About the Center
The Africana Research & Cultural Renaissance Center, known as ARC, is a research center housed in the Department of Africana Studies at San Diego State University. Rooted in Africana Studies, ARC advances rigorous research on African and African diasporic histories, cultures, knowledge systems, and heritage.
The Center brings together faculty, students, scholars, cultural workers, and community partners to produce research that is academically grounded and publicly accessible. ARC supports projects that recover cultural knowledge, correct historical distortions, and address questions surrounding the ownership and use of Africana cultural traditions.
Through research, student development, public programs, publications, digital projects, and community partnerships, ARC connects the university with communities throughout the African world.
Why ARC Was Founded
ARC was founded in response to the continuing need for research institutions that center the histories, experiences, and intellectual traditions of African and African-descended peoples.
Much of the knowledge produced about Africana communities has historically been shaped by institutions that did not fully recognize those communities as authorities over their own histories and cultural traditions. African and African diasporic knowledge has often been fragmented, misrepresented, separated from its cultural context, or excluded from dominant historical narratives.
At the same time, important knowledge remains preserved within families, communities, cultural practices, oral traditions, archives, and local institutions. This knowledge is essential to understanding how African-descended peoples have maintained, adapted, and created cultural systems across generations.
ARC was established to provide an institutional home for this work. The Center supports research that begins with the perspectives and historical experiences of Africana peoples. It also creates opportunities for communities to participate in how their histories are documented, interpreted, presented, and preserved.
The Center recognizes that cultural research should do more than identify what has been lost. It should also support the recovery of knowledge, correct harmful narratives, and address how cultural contributions are recognized and protected.
Our Approach
ARC combines academic research with student training and community participation.
The Center develops projects in partnership with people who hold knowledge within families, neighborhoods, cultural organizations, archives, professional associations, and other community institutions. These partnerships help ensure that research reflects lived experience and that communities have a meaningful role in the development of ARC’s work.
ARC also prepares students to conduct responsible research. Students may gain experience in archival methods, oral history, digital mapping, genealogy, cultural analysis, data collection, writing, media production, and public presentation.
The Center is committed to research practices that respect community knowledge, informed consent, cultural sensitivity, and the proper stewardship of historical materials. Through cultural restoration, cultural rectification, and cultural property, ARC works toward a future in which Africana peoples have greater authority over how their histories are studied, how their cultures are represented, and how their contributions are recognized.
Student Development
Student development is central to ARC’s mission.
The Center creates opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to work alongside faculty, researchers, and community partners. Students may contribute to research projects, assist with public programs, participate in internships, publish their work, and develop skills that prepare them for graduate study or professional careers.
ARC seeks to help students understand that research is not only an academic exercise. It can also serve communities, preserve knowledge, shape public understanding, and support institutional change.
Community Engagement
ARC views community members as partners in the production of knowledge.
The Center works with individuals, families, cultural organizations, schools, museums, archives, professional associations, and community institutions. These partnerships may involve oral histories, historical documentation, cultural preservation, public events, educational programs, research advising, and collaborative projects.
ARC is committed to building relationships that are respectful, transparent, and mutually beneficial. Community participation should not be limited to providing information. Whenever possible, community partners should help shape the questions, methods, interpretation, and public presentation of the work.
Stay Connected
Africana Research & Cultural Renaissance Center
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-6032
Location: Arts and Letters (AL) 378
Email: [email protected]
