Department of Africana Studies
Africana Studies is committed to promoting social justice and community engagement that reflect the origins of our interdisciplinary field. Our research critically engages the experiences of people of the African Diaspora across a variety of domains that encompass the human experience. Our undergraduate and graduate programs promote critical thinking, research skills and proficiency in oral and written communication.
The Department of Africana Studies has enriched the intellectual and cultural life on campus and in the Atlanta metropolitan area in several ways:
We have hosted national academic conferences, sponsored lectures, been a model of interdisciplinary collaboration and developing community linkages with such organizations as the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History, Hammond House Galleries and Resource of African American Art, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, The United States Human Rights Network, Project South-Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide and Forever Family (formerly Aid to Children of Imprisoned Mothers). From 2002 to 2011, the department housed the national office of the National Council for Black Studies. Students have won national essay contests and participated in national and international scholarly conferences, as well as hosted informative and stimulating campus programming through its majors and affiliate student organization, Sankofa Society. The department has also incorporated a study abroad program to expand the influence of Africana Studies throughout the Diaspora. A dedicated faculty, outstanding staff and enthusiastic students have propelled the department on to the discipline’s national landscape. Continued faculty, staff and student participation in civic engagement and social justice advocacy remains one of the keystone principles of the Department of Africana Studies.
The Department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University is dedicated to preserving, fostering, and expanding the interdisciplinary study of Black people and all those of African descent. Building on a tradition of academic excellence and social responsibility, we provide critical service to the intellectual community, the larger society and the world.
Creative Media Industries Institute
The Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII) has three core missions:
- to organize advanced technology media and arts training so Georgia State students are prepared to start careers in the entertainment and information industries;
- to build a model to nurture media entrepreneurs; and
- to focus on industry collaboration—especially concentrated on the film and TV production, music industries and game design sectors—to generate research and economic development.
These three missions connect to the new CMII media content creation center and each is the focus of one of its three floors. CMII faculty members have deep and broad experience in the creative industries and they share their knowledge and industry connections with students. Formal partnerships to accomplish CMII goals are set in motion with regional media companies and educational partners, including the Georgia Film Academy.
Educational Policy Studies
It is my pleasure to welcome you to Educational Policy Studies in the College of Education & Human Development at Georgia State University. Now more than ever, we need brilliant minds who are passionate and will persevere at solving this nation’s problems in the field of education. The study of education requires critical thinking and attention to the ways history, economics, culture, politics, racism, sexism, and capitalism, among other factors, intersect to shape a person’s experiences with(in) education, broadly conceived. We use the term broadly conceived because education does not just happen in classrooms. We learn from social interactions, media/popular culture, extracurricular activities and so on. Education extends far beyond the classroom.
In Educational Policy Studies, we endeavor to cultivate educational leaders, researchers and policy analysts who are able to identify, articulate, understand and solve the problems facing our nation’s educational system. Given our university’s location in metro Atlanta, we pay particular attention to the issues facing urban schools and communities as many of our students have learned and/or taught in these communities.
Educational Policy Studies has four units: Educational Leadership, Research, Measurement and Statistics, Social Foundations of Education and Higher Education. Each of these units offers a variety of degrees including Masters, Specialist, Ph.D., Ed.D. and Graduate Certificates. In the units, we teach a variety of research methodologies including qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods and program evaluation. Graduates of our programs often have a direct impact on education in a variety of ways from leading schools/districts, supervising research, evaluating programs, writing policies and teaching students at all levels (including within higher education). Our faculty work closely with students and our small classes allow for one on one attention and mentoring. All of our programs allow flexibility for working students. Depending upon the program, we also encourage interdisciplinary study.
Jennifer Esposito, Ph.D.
Department Chair and Professor
Educational Policy Studies
Intersectionality in the American South
The South is a dynamic place and idea, but it is a space still operating hegemonically out of imposed racialized, gendered, and religious categories, neglecting more nuanced understandings of human identities and experiences. Through the lens of intersectionality, the Georgia State University Collective will explore this dynamic and often contentiously transforming South, unearthing the unspoken and unacknowledged elements that continue to obstruct its effective engagement with the present.
The Georgia State University Collective initiative has been planned for a 42-month duration and organized around the following yearly themes:
- Historical Foundations and Academic Approaches to Intersectionality in the South.
- Southern Intersectionality and Social Justice.
- Science, Technology, and Intersectionalities of Disparity in the Transnational South. Events and programming will be enriched through a podcast, “Stories from the South,” that will provide an avenue for extending conversations beyond the scheduled face-to-face programming.