The Center for African and African American Studies is Rice’s primary location for curriculum and research related to Africa and to people of African descent in the Americas and beyond. Offering a broad base for teaching and pedagogical resources as well as interdisciplinary scholarship and programming that brings Rice into national and international conversations, the center is a clearinghouse for critical conversation, instruction, cutting-edge research and community outreach in an interdisciplinary fashion.

A collaboration between the School of Humanities and the School of Social Sciences, the center produces synergies and harnesses collaborative engagement across the university. The center provides a unique hub for conversations on crucial topics: critical approaches to race and racism, the nature of diasporic histories and identities, and the complexity of Africa’s past, present and future, to name a few.