African/African American Studies

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African and African American Studies

In keeping with Grand Valley State University’s liberal education commitment, the African and African American Studies Program administers an interdisciplinary minor whose goal is to academically prepare students for a better understanding of the variety and complexity of Africa, a deep appreciation of the African American experience and, more generally, an enriching knowledge of the various historical trajectories and contributions of the global African diaspora.

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On Thursday, April 5th, 2012 students in Professor Robert Stevenson’s course, “Introduction to African American Studies” joined other students across the nation in a silent march to show support for Trayvon Martin, belated victim of gun violence in Sanford, FL.   The resulting event shows what happens in GVSU’s AAAS program wherein there is direct engagement between the course work and current events.

Professor Stevenson makes the classroom a laboratory that measures the relevance of the lessons he teaches to the contemporary social context.  Therefore, training young people to recognize their: right to participate in discussions of critical current events; ability to engage the society at large; and, responsibility to one another in terms of social justice for all.  Introducing course participants to the legacy of student activism for social justice in the nation is one way in which students can have their voices heard.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. argued that the goal of education is to prepare us and to challenge us to think critically, analytically and objectively.  The AAAS program at GVSU follows in this tradition.  In the following story about students you see the way in which students answered Professor Stevenson’s challenge.  As they initiated the Trayvon Martin Project, it is clear that they are on the right path to effecting awareness and change from the world to GVSU campus, and back again.  Click here to read the story in the Grand Rapids News.

 

Dr. Johnson and Grand Valley students were featured on Fox 17 News for the AAAS Black History Month Day of Service at Guiding Light Mission in Grand Rapids. Watch the video and read the story here!

 

A word from Dr. Sherry Johnson, AAAS Program Coordinator -

In 1955 Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune wrote the following words in “Last Will and Testament:”  “Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service.  Without faith nothing is possible.  With it, nothing is impossible.”  While the staff at Guiding Light Mission in Grand Rapids, Michigan may or may not know who Mary McLeod Bethune was, and while they may or may not know her quotations, they certainly are living her words.  On Saturday, February 11th students, staff and faculty traveled to the Guiding Light Mission as a part of GVSU’s Black History Month Day of Service.   And there, all had a chance to see the principle of Bethune’s words in action.    

The Guiding Light Mission is founded on the principle that every man, no matter how far down he may stumble, must have within himself the audacity and pride to get up and start all over again.  Here, he can find a safe haven where he can gain his bearings.  The Mission provides food for those in the community (e.g. meals, food baskets); and, housing for the homeless, low-income clients and/or those who are in unsafe environments.  Students had an opportunity to talk with men in the Residential Recovery program.  Over the course of six to ten months, those clients who find the courage to acknowledge they need assistance to re-learn how to live successfully take part in work therapy, and life skills classes. 

AAAS is thrilled to co-sponsor this event to show students one avenue by which they can continue to practice a life of service.  

 

 

Profesor Rik Stevenson was featured in the Grand Rapids Times!

 

For changes or additions to this website, please contact Barb Blankemeier at (616) 331-8110 or areastudies@gvsu.edu.