The Department of African American Studies
At The College of New Jersey
Strategic Plan 2026-2031
Mission Statement
The African American Studies Department (AAS) acquaints TCNJ students to the social, political, economic, and cultural history of people of African descent in the modern world. It combines the multiple expressions of Africa and its diasporas–primarily the black experience in the United States and the encounter of people of African descent with the world—into a unified and coherent program (or study) of race, identity, and societal development. The core objectives of the African American Studies Department are to interrogate the multiple dimensions of race, slavery, and colonialism and their continued political, social, and cultural significance. We interrogate ways in which patterns of inequality (race, gender, class, etc.) are institutionalized (part of our social organizations and, thus, the social structure), cultural (part of collective meaning-making), and social psychological (part of our unconscious psychologies). We also interrogate ways in which the past (slavery, Jim Crow, etc.) continues to shape present practices, policies, and relationships. With its interdisciplinary strengths in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts, the department offers a curriculum that provides students with the analytical skills for effective research, writing, communication of ideas, and information literacy.
Strategic Plan
The teacher-scholar model is at the heart of the AAS’s Strategic Plan. Our department is built on excellence and innovation in teaching, featuring a passionate, caring, and interdisciplinary faculty. We offer a wide range of courses—including introductory, elective, research, and senior capstone seminars—serving the AAS major and minor, the Social Justice minor, and then College Core.. Our curriculum supports TCNJ's commitment to diversity, inclusion, and
excellence. Our dedication to excellence was highlighted by Dr. Leigh-Anne Francis winning the 2018 Outstanding Course Award and was further demonstrated by our faculty’s successful transition to online learning during the pandemic, employing compassionate pedagogy to support student success and well-being. Our teaching and research are symbiotic. We are proud of our interdisciplinary and primary scholarship, which informs our seminars (AAS 470, 494, 495, 499) where students learn to apply multidisciplinary research methodologies. Our courses teach students to analyze intersecting identities and contexts. Specialized 300-level courses reflect the instructors’ expertise and expanding research. AAS faculty embody the Teacher-Scholar model, and we leverage affiliated faculty to teach courses aligned with their professional expertise.
Looking forward, our goals and objectives for the next five years center around three themes: curriculum, faculty development, and community engagement. Within these themes, it is clear to us that our most pressing objectives concern the need to further strengthen and refine our robust program, particularly with respect to globalizing AAS, study abroad opportunities, and mentored undergraduate research and internships. We need the time and resources that enable faculty to involve a wider and more diverse span of students in these meaningful and impactful learning opportunities that directly advance the TCNJ Signature Experiences. With this support, we expect that the department can continue to raise our profile of faculty and student learning and scholarship inside and outside of TCNJ.
Theme 1:
Curriculum. Our mission is to prepare students for a lifetime of critically engaged learning, multicultural awareness, and global citizenship. We also aim to ensure that graduating students have a common set of skills that are applicable to their future education and careers.
Our goals in this theme are to:
1. Promote equity in our department. We will:
- a. Create and maintain a supportive environment for faculty, staff, and students
of all backgrounds. - b. Develop and strengthen courses that focus on diversity across the African
Diaspora. - c. Work to make involvement in internships and research more accessible to
students of all backgrounds. - d. Support students in seeking campus-wide learning experiences that address
issues of social justice and equity.
2. Refine and develop our curriculum. We will:
- a. Evaluate our current major structure and course sequence to ensure that it is
meeting the humanities, social science, and signature experience needs of
students and facilitating our curriculum. - b. Develop and implement a Qualitative Methods African American Studies
course. - c. Review our course catalog to update new or obsolete courses and identify new
course needs. - d. Explore ways to improve the frequency, delivery, and experience of our
methodology and capstone courses, which are among our most challenging
preparations. - e. Evaluate and build on intersections with other departments and academic units
to offer courses -including team-taught courses- that cross disciplinary
boundaries and foster critical thinking and exposure to the African and
African Diasporic contexts (domestically and internationally/globally).
3. Enhance our quality teaching, advising, and mentorship of students in the face of growing institutional enrollment goals. We will:
- a. Maintain a student-to-faculty ratio of no more than 28:1, supporting a major
of approximately 560 students with five full-time, jointly appointed faculty
members. This structure helps ensure that students receive the individualized
attention, high-quality instruction, and meaningful mentorship central to our
program, while remaining broadly aligned with institutional norms. In
addition, faculty informally mentor Black and Brown students from across the
campus community, extending our commitment to inclusive support beyond
the major. - b. Collaborate with the Dean on hiring new tenure-track faculty to address
identified disciplinary and content needs, particularly seeking an Africanist
and a Political Scientist specializing in Race. - c. Work closely with the Enrollment Management Division to manage how
students enter the major and minors and how we will monitor their progress
throughout their coursework. - d. Strengthen our advising practices to ensure that students receive the guidance
that they need. - e. Identify new curricular assessment opportunities to continually gauge the
quality of education we are providing to our students.
4. Strengthen our program of Signature Experiences, especially mentored undergraduate research, internships, and study abroad. We will:
- a. Explore new ways to promote the importance of Signature Experiences to
AAS majors & minors and Social Justice minors and identify potential
barriers that dissuade students from pursuing these opportunities. - b. Collaborate with the Dean and the Office of the Provost to secure the material
and fiscal resources needed to offer meaningful research and internship
opportunities to students. - c. Reestablish and strengthen relationships with Affiliated faculty in other
departments within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), such
as Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS), Sociology,
Criminology, History, and Psychology, to increase opportunities for students
to gain research and internship experience. - d. Collaborate with the Center for Global Engagement to update our
recommended study abroad locations that would be of most interest to AAS
majors and explore more ways to promote study abroad to 1st and 2nd years. - e. Explore connections with other research institutions to allow students to be
involved in research or internship-based student exchange programs (e.g.,
summer research fellowships).
Theme 2:
Faculty Development. The AAS Department is committed to developing its faculty throughout their career to achieve excellence as teacher-scholars. Goals for faculty development encompass efforts to support and facilitate the development of productive and rewarding research and teaching careers.
Our goals in this theme are to:
1. Support faculty efforts to engage in professional development activities that deepen
their skills as teachers, scholars, and mentors. We will:
- a. Support the personnel actions of qualified faculty, including applications for
tenure, promotion, and range adjustments. - b. Make the formation of faculty mentoring dyads a regular and integral part of
development for all faculty, with a particular focus on pre-tenure and associate
faculty. - c. Improve internal support for development through opportunities for regular
classroom observations and collegial reviews of peer work when desired. - d. Develop faculty led study abroad with a focus on Africa and the African
Diaspora. - e. Develop faculty’s ability to provide mentoring within and beyond their areas
of specialization through regular Departmental Best Practices discussions. - f. Support faculty efforts to participate in workshops and other programming
designed to help develop their professional skills.
Theme 3:
Community Engagement. We recognize the importance of partnering with communities inside and outside of TCNJ, as well as nurturing our own departmental community. Stronger connections will contribute to student learning and placement after graduation, develop mutually-beneficial campus-community partnerships, and facilitate faculty research and teaching.
Our goals in this theme are to:
1. Build stronger relationships within TCNJ. We will:
- a. Work to better publicize our events to other departments and to publicize
the events of other departments to our own students. - b. Develop and welcome more jointly-sponsored event programming on
campus. - c. Collaborate with other majors inside and outside of HSS to develop
streamlined minors and double and dual major options, and encourage our
students to pursue them. - d. Look for opportunities for teaching and scholarly collaborations with
faculty from other TCNJ departments. - e. Look for opportunities for teaching and scholarly collaborations with
faculty from other TCNJ departments.
1. 1. Build stronger relationships within TCNJ. We will:
- a. Celebrate achievements more openly within the department.
- b. Work with the Office of Communications, Marketing, and Brand
Management to share our and our students' significant accomplishments
with the TCNJ community. - c. Leverage social media to share our accomplishments with students,
alumni, and external community members.
3. Expand our efforts to build relationships with local employers and educate students about careers. We will:
- a. Work with the Career Center and other HSS Departments to disseminate
information about job or internship opportunities and hold more event
programming for students who are not planning to attend graduate school. - b. Identify more organizations that offer regular internship opportunities to
further develop our internship spreadsheet for students.
4. Continue our efforts to increase connections with TCNJ AAS alumni. We will:
- a. Work with Alumni Affairs to strengthen our exit survey.
- b. Invite alumni to participate in job panels and other programming directed
toward current students. - c. Leverage social media for alumni engagement and outreach (Facebook,
LinkedIn, etc.) - d. Interview and highlight alumni accomplishments in a newsletter each
semester. - e. Work with the Division of College Advancement and the Center for
Global Engagement to continue to promote and fund the Global Initiative
South African Fund.