ANWS - Mission Statement

African-New World Studies embraces the goals of FIU in that the instruction and services the program offers are designed:

to provide an excellent university education while challenging and stimulating students and participants to contribute to the development of their communities' cultural, aesthetic, and political-economic environments
to generate new knowledge and research opportunities within the field of Africana Studies through the support of faculty research, conferences and colloquia
to serve the university’s external community, with special programming of interest and relevance to the diverse population of Southeast Florida

African-New World Studies seeks to foster greater understanding of the experiences of peoples of African descent, internationally.

The African-New World Studies Program is designed for the person who is interested in subjects as diverse as African Civilizations, African Diaspora Popular Culture, Maroon Communities, African Religions, Theories of International Development, Creolization, Africana Literary and Cultural Theory and New World Migrations. The M.A. in African-New World Studies has as its own mission the development of new knowledge through research on African Diaspora subjects and studies. As such, it is organized to develop research interests and models, advance knowledge, and develop interactive and comparative relationships with similar programs which pursue the life, cultural and social formations, economics, education, language, expressive and performing arts, governmental and other institutional systems, of peoples of African descent wherever they exist.

African-New World Studies offers a wide range of courses, and programs open to anyone interested in diversity and global concerns, historical-cultural heritage and political-economic issues. African-New World Studies affords participants and students opportunities to sharpen many skills, including critical thinking, reading, writing, research and other analytical skills.