The Department of Africana Studies is now official. 🎓 Effective July 1, the Department of African American Studies and the African Studies Program have reunited into a single academic unit, following approval from the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, University Faculty Senate, and faculty in both units. This decision came after an extensive, inclusive process. A joint Reunification Task Force gathered input from students, faculty, and staff through surveys and listening sessions before submitting its recommendations to Dean Clarence Lang. “This is a pivotal next step for Penn State and our college to take to strengthen the interdisciplinary study of Africa and people of African descent as a critical component of a liberal arts education,” said Dean Lang. “The reunification heightens our ability to solidify the academic and scholarly interconnections between African and African American Studies and build on the complexities that a unified field can advance. It als...