Cluster Leadership
Faculty Chair: Edwin Hill
Additional Faculty: Oneka LaBennett
Graduate Students: Christina Marsh, Elon Morris, Jaden Morales, Neuds Saint-Cyr
Background
The Africana Research Cluster (ARC) is a faculty and student-driven intellectual community
that invites scholars, artists, and community activists based on our shared interests. We host
social gatherings and foster connections with faculty, while also creating spaces for graduate
students to share and workshop research ideas and public presentations. The cluster
nurtures national, regional, and global inquiries about the African Diaspora at large. As such,
ARC is committed to offering opportunities to engage with contemporary and cutting-edge
approaches to Black studies–including aesthetic, geographic, historical, political, and
theoretical. ARC works closely with the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity and
with the Black Studies Center.
Our multi-sited, multilingual programming and research broaches topics including, but not
limited to:
❖ Black Feminist, Queer, & Trans Genealogies
❖ Racial Geographies / Migration / Mobility
❖ Popular Culture & The Senses (Sonic, Gastronomic, Print Culture)
❖ Empire & Racial Capitalism
❖ Logics of Black sex/gender
❖ Black Ecologies & The Anthropocene
❖ The Black Pacific & Atlantic
❖ Representation (Overrepresentation, Re-presentation, Misrepresentation,
Nonrepresentation)
❖ Black Intellectual Theory & History
ARC’s Faculty Network
Fiori Berhane (Anthropology), Ben Carrington (Communication), Corrine Collins (English),
Melissa Daniels-Rauterkus (English), Joan Flores-Villalobos (History), Taj Frazier
(Communication), Edwin Hill (French & ASE), Kara Keeling (ASE & Cinema), Oneka LaBennett
(ASE & GSS), Ronald Mendoza-De Jesús (Spanish), Lydie Moudileno (ASE & French), Edgardo
Perez-Morales (History), and Mlondi Zondi (CSLC/COLT).
To be affiliated with ARC, inquire about matters pertaining to the cluster, or submit a request for the Cluster to circulate information about events/grants/programs/etc.,
Email edwinhil@usc.edu and saintcyr@usc.edu
Contact Us
Department of American Studies & Ethnicity
Located in Kaprielian Hall on the University Park campus, ASE faculty, graduate students, and staff are available to assist you with information and resources about our academic programs and research specialties.
Address
University of Southern California
3620 South Vermont Avenue
Kaprielian Hall 462
Los Angeles, California 90089-2534