MIXING IT UP: At Vassar, it’s not unusual to find a chemistry major in an art history class or for a music major to design a biology experiment. Because Vassar has no core curriculum, students are free to explore any and all disciplines — and they do. Students have the choice of concentrating in a single discipline, an interdepartmental or multidisciplinary program, or designing an independent major.
This rich history of experimentation and curricular innovation is what makes Vassar Vassar. In fact, the college first began offering interdepartmental courses in the early 1900s. It now boasts 12 multidisciplinary programs ranging from Latin American and Latino/a Studies and Jewish Studies to Media Studies and Cognitive Science, in which Vassar was the first college to offer a bachelor’s degree. This year marks an important milestone for Africana Studies – the college’s very first multidisciplinary program – its 40th anniversary.
Like all of Vassar’s multidisciplinary programs, Africana Studies draws professors from a range of departments including history, politics, art, film, geology, and education to provide students with a comparative perspective. Students learn about intellectual and cultural traditions through the program’s diverse faculty. Program Director Ismail Rashid cited the program’s strong balance of courses on the African American experience, Africa, and the Caribbean in a recent interview by Joshunda Sanders ’00 for Vassar: the Alumnae/i Quarterly. “We also have a good crop of courses at the core of the curriculum that bring out the organic connections between these various regions, and their connections with the rest of the world,” he says.
Over the years, the program has created the highly successful Green Haven Prison Project, which arranges structured workshops for students and soon-to-be-released prisoners for the opportunity to learn about life outside of prison.
The program has also hosted panel discussions and lectures like “African Identities” by Princeton Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, and “The Obama Opportunity: Calling All Midwives” by Professor Vincent Harding (Emeritus) of the Iliff School of Theology, and has drawn guest lecturers from as far as West Africa to talk to students. Anniversary celebrations this semester include a lecture series, a 40th anniversary conference and reunion, and an “Africana Studies at Vassar” art exhibition on campus. “I am very excited about the anniversary,” says Rashid. “Forty years mark another important step in our long journey to ensure that all experiences and voices are given respectful places in the American academy. I hope that program will continue to be vibrant, stable, and of value to the college and community.”