2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Nov 04, 2024

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Africana Studies Concentration

Print Degree Planner (opens a new window) |

Africana Studies Overview

Africana Studies is an interdisciplinary field that explores the life of people of African ancestry in Africa and the African Diaspora (especially the U.S. and Caribbean). In this vein, those who concentrate in Africana Studies approach topics, such as human rights, environmental degradation and renewal, democracy, revolution, and bioethics using a multidisciplinary lens. Our concentration prepares students with a cultural, political, social, and geographical awareness of the ways people of African descent in the diaspora and on the continent have lived, worked, played, and fought for self-definition. As Africa continues to be a point of economic interest, political conflict, and environmental activism, the study of the continent and those of African ancestry all over the globe remains central to understanding the modern world.

Because Africana Studies is an interdisciplinary concentration, its courses approach the lives of African people and those in the diaspora from a variety of perspectives and in different periods of time. Such interdisciplinarity is its strength, and students who take courses in Africana Studies will develop a deep understanding and appreciation for the culture, politics, art, and history of those of African ancestry living in Africa, North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Africana Studies Concentration Requirements

Six courses are required to complete the Africana Studies concentration:

Two Core Courses which survey African American history and literature.
Three Elective Courses carrying the Africana Studies attribute.
One Advanced Research Course carrying the Africana Studies attribute.

Core Courses

Students must complete both a 100-level survey course in African American history and a 100-level survey course in African American literature.

HIST 112 - African American History to 1865
HIST 114 - African-American History, 1865-Present
Select 1 Literature course:
ENG 182 - African American Literature I
ENG 183 - African American Literature II

Elective Courses

Elective Courses carrying the Africana Studies attribute are offered through multiple departments and academic programs.*Always check the course grid for new Africana Studies courses each semester.

Elective courses offered within the previous 2 Academic Years include:

Advanced Research Courses

Advanced Research Courses are 200-level courses which include a significant research component. *Courses from the Elective Course lists may fulfill the Advanced Research Course requirement with permission from the student’s adviser. Note that special topics or capstone courses in other departments may also carry an Africana Studies attribute when the topic is relevant to the concentration.

Suggested Advanced Research Courses include, but are not limited to:

Africana Studies Faculty

Eduard Arriaga-Arango, Ph.D.
Barbara Beall-Fofana, Ph.D.
Nigel O.M. Brissett, Ed.D.
Ed Carr, Ph.D.
Eric DeMeulenaere, Ph.D.
Joseph Guzman, Ph.D.
Anita Häusermann Fábos, Ph.D.
Odile Ferly, Ph.D.
Ellen Foley, Ph.D
Lynn Frederikson
Eric Hofbauer
Esther Jones, Ph.D.
Eric Kesse, Ph.D.
Willem Klooster, Ph.D.
James Murphy, Ph.D.
Nicole Overstreet, Ph.D.
Ousmane Power-Greene, Ph.D.,- Director
Raphael Rogers, Ph.D.
Kourtney Senquiz, Ph.D.
Shelly Tenenbaum, Ph.D.