Department of Africana Studies — Requirements & Recommendations

The Major

The requirements for an Africana studies major are consistent with the concept of 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 ten courses in the department, to be selected according to the following guidelines:

One of the ten courses must be AFRSTY 111 and two other courses are highly recommended:
AFRSTY 101 and 110.
At least three of the courses must be at the 300 level or above.
Some of the ten courses may be taken outside the department, drawn from an approved list of related courses in other disciplines.
Each student majoring in Africana studies chooses one of the following areas of specialization within the major: history, humanities, or social sciences. Students must take at least five of their ten major courses in their area of specialization, and at least one 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)

Courses in history

AFRSTY 101
AFRSTY 110
AFRSTY 102
AFRSTY 108
Y 220AFRSTY 111
AFRST
AFRSTY 225
AFRSTY 230
AFRSTY 250
AFRSTY 310
AFRSTY 335
AFRSTY 340

Courses in the humanities

AFRSTY 100
AFRSTY 101
AFRSTY 110
AFRSTY 111
AFRSTY 230
AFRSTY 260
AFRSTY 270
AFRSTY 290
AFRSTY 301
AFRSTY 302
AFRSTY 440

Courses in the social sciences

AFRSTY 101
AFRSTY 102
AFRSTY 108
AFRSTY 201
AFRSTY 250
AFRSTY 301
AFRSTY 320
AFRSTY 335
AFRSTY 410
AFRSTY 430

For the purposes of meeting this requirement, AFRSTY 480 (Topics in Africana 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 ten major courses, one of the following methods courses: AFRSTY 335 (Black Nationalism Before Garvey), AFRSTY 340 (Free African-Americans 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 ten 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.

Theory courses

ECON 201 (Microeconomic Theory)
POLSCI 454 (Recent and Contemporary Political Thought)
SOCIOL 341 (Elements of Sociological Theory)

Methods courses

POLSCI 230 (Introduction to Political Analysis)
SOCIOL 351 (Methods of Sociological Research)

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

The Minor

Students may minor in Africana studies by taking six courses, selected according to the following guidelines:

All minors take AFRSTY 110 and AFRSTY 111.
All minors take four additional departmental courses above the 100 level; two of these must be above the 200 level.

Honors

Senior students with at least a 3.0 average will be given the opportunity to write an honors thesis under departmental supervision.