This fall, Penn will welcome its first Ph.D. students in Africana Studies.
Offered through the Center for Africana Studies, the program had approximately 20 applicants, of which two will make up its first class, according to CFAS graduate group chairman Tufuku Zuberi.
"It wasn't a tremendous amount, but it was a successful amount," Zuberi said of the applicant pool.
The students will take core classes in Africana Studies and choose from a variety of electives offered across the University, which Zuberi said speaks to the program's interdisciplinary nature.
"It's about taking the best from various disciplines in order to understand the nature of our world," he said.
College sophomore Ryan Jobson, facilitating and planning chairman for UMOJA, the umbrella organization for black student groups, agreed.
Jobson, an Africana Studies major, said the field of study is often misconstrued as simply focusing on the experience of black communities.
Instead, he said, Africana Studies courses - which focus on issues surrounding people of the African Diaspora - can be applied universally just like literature and history courses.
"They can speak to communities of the Diaspora and also communities outside of the Diaspora," he said.
The result of "at least" 10 years of conversations, according to Zuberi, the Ph.D. program passed through various administrative processes in order to come into existence, the last of which was a vote among faculty members. Zuberi said the program was approved by faculty "en masse."
The program's approval, he said, showed that Penn is at the forefront of "the 21st century of scholarship" - a century "in which difference is recognized and appreciated for its value and its contribution to sustaining civilization."
Jobson said the Ph.D. program was an indication of Penn's recognition of the importance of the Africana Studies discipline.
He added that the next step for the 5B - Penn's five minority coalitions - is working to establish similar programs for other ethnic and sexuality studies to make them more of an "autonomous force on campus."
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