{"id":215881,"date":"2026-04-02T10:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/215881\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T10:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:38:07","slug":"usf-stop-silencing-africana-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/215881\/","title":{"rendered":"USF, stop silencing Africana studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>The dismantling of Africana studies has been a slow, steady process over decades and needs to stop. ORACLE GRAPHIC\/KEATON DUKE<\/p>\n

Less than five undergraduate students are enrolled in the Africana studies<\/a> major at USF. I am one of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The low number of Africana studies majors may make this area of study seem inconsequential. But it\u2019s far from it, as the field has a variety of uses at USF and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Initially, I joined USF during spring 2025 as a political science major, unaware that an Africana studies major existed anywhere \u2014 let alone at USF.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, in my second semester, I took a course on racism in American society<\/a> \u2014 partially because it sounded interesting, but mostly to fulfill a general education requirement.<\/p>\n

This class taught me the history of racism in the United States, but also required me to identify how discrimination occurs locally and create a mock proposal to resolve the local issue.<\/p>\n

I continued taking Africana studies courses because of how captivating my professors were and the interesting topics offered, until I picked up a minor and eventually a major.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Africana studies bachelor\u2019s program teaches about \u201cAfrica and peoples of African descent in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean,\u201d according to USF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Initially, Africana studies was an entire department at USF, but it was dissolved<\/a> in 2015 due to funding cuts. It is now considered a transdisciplinary academic unit housed within the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, according to its website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In December, USF identified 15 programs<\/a> for possible termination \u2014 one of them was the bachelor\u2019s in Africana studies. On March 10, the Board of Trustees voted on these proposals and decided not to terminate the program, according to the BOT agenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USF has proven unreliable in preserving Africana Studies, and the university needs to be intentional about protecting the program. If it is protected, student interest is likely to follow.<\/p>\n

Related: USF annual review identifies 15 programs for possible termination<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Africana studies professors are the lifeblood of this program. They make the topics engaging and relevant, never ceasing to show up and brainstorm new experiences and opportunities for their students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

USF spokesperson Althea Johnson said there are currently four full-time faculty members at USF with \u201cteaching expertise\u201d in Africana studies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, these professors\u2019 course loads are not limited to Africana studies, as they also teach courses in other graduate and undergraduate programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a not-so-subtle indication that Africana studies may not be a priority for the university, as professors are spread thin across multiple disciplines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

David Ponton spent eight years at USF, first as an assistant professor and eventually as the undergraduate director at the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ponton left USF in 2025 and is now a faculty member at a liberal arts college.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said people often have a limited view of what Africana studies is about, but this field offers broad benefits to students who go on to pursue a wide range of careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfricana Studies trains students to think critically about what it means to be human in a world where \u2018humanity\u2019 has been culturally and politically constructed to exclude certain groups based on social categories of race, gender, sexuality, disability, class, national origin and so on,\u201d Ponton said.<\/p>\n

Africana studies courses equipped me with knowledge I could not find elsewhere, offering insight into the missing pages of history often omitted in my other courses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of the dominantly white view of American history, literature and politics, these courses opened my eyes and showed me key historical figures \u2014 like Marcus Garvey<\/a>, Zora Neale Hurston<\/a> and Booker T. Washington<\/a> \u2014 that are often only a footnote in my other classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My Africana studies courses have also required me to read Black women authors \u2014 like Mariama B\u00e2 <\/a>and Myriam Warner-Vieyra<\/a> \u2014 spanning continents, cultures and income levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These opportunities would have been missed if I had not taken an enhanced general education course in Africana studies, an option no longer offered to incoming USF students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, the Florida state legislature passed Senate Bill 266<\/a>, which prohibited the teaching of systemic racism or that the \u201cUnited States was created to maintain social, political and economic inequities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The implementation of the bill effectively broke general education courses into two categories \u2014 general education courses for students entering fall 2025 and later, and enhanced general education courses for students entering before fall 2025, according to the USF course inventory<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before SB 266<\/a> passed, USF students had five Africana studies enhanced general education courses to choose from. USF students who entered last semester have zero, according to the USF course inventory<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While students can still take most Africana studies courses at USF, they won\u2019t count toward general education credits \u2014\u00a0which means fewer students are likely to seek them out.<\/p>\n

Related: OPINION: Attacking international students, staff won\u2019t make Florida stronger<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ponton said the months-long process of removing Africana studies from the approved general education course list was \u201copaque\u201d and filled with emergency emails and fast deadlines.<\/p>\n

USF Undergraduate Studies<\/a> notified professors that these five Africana studies courses would be removed from the general education course options unless they could provide an explanation stating that their courses did not violate SB 266<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the attestations didn\u2019t matter, and the courses were removed anyway,\u201d Ponton said.<\/p>\n

Johnson did not clarify what the university\u2019s procedures were for approving or submitting general education courses at the time.<\/p>\n

This process was one of the deciding factors in Ponton\u2019s ultimate departure from USF.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ponton also said course evaluations for his \u201cIntroduction to the Black Experience<\/a>\u201d class at USF received significant positive feedback \u2014 with students describing it as \u201clife-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

These evaluations highlight that the value of Africana studies is not limited to students choosing to pursue a major or minor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The major offers students an opportunity to broaden their perspectives and look inside pages of history that are often excluded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Removing and disincentivizing access to Africana studies does a disservice to students who could have learned from these alternative perspectives \u2014\u00a0and reveals where USF\u2019s true priorities lie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on my work as a historian and a social theorist, I say with sober and thoughtful conviction that USF simply will not meaningfully support or sustain Africana studies,\u201d Ponton said. \u201cI dare the next USF president<\/a> to prove me wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The dismantling of Africana studies has been a slow, steady process over decades and needs to stop. ORACLE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-215881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}