Mission Statement

The central mission of the Department of African American Studies (AFRO) at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is to:

• enrich the lives of individuals and transform society through the creation of new knowledge about the experiences, perspectives, and interests of African descended people;
• promote excellence in teaching and research in order to produce a new generation of leadership that is grounded in Black/Africana Studies and committed to public engagement to meet the continuing challenges of a diverse democratic society; and
• foster discourse to stimulate domestic public policy along with more global policies aimed at achieving social justice.