Campaign by Story
Show your support for the dedicated faculty of Africana Studies at Buffalo State and help build the capacity of the program to become a national beacon for the preservation of African and African American culture and history.
Your support will help us launch a first-ever SUNY-wide Journal of Africana Studies and empower students to extend the healing lessons of Africana Studies from the classrooms to all sectors of the Buffalo community.
Help us bring truth, trust, and healing back to our human relations and our human hearts by supporting the Africana Studies program at Buffalo State University.
"Africana Studies is for all and not just for one set of people. Africana Studies opens the doors to rebuilding relationships between people, earth/nature, and our overall interactions." (Karma Warren, Class of 2027)
Your donation to the Africana Studies Fund will help promote the establishment of a groundbreaking SUNY-wide Journal of Africana Studies, which will ask scholars, community members, alumni, and students to write about reducing racial inequity from their unique perspectives. With the racially motivated mass shooting at the Jefferson Avenue Tops on May 14, 2022, fresh in our minds, it is the perfect moment for Buffalo to show what we’re truly made of---and it’s certainly not that!
"As a white female college student, I see Africana Studies as an important alternative to traditional education and believe it should be a required class. While regular education often focuses on individual success and Eurocentric values, Africana Studies emphasizes community, unity, and shared well-being. It teaches us to value empathy and respect in relationships, rather than competition or division." (Jessica Otis, Class of 2027)
Your gift will support this dynamic collaboration between campus and community stakeholders where we all enjoy each other’s company as we learn together.
The Africana Studies program at Buffalo State is not synonymous with history or slavery. As the students who’ve taken our courses have observed, Africana Studies is a multidisciplinary field dedicated to researching, disseminating, and practicing knowledge that has immediate relevance for African-descended people, with healing implications for the hearts and souls of all humanity.
"Africana studies is key to grounding students in the deeper truths of the modern world because it is most students' first real chance at being in an environment that does not sugar-coat education." (Giorgio Sacchetti, Class of 2027)
How You Can Help
Your gift will provide us with the critical funds needed to launch the new SUNY-wide Journal of Africana Studies and empower students to meaningfully engage with the Buffalo community. Your donation will strengthen Buffalo State's small but dynamic Africana Studies program, whose ongoing initiatives and goals include need- and merit-based student scholarships; student internships; conference presentations; peer mentoring; the Africana Studies Sankofa Learning Community for first-year students; and the annual Africana Studies Research and Creativity Symposium, now in its second year.
"Let's build what we become when we dream." -- Nikki Giovanni (1943-2024), Poet, Activist, Scholar
Please make your gift to the Africana Studies Fund today. Thank you!