Suffragists like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Matilda Joslyn Gage and abolitionists like Frederick Douglass frequently visited Syracuse, challenging and changing the nation’s social norms of that time. Today, departments in A&S including African American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies examine how ideas about the past and present shape the world, preparing students to make positive social change in the future.

The Department of African American Studies (AAS), which became a part of A&S in 1979, is an interdisciplinary academic unit that engages in teaching and research on the global African experience. In addition to developing students’ historical understanding, scholars examine the Pan African world through a humanistic lens, studying art, literature, religion and music.

Through AAS' affiliation with the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Sims Hall, students can study a wide range of works from the African diaspora. The library’s diverse collection supports the AAS curriculum and includes the stories and histories of people of African descent from around the world.

AAS also recognizes the importance of linking African American Studies to the community. The Community Folk Art Center showcases art of the African diaspora, creating a setting for dialogue and interaction among emerging, mid-career and professional artists.

The Department of Women’s and Gender Studies empowers students to address how gender, power, race and class shape individual lives and the world. Through interdisciplinary and comparative approaches, students examine issues of justice, social and economic transformation, and women’s agency.