Department of African & African American Studies

Welcome to the Department of African and African American Studies (DAAAS) - the first ethnic studies program developed at Stanford University and the first African and African American Studies program at a private institution in the U.S.

DAAAS students study Blackness through the lens of art, language, literature, politics, religion, dance, history, music, poetry, and comparative analyses. Black Studies was founded out of community demand, and so, our students also engage in community engaged learning opportunities to continue with this meaningful tradition. The AAAS Department offers three tracks for students in African American Studies, African Studies, and Global Black Diaspora Studies. 

DAAAS promotes an understanding of  how history informs the present and inspires an engagement with the past in order to collectively dream a more just and equitable future. Our faculty, staff, and students value the interrelated nature of the personal and the political and aim to create a community that allows for intellectual and personal flourishing.