African and African-American Studies

Karnoutsos Hall, Room 223
201-200-2253

The African and African-American Studies Program provides a comprehensive examination of the diversity of the experiences of people of Africa and the African diaspora. The minor offers students an enriched and rigorous curriculum that encourages them to have a broad view of the world and to develop an appreciation of the centrality of Africa and its descendants in the shaping of the modern world. Students will explore the historical, social, cultural, political and economic realities of Africans, African Americans and people of African descent globally, including in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. 

The program’s faculty has expertise as well as specialized knowledge in a range of areas, including political science, history, literature, cultural studies, Caribbean Studies, Black European Studies, visual cultures, and the digital humanities (an exciting and growing field at the intersection of humanistic inquiry and technology). 

The minor in African and African American Studies complements all of the university’s majors. Students from the humanities, as well as from the social sciences, STEM, education, business, and nursing will find an intellectual home in the program. Students contemplating careers in journalism, education, criminal justice, politics, law, business diplomacy, and many other fields will find that the AAAS minor provides them with an extra advantage in an increasingly competitive and globalizing world.


 

 

Natoschia Scruggs, Coordinator
Assistant Professor of African & African-American Studies
University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D.

Jermaine McCalpin
Assistant Professor of African & African-American Studies
The University of the West Indies, B.Sc., M.Sc.; Brown University, M.A., Ph.D.

Deborah A. Sanders
Professor of African and African American Studies
Morgan State University, B.A.; Howard University, Ph.D.

Various discipline-specific concentrations that will prepare students for multiple fields of employment or areas of additional undergraduate/graduate study are noted below. Course requirements for each concentration are explained in detail. The requirements for graduation, in addition to completion of the major area, are listed on "Undergraduate Degree Requirements."

African and African-American Studies (AFRO)

AFRO 1XX Afro/African American Studies Transfer Credit (0 Credits)

AFRO 2XX Afro/African American Studies Transfer Credit (0 Credits)

AFRO 101 The African Diaspora (3 Credits)

This course introduces students to the African Diaspora as both a conceptual frame and a set of lived experiences of Black people globally. In this course, we examine how “Diaspora” emerged as a way of understanding the historical, political, economic, and cultural forces that have shaped Black experiences and worldview.

AFRO 106 Black Cultural Studies (3 Credits)

This course of study offers a critical examination of the institutional, psychological and cultural and social forces which help to shape the identity and culture of people of African descent in Africa and in a New World.

AFRO 125 African American History: From Africa to Emancipation (3 Credits)

This course surveys major themes in African American history, including the study of Africa and events that shaped African Americans’ experiences through Emancipation. We will examine the slave trade’s impact on global politics, culture, and economics, centering it as a major cause of the dispersal of Africans throughout the Americas.

AFRO 140 African American History: From Emancipation to the Present (3 Credits)

This course examines the African American experience in the United States from 1865 to the present. Major themes include the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction, African American migration patterns, discrimination and segregation, and the development of the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement.

AFRO 164 Introduction to African Civilizations (3 Credits)

This course offers students a survey of the vast mosaic of African civilizations, such as Ghana, Mali, Zimbabwe, Egypt, and Sudan, with a focus on the precolonial period through 1884. Special emphasis is placed on aspects of African civilizations that have influenced modern Africa and the larger world.

AFRO 215 American Civil Rights Movement (3 Credits)

The American Civil Rights Movement has challenged a democratic government to be more responsive to the needs of all constituents, redefined resistance and activism for citizens excluded from the political process, and offered new conceptions of American citizenship. The course focuses on ideology, organizations, resources, leadership, gender and political culture.

AFRO 285 Modern Africa (3 Credits)

This course offers an examination of post-1945 Africa, focusing on the political, economic, and social experiences of African countries. This is a survey course that traces the emergence of “Modern Africa” from colonialism to political independence and analyzes the impact of these new states on international politics.