Requirements for BA in Black Studies

For information about the minor, please see requirements and description of the African Studies minor.

The BA in Black Studies

The requirements for an Black Studies major are consistent with the concept of Black Studies/Africana Studies as a multidisciplinary plan of study designed to provide students with a wide range of knowledge and analytical skills, and with a firm grounding in an area of specialization such as history, the social sciences, or the humanities.

All majors are required to take 10 courses in the department, to be selected according to the following guidelines:

• One of the 10 courses must be AfrSty 111 (African-American History II), for all majors, and two other courses are highly recommended:
  • AfrSty 101(Introduction to Africana Studies)
  • AfrSty 110 (African-American History I) .
• At least three (3) of the courses must be at the 300 level or above.
• Some of the 10 courses may be taken outside the department, drawn from an approved list of related courses in other disciplines.
• Each student majoring in black studies chooses one of the following areas of specialization within the major:
  • history
  • humanities
  • social sciences.
  
  Students must take at least five (5) of their 10 major courses in their area of specialization, and at least one (1) of their major courses in each of the other two areas.

For the purpose of meeting this requirement, courses are classified as follows (please note that the same course may belong to more than one area):

1. Courses in history:
• AfrSty 101 (Introduction to Africana Studies)
• AfrSty 110 (African-American History I)
• AfrSty 102 (The History of African-American Education)
• AfrSty 108 (African-American Social Movements)
• AfrSty 111 (African-American History II)
• AfrSty 220 (Free and Slave in the New World,1492-1888)
• AfrSty 225 (The Orgins of Caribbean Civilizations)
• AfrSty 230 (African-American Women's History)
• AfrSty 250 (The Civil Rights Movement)
• AfrSty 310 (Modern Caribbean Society)
• AfrSty 335 (African-American Nationalism Before Garvey)
• AfrSty 340 (Free People of Color in the Era of Slavery)

2. Courses in the humanities:
• AfrSty 100 (Introduction to African-American Literature)
• AfrSty 101 (Introduction to Africana Studies)
• AfrSty 110 (African-American History I)
• AfrSty 111 (African-American History II)
• AfrSty 230 (African-American Women's History)
• AfrSty 260
• AfrSty 270 (The African-American Image on Stage, Screen and Television)
• AfrSty 290 (Introduction to Caribbean Literature)
• AfrSty 301 (African-American Intellectual Thought)
• AfrSty 302 (Martin and Malcolm X)
• AfrSty 440 (Post- Colonial Literature:Africa and the Caribbean)

3. Courses in the social sciences:
• AfrSty 101 (Introduction to Africana Studies)
• AfrSty 102 (The History of African-American Education)
• AfrSty 108 (African-American Social Movements)
• AfrSty 201 (The Roots of the African-American Family)
• AfrSty 250 (The Civil Rights Movement)
• AfrSty 301 (African-American Intellectual Thought)
• AfrSty 320 (Problems in Urban Education)
• AfrSty 335 (Black Nationalism Before Garvey)
• AfrSty 410 (African-American Urban Politics)
• AfrSty 430 (Race and the American Legal System)

For the purposes of meeting this requirement, AfrSty 480 (Topics in African-American Studies), 488-489 (Senior Thesis I and II), and 498-499 (Honors Seminar I and II) may be used as applicable in any of the three areas of specialization.

Students in the history area must take, as one of their 10 major courses, one of the following methods courses:
• AfrSty 335 (Black Nationalism Before Garvey)
• AfrSty 340 (Free Blacks in the Era of Slavery)
• Hist 481 (Seminar in American History)
• Hist 482 (Seminar in African History)

Students in the social science area must take, as two of their 10 major courses, a theory course and a methods course in one of the social sciences.

Courses on the following list are approved for this requirement; students wishing to use other courses to meet the requirement should first seek the approval of the department chairperson.

1. Theory courses:
• Econ 201 (Microeconomic Theory)
• PolSci 454 (Recent and Contemporary Political Thought)
• Sociol 341 (Elements of Sociological Theory)
2. Methods courses:
• PolSci 230 (Introduction to Political Analysis)
• Sociol 351 (Methods of Sociological Research)

Majors in Black Studies will be advised to supplement their work with recommended courses in other departments in order to understand the black experience within the broad framework of the world at large. Other requirements for Black Studies majors are consistent with general university requirements.