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African/African American Studies Concentration (AFAMc)

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The African and African American Studies concentration is designed to complement a student's disciplinary major through an interdisciplinary specialization on the contexts and experiences of Africans and their many diasporas. Combining area studies and ethnic studies foci, the African and African American Studies concentration provides students the opportunity to explore the rich connections and exchanges among African people, their descendants, and the global locales--in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East--in which they have made and are making their lives. Students can do this through both on-campus courses and off-campus studies programs. In their senior year African and African American Studies concentrators draw connections among these courses through an interdisciplinary reflective capstone experience.

Fostering interdisciplinary critical thinking, the African and African American Studies concentration 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.

Requirements for the Concentration

The African/African American Studies Concentration requires seven courses as follows:

One interdisciplinary course with an "AFAM" designation;

Two survey courses that introduce the "state of the field" of African and/or African Diaspora studies within specific disciplines;

Three distribution courses (from the list of relevant courses) chosen from at least two of the following disciplinary groups: Arts and Literature; Humanties; Social Sciences. Two of the three distributional courses must be at the 200-level or above. At least one of the distribution courses should be a 300-level course in which the student produces a substantial paper or project in African and/or African American Studies. In rare cases, a student can petition to write a substantial paper in a 200-level course (i.e., be released from the 300-level course requirement), if that course is highly relevant to their own focus.

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 relfect about the courses they have taken and the work they have produced within the concentration, 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.

Concentrators are highly encouraged to take the AMST 345 junior methods course.

Structure of Courses Applicable to the Concentration

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

AFAM 115 An Introduction to African American Culture, Practice, and Religion (not offered in 2015-2016)

AFAM 125 New African Migrations

AFAM 130 African American Social Movements (not offered in 2015-2016)

AFAM 182 Black Identity and Belonging (not offered in 2015-2016)

AFAM 194 The Black Middle Class (not offered in 2015-2016)

RELG 210 Prophecy and Social Criticism in America

Survey Courses (12 credits). Each student must take two of the following 6-credit courses:

ARTH 140 African Art and Culture (not offered in 2015-2016)

ENGL 117 African American Literature

ENGL 238 African Literature in English

HIST 125 African American History I

HIST 126 African American History II (not offered in 2015-2016)

HIST 181 West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade

HIST 182 Living in the Colonial Context: Africa, 1850-1950 (not offered in 2015-2016)

HIST 183 History of Early West Africa (not offered in 2015-2016)

HIST 184 Colonial West Africa

Distribution Courses (18 credits). Each student should take 18 credits chosen from at least two of the following disciplinary groups: Arts and Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences including one six-credit course which must be at the 300-level.

Arts and Literature

ENGL 238 African Literature in English

ENGL 252 Caribbean Fiction (not offered in 2015-2016)

ENGL 258 Contemporary American Playwrights of Color

ENGL 350 The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts

ENGL 352 Toni Morrison: Novelist

FREN 225 Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean

FREN 245 Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean (not offered in 2015-2016)

FREN 308 France and the African Imagination

MUSC 126 America's Music

MUSC 130 The History of Jazz

MUSC 131 The Blues From the Delta to Chicago (not offered in 2015-2016)

MUSC 132 Golden Age of R and B

MUSC 141 Global Popular Music (not offered in 2015-2016)

MUSC 245 Music of Africa

MUSC 332 Motown (not offered in 2015-2016)

Humanities

HIST 100 American Antebellum Slavery: History and Historians

HIST 181 West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade

HIST 182 Living in the Colonial Context: Africa, 1850-1950 (not offered in 2015-2016)

HIST 184 Colonial West Africa

HIST 228 History of U.S. Civil Rights and Black Power (not offered in 2015-2016)

HIST 276 The African Diaspora in Latin America (not offered in 2015-2016)

HIST 280 African in the Arab World

HIST 281 War in Modern Africa (not offered in 2015-2016)

HIST 286 Africans in the Arab World: On Site and Revisited (not offered in 2015-2016)

HIST 324 The Concord Intellectuals (not offered in 2015-2016)

HIST 381 U.S. Relations with Ghana (not offered in 2015-2016)

HIST 382 U.S. Relations with Ghana: The Field Trip and Beyond (not offered in 2015-2016)

RELG 210 Prophecy and Social Criticism in America

RELG 227 Liberation Theologies

RELG 244 Hip Hop, Reggae, and Religion: Music and the Religion-Political Imagination of the Black Atlantic (not offered in 2015-2016)

RELG 262 Islamic Africa

RELG 326 Religion and the Post-Colonial Imagination

Social Sciences

AFAM 130 African American Social Movements (not offered in 2015-2016)

AFAM 194 The Black Middle Class (not offered in 2015-2016)

EDUC 225 Issues in Urban Education

EDUC 245 The History of American School Reform

ENTS 264 Ethiopia and Tanzania Program: Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa (not offered in 2015-2016)

ENTS 280 Ethiopia and Tanzania Program: Research Projects on Conservation and Development

ENTS 284 Ethiopia and Tanzania Program: Cultural Studies

POSC 207 Urban Politics in a Global Era (not offered in 2015-2016)

POSC 218 Schools, Scholarship and Policy in the United States (not offered in 2015-2016)

POSC 266 Urban Political Economy

POSC 351 Political Theory of Martin Luther King, Jr. (not offered in 2015-2016)

POSC 366 Urban Political Economy* (not offered in 2015-2016)

PSYC 384 Psychology of Prejudice

SOAN 115 Inequality in American Society (not offered in 2015-2016)

SOAN 139 Society and Social Problems (not offered in 2015-2016)

SOAN 225 Social Movements

SOAN 256 Africa: Representation and Conflict (not offered in 2015-2016)

SOAN 272 Race and Ethnicity in the United States (not offered in 2015-2016)

SOAN 395 Ethnography of Reproduction

Additional Distribution Electives: Arts Practice

DANC 301 Contemporary Styles and Techniques: African Dance

MUSC 183J Ethnic Drumming Instruction (Juried)

MUSC 191 African Karimba Ensemble (not offered in 2015-2016)

MUSC 192 West African Drum Ensemble

MUSC 193 Mbira Ensemble (not offered in 2015-2016)

MUSC 195 Jubilee Singers

MUSC 283J Ethnic Drumming Instruction (Juried)

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 concentration, and to draw connections among them.