African/African-American Studies

The program in African and African American Studies provides a cross-culturally and historically comparative framework to study the rich connections and exchanges among African people, their descendants, and the various "new worlds" in which they have made and are making their lives. A particular strength of Carleton's African and African American Studies program is the opportunity to explore these issues on the African continent as well as in numerous African diasporas--of varying historical depth--in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. African and African American Studies combines area studies and ethnic studies foci on the cultural, literary, political, social, and intellectual responses to slavery, colonialism, missionization, and racialization throughout Africa and its many diasporas.

Students can pursue their intellectual interests in Africa and its diasporas through on-campus courses and off-campus studies programs (including programs offered through Carleton's departments of History and Environmental Studies), and through a rich variety of courses in nearly all curricular exploration divisions. Through multidisciplinary training, students are encouraged to develop their analytic, research, and literary skills; they acquire the intellectual tools to critique and correct the distortions and silences about Africans and their descendants in both academic canons and public discourse.

The African and African American Studies major thus prepares students for lifetime engagement in scholarship as well as in fields such as law, public policy, education, public health, social work, and the arts. Toward this end, and in addition to coursework, students are encouraged to take advantage of the rich array of speakers, exhibits, co-curricular, and extracurricular activities related to Africans and their diasporas.

Students majoring in African and African American Studies create their own program of study by choosing courses in a structured and reflective manner from a variety of disciplinary departments. In developing their program, students should talk to the department about courses that have particularly high African, African Diaspora, and/or African American Studies content. They are particularly encouraged to choose these courses from among the list of relevant courses. Courses marked AFAMPERT can complement the major, but do not count toward the required nine courses plus comprehensive exercise without special permission of the Program Director. Because of the complexities of creating a meaningful program from a wide array of departmental offerings, students interested in majoring should draw up a program of study that has breadth and depth in consultation with the Director of African and African American Studies before declaring their major.

Students must complete at least one interdisciplinary course offered by the African/African American Studies program, three survey courses introducing the "state of the field" of African and/or African Diaspora studies within specific disciplines, and at least five 200- and 300-level distribution courses. Among these distribution courses, students choose at least one course each from among the humanities, social sciences and arts and literature; at least four of the distribution courses must be at the 200-level or above and at least one at the 300-level.

The African and African American capstone experience, the two-credit AFAM 398 course, consists of a portfolio and reflective essay drawing together the student's work in the major. The comprehensive exercise is a substantial (approximately 34-40 page) research paper grounded in two complementary disciplines, advised by two faculty members chosen from these two disciplines.

Requirements for a Major

I. Admission to the program will depend upon the acceptance, by the African/African American Studies Committee, of a written proposal outlining the student's program of study.

II. Interdisciplinary Course (6 credits). Each student must complete one interdisciplinary 6-credit course which, in part, specifically discusses African/African American Studies as an interdisciplinary field:

  • AFAM 100 The Postcolonial Imagination and Africana Thought
  • AFAM 115 An Introduction to African American Culture, Practice, and Religion

III. Survey Courses (18 credits). Each student must take three of the following 6-credit courses:

IV. Distribution Courses (30 credits). Each student should take 30 credits of distribution that are essential to African and African-American Studies. Among these distribution courses, students must choose at least one 6-credit course each from among the three disciplinary groups: humanities, social sciences and arts and literature; at least four of the distribution courses must be at the 200-level or above and at least one at the 300-level. The 300-level course should be completed in one of the two disciplines in which the student writes his/her comprehensive exercise; in this course the student must produce a substantial paper or project in African and/or African American Studies. In addition, majors are highly encouraged to take the AMST 345 junior methods course, WGST 200, or a methods course in one of the academic disciplines that contribute to African and African American Studies. HIST 182 cannot double count as a survey course.

Arts and Literature

  • CAMS 219 African Cinema: A Quest for Identity and Self-Definition
  • DANC 266 Reading The Dancing Body: Topics in Dance History
  • ENGL 238 African Literature in English
  • ENGL 258 Contemporary American Playwrights of Color
  • ENGL 352 Toni Morrison: Novelist
  • FREN 245 Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean
  • FREN 395 The Mande of West Africa
  • MUSC 126 America's Music
  • MUSC 132 Golden Age of R and B
  • MUSC 245 Music of Africa
  • MUSC 306 Moldy Figs and the Birth of Jazz Criticism

Humanities

  • HIST 100 Slavery and the Old South: History and Historians
  • HIST 280 African in the Arab World
  • HIST 283 Christian Encounter, Conversion, and Conflict in Modern Africa
  • RELG 244 Hip Hop, Reggae, and Religion: Music and the Religion-Political Imagination of the Black Atlantic

Social Sciences

  • EDUC 245 The History of American School Reform
  • POSC 218 Schools, Scholarship and Policy in the United States
  • POSC 266 Urban Political Economy
  • POSC 366 Urban Political Economy*
  • PSYC 384 Psychology of Prejudice
  • SOAN 256 Africa: Representation and Conflict
  • SOAN 272 Race and Ethnicity in the United States
  • SOAN 314 Contemporary Issues in Critical Criminology
  • WGST 265 Black Feminist Thought: The Everyday World
  • WGST 266 Caribbean Queer Matters: Exploration & Research

Additional Distribution Electives: Arts Practice

  • DANC 301 Contemporary Styles and Techniques: African Dance
  • FREN 395 The Mande of West Africa
  • MUSC 183J Ethnic Drumming Instruction (Juried)
  • MUSC 191 Karimba Ensemble
  • MUSC 192 West African Drum Ensemble
  • MUSC 195 Jubilee Singers
  • MUSC 199 Fundamentals of African Drumming
  • MUSC 283J Ethnic Drumming Instruction (Juried)
  • SOAN 314 Contemporary Issues in Critical Criminology

V. Senior Seminar/Capstone Experience (2 credits)

The capstone experience consists of AFAM 398, a two-credit course in which the student creates a portfolio of their work in African and African American studies and writes a 5-10 page reflective essay tying these papers together. This course gives students an opportunity to seriously reflect about the courses they have taken and the work they have produced within the major, and to draw connections among them. By bringing together African and African American Studies majors and concentrators, this two-credit course facilitates common discussion of the main themes in African and African American Studies and how they are woven through the corpus of each student's undergraduate opus.

VI. Comprehensive Exercise (6 credits): AFAM 400

The comprehensive exercise is a substantial (approximately 34-40 page) research paper on a topic within African, African American, and/or African Diaspora studies, grounded in two complementary disciplines, advised by two faculty members chosen from these two disciplines. The student should have completed a 300-level course in one of these two disciplines. The comps process begins with a proposal in fall term of the senior year, and ends with a final written thesis and oral presentation early in spring term.

African/African American Studies Courses

AFAM 100 The Postcolonial Imagination and Africana Thought What does the “post-colonial” mean? And, how does a colonized subject become decolonized? In this course we will engage the literary and theoretical production of formerly colonized subjects from parts of Africa and the Caribbean, as we seek to determine what the post-colonial imagination might look like. The emphasis will be on close readings of works which emerge from the crucible of the Black Atlantic’s “encounter” with European and American colonialism. 6 credits; WR1, AI, IS; Fall; Kevin A Wolfe
AFAM 115 An Introduction to African American Culture, Practice, and Religion This course introduces students to a complex array of concerns facing African Americans from slavery to our contemporary moment. Engaging in close readings of texts from a variety of genres that capture the dynamics of African American experiences, several questions will guide our efforts as we attempt to make sense of African American praxis today. Examples are: What does agency look like in conditions of bondage and systematic disenfranchisement? What does the adjective, Black, mean when we talk about black culture or the Black Church? 6 credits; HI, IDS; Spring; Kevin A Wolfe
AFAM 125 New African Migrations African societies have long been shaped by migration--including quests for new knowledge, land, and livelihoods as well as the coercive migrations of slavery and refugee flight. Recent transformations in global political-economies and local conditions have made migration a central feature of contemporary African life. This course introduces students to African and African diaspora studies through an examination of new African migrations. Starting with the formation of "domestic diasporas" through rural-urban migration within African countries, we will explore connections and ruptures created by south-south international migrations within the African continent, and transnational migrations to the United States and Europe. 6 credits; SI, WR2, IS; Not offered 2016-17
AFAM 194 The Black Middle Class Since the 1960s, the black middle class has been an object of debate and interest, both among scholars and in society. In this course, we will examine the black middle class from an interdisciplinary perspective, specifically considering questions and problems posed in economics, sociology, history and literature. Among other topics, we will examine when and how the black middle class emerged, its distinctiveness from its white and working-class counterparts, and its implications and larger meaning in popular culture and public discourse about race, class, and American society. 6 credits; SI, IDS; Not offered 2016-17
AFAM 240 Black Power to Present Numerous questions surround the Black Lives Matter movement. These include questions about its legitimacy as a movement and its “leaderlessness” and complaints about its tactics--for example, in a town-hall-like event in London on April 23, 2016, even President Obama, who has articulated support of the movement, complained that BLM “can’t just keep on yelling.” To answer some of these questions, in this course we will contextualize BLM in light of a series of tensions we find in African American political thought from the Civil Rights era (especially Black Power) to the present. 6 credits; HI, WR2, IDS; Winter; Kevin A Wolfe
AFAM 398 African and African American Studies Capstone What relationships can you draw among your varied coursework and papers in African and African American Studies? How does interdisciplinarity affect your thinking about the study of the African continent and its numerous diasporas? In this two-credit course students will create a portfolio of their work in African and African American studies and write a 5-10 page reflective essay tying these papers together. Guided by a faculty member, this course gives students an opportunity to reflect seriously about the courses they have taken and the work they have produced within the major or concentration, and to draw connections among them. Prerequisite: African/African American Studies Senior major or concentrator. 2 credits; S/CR/NC; NE; Winter; Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg
AFAM 400 Integrative Exercise 1-6 credit; S/NC; Winter; Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg

Other Courses Pertinent to African/African American Studies

  • AMST 396 "Invisible Domain": Religion and American Studies
  • ECON 240 Microeconomics of Development
  • HIST 120 Rethinking the American Experience: American History, 1607-1865
  • HIST 121 Rethinking the American Experience: American Social History, 1865-1945
  • HIST 229 Working with Gender in U.S. History
  • MUSC 136 History of Rock
  • POSC 122 Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
  • POSC 355 Identity, Culture and Rights*
  • RELG 122 Introduction to Islam
  • WGST 110 Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies