Welcome to the Department of Pan-African Studies (PAS). As chair, I hope your visit to our website is informative, exciting, and fruitful. The PAS Family has attempted to structure the site in such a way that it allows for easy access to a wealth of information concerning our departmental mission and objectives, faculty and their work, curriculum, undergraduate and graduate degree programs, and our many campus, community and international research and service initiatives.

PAS has a thriving undergraduate population with a consistent level of majors and minors.  Each year we reach many more students who take courses in our department and share in the Pan-African experience.  PAS offers one of only four Black Studies Master’s programs in the South. We attract graduate students from all over the country and annually graduate the most outstanding classes the field offers.  Most of our MA students go on to pursue terminal degrees.

In 2007, PAS launched the Center for the Study of Crime and Justice in Black Communities.  We see this as an incredibly important initiative that will have real-world impact.  It joins a plethora of departmental programs and faculty initiatives that do the same.  From the long-standing Saturday Academy spearheaded by Arts & Sciences Dean and Pan-African Studies Professor J. Blaine Hudson to the Future Scholars and Essence Programs that target high school students, PAS is an active partner with our surrounding community. 

Founded in 1973 and now having thirteen full-time and joint-appointed faculty members, PAS is one of the oldest and strongest Black Studies departments in the country. We are proud to not only maintain, but cultivate the great missions of academic excellence and social responsibility which have guided our discipline at various colleges and universities throughout the nation since its inception. Of course, like all worthwhile endeavors, PAS is still a work in progress, but we are proud of what we have accomplished over the last thirty-plus years.

I encourage you to explore this website and take full advantage of the available information. You will find, I believe, that the PAS Family has much to offer.

If you have questions, need additional information, or have any comments or suggestions, do not hesitate to contact us.

Dr. Theresa Rajack-Talley

Contact Information:
Department of Pan-African Studies
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
(502)852-5985; FAX – (502)852-5954
e-mail: tatall01@louisville.edu