Our Partners
ARC Builds Strategic Partnerships Across Research, Culture, and Community
The Africana Research & Cultural Renaissance Center is building a network of partnerships that will connect SDSU students and scholars with organizations working in Afrocentric research, cultural preservation, public history, genetic ancestry, visual storytelling, and community programming. Through collaborations with Brilliance Exposed, the IKG Cultural Resource Center, Klaman & Co., the Molefi Kete Asante Institute, the African Heritage Studies Association, and African Ancestry, ARC will create opportunities for research training, mentorship, field experience, public programming, and community-engaged scholarship.
African Ancestry
ARC’s collaboration with African Ancestry will provide students with hands-on experience in responsible data entry, genetic ancestry information, cultural competency, and scientific ethics. Students will also assist with researching and writing cultural histories of the African peoples and ethnic groups identified through African Ancestry’s testing. Students will receive appropriate credit for their contributions, and African Ancestry customers will receive greater historical and cultural context for understanding their ancestral results. Founded in 2003, African Ancestry is a Black-owned, woman-led company and a leader in tracing maternal and paternal lineages to present-day African countries and ethnic groups.
African Ancestry will also collaborate with ARC on its emerging work related to California Senate Bill 437 and reparations. The legislation calls upon the California State University to explore methods for confirming descendancy from persons enslaved in the United States and for conducting or verifying genealogical research connected to reparative claims. ARC and African Ancestry will examine how genetic information might be responsibly incorporated alongside genealogical, historical, and cultural evidence while developing strong practices concerning consent, privacy, cultural competency, scientific ethics, interpretation, and the stewardship of genetic data.
Together, these partnerships will provide students with pathways from the classroom into research, mentorship, field study, publication, cultural programming, and public service. They will also strengthen ARC’s ability to translate its commitments to cultural restoration, cultural rectification, and cultural property into sustained work with communities and institutions across the African world.
Molefi Kete Asante Institute
Through its partnership with the Molefi Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies, ARC will introduce students to experienced scholars who can serve as research mentors and provide advanced guidance in Afrocentric theory, methodology, research design, interpretation, and scholarly presentation. Founded in 2011, the Institute is an independent African-centered think tank that uses Afrocentricity as the foundation for inquiry and brings together research fellows, scholars, and public audiences through lectures, workshops, seminars, and conferences. The partnership will provide students with an intellectual pathway from classroom learning to guided research, scholarly exchange, and participation in a wider community of Afrocentric researchers.
African Heritage Studies Association
ARC’s partnership with the African Heritage Studies Association will provide students and scholars with a bridge to one of the nation’s longest-standing African-centered scholar-activist organizations. AHSA emerged from Black scholars’ challenges to the Eurocentric orientation of African Studies and the marginalization of scholars of African descent in the late 1960s. Founded under the leadership of Dr. John Henrik Clarke, the organization has united research, education, cultural work, and advocacy in support of African peoples in Africa and throughout the diaspora. Through this relationship, ARC students and affiliated scholars will gain access to an intergenerational network of researchers, activists, conferences, mentorship, and opportunities for scholarly participation.
IKG Cultural Resource Center
ARC’s partnership with the IKG Cultural Resource Center will bring students into direct conversation with IKG’s work in African history, cultural education, public scholarship, and historical restoration. Opportunities may include student engagement with the ASA Restoration Project, established in 2008 to honor Dr. Asa G. Hilliard III and support archaeological research in Egypt, as well as the longstanding Egypt on the Potomac field experience, which examines Kemetic architecture, symbolism, and cultural influences embedded throughout Washington, D.C. ARC will also explore student field trips, research participation, lectures, and other forms of collaboration connected to IKG’s educational and cultural initiatives.
Brilliance Exposed
ARC will collaborate with Brilliance Exposed on visual storytelling, exhibitions, and public programs that document Black achievement and challenge narrow representations of Black intellectual and creative life. Founded and curated by Alexis Dixon, Brilliance Exposed uses photography to celebrate men and women of color in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics while centering cultural heritage, representation, and Black perspectives. The partnership will create opportunities for ARC students to explore how research, photography, narrative, and exhibition design can be combined to communicate Africana experiences to public audiences.
Klaman & Co.
ARC will partner with Klaman & Co. to develop events in the San Diego region focused on the cultural, political, social, and economic connections linking Africa, the United States, and the wider African diaspora. Klaman & Co. specializes in African-centered event curation, cultural performances, educational programming, and participatory workshops, and has organized initiatives such as the Africa Vibe Festival and Africa Day celebrations. Together, ARC and Klaman & Co. will create spaces where scholarship, cultural expression, community dialogue, artistic exchange, and relationship-building can meet.
Stay Connected
Africana Research & Cultural Renaissance Center
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-6032
Location: Arts and Letters (AL) 378
Email: [email protected]
