segregation and the systematic exclusion of African American studies from the curriculum of major universities by occupying North Hall in protest. Their demands were accepted and thus started the Department of Black Studies. Since then the Department of Black Studies has served as an academic hub for Black scholarship, supporting Black students and staff interested in the study of Black life. We assume a matrix model, bringing together scholars from an array of disciplines concerned with the Black Diaspora (the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean), as well as Africa. The Department enrolls four thousand students each year and offers for its undergraduate majors an honors program that provides year long engagement with original research.

Meet the Team