Africana Studies
The program in Africana 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 Africana 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. Africana 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 Africana 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 Africana Studies create their own program of study by choosing courses in a structured and reflective manner from a variety of disciplinary departments, complementing some core Africana Studies courses. 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 AFSTPERT 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 Africana Studies before declaring their major.
Requirements for the Africana Studies Major
The Africana Studies major requires 63 credits; courses cannot double count for two requirements.
- Interdisciplinary Course (6 credits). Each student must complete one interdisciplinary 6-credit course which, in part, specifically discusses Africana Studies as an interdisciplinary field:
- AFST 100 Sports, the Black Experience, and the American Dream
- AFST 100 Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 113 Introduction to Africana Studies
- AFST 115 Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 120 Race and Racism Outside the U.S. (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 220 Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 230 Black Diaspora, Politics of Place (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 325 Slavery in the Africana Imagination
- Survey Courses (18 credits). Each student must take three of the following 6-credit courses:
- AFST 100 Sports, the Black Experience, and the American Dream
- AFST 100 Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 113 Introduction to Africana Studies
- AFST 120 Race and Racism Outside the U.S. (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 210 Historiographies of Slavery (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 215 Contemporary Theory in Black Studies
- ARTH 140 African Art and Culture (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 117 African American Literature (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 238 African Literature in English
- HIST 126 African American History II
- HIST 181 West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 183 History of Early West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 184 Colonial West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 220 From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
- HIST 284 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia
- SOAN 108 In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter (not offered in 2023-24)
- Distribution Courses (30 credits). Each student should take 30 credits of distribution that are essential to Africana Studies. Among these distribution courses, students must choose at least one 6-credit course each from among the three disciplinary groups: Humanistic Inquiry, Social Inquiry, and Literary and Artistic Analysis; 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 Africana Studies. In addition, majors are highly encouraged to take the AMST 345 junior methods course, GWSS 200, or a methods course in one of the academic disciplines that contribute to Africana Studies. Courses cannot double count for two requirements.
Literary and Artistic Analysis- CAMS 219 African Cinema: A Quest for Identity and Self-Definition
- DANC 266 Reading The Dancing Body (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 205 “Passing Strange”: Shakespeare’s Othello and its Modern Afterlives
- ENGL 230 Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present
- ENGL 233 Writing and Social Justice (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 238 African Literature in English
- ENGL 252 Caribbean Fiction (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 258 Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 350 The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 352 Toni Morrison: Novelist
- FREN 245 Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean (not offered in 2023-24)
- FREN 308 France and the African Imagination
- MUSC 126 America's Music
- MUSC 130 The History of Jazz (not offered in 2023-24)
- MUSC 131 The Blues From the Delta to Chicago (not offered in 2023-24)
- MUSC 140 Ethnomusicology and the World's Music
- MUSC 232 Golden Age of R & B (not offered in 2023-24)
- MUSC 334 Marvin Gaye (not offered in 2023-24)
Humanistic Inquiry- AFST 115 Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 130 Global Islam and Blackness (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 210 Historiographies of Slavery (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 325 Slavery in the Africana Imagination
- AMST 225 Beauty and Race in America
- GWSS 265 Black Feminist Thought (not offered in 2023-24)
- GWSS 289 Pleasure, Intimacy, Violence (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 125 African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 127 Early Africa in the Global Context
- HIST 128 Southern Africa to the Minerals Revolution
- HIST 180 Modern Africa, 1800-Present
- HIST 181 West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 184 Colonial West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 218 Black Women's History
- HIST 219 Black Revolutions in the Atlantic World (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 220 From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
- HIST 224 Disease, Health, and Healing in African History
- HIST 225 Migrant Labor and Masculinities in Southern African History
- HIST 228 Civil Rights and Black Power
- HIST 230 Black Americans and the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 281 War in Modern Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 282 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: African Diaspora in Arabia
- HIST 283 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Thinking Historically in the Present
- HIST 284 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia
- HIST 285 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Critical Historical Research
- HIST 383 Africa's Colonial Legacies (not offered in 2023-24)
- PHIL 228 Freedom and Alienation in Black American Philosophy (not offered in 2023-24)
- PHIL 260 Philosophy of Race
- RELG 212 Black Religious Thought
- RELG 220 Justice and Responsibility (not offered in 2023-24)
- RELG 227 Liberation Theologies (not offered in 2023-24)
- RELG 236 Black Love: Religious, Political, and Cultural Discussions
- RELG 267 Black Testimony: Art, Literature, Philosophy
Social Inquiry- AFST 220 Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 330 Black Europe
- EDUC 138 Multicultural Education
- EDUC 225 Issues in Urban Education (not offered in 2023-24)
- EDUC 245 School Reform: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
- EDUC 338 Multicultural Education
- GWSS 250 Politics of Reproductive Justice (not offered in 2023-24)
- POSC 218 Schools, Scholarship and Policy in the United States (not offered in 2023-24)
- POSC 266 Urban Political Economy (not offered in 2023-24)
- POSC 273 Race and Politics in the U.S.
- POSC 275 Black Political Thought
- POSC 302 Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
- POSC 366 Urban Political Economy (not offered in 2023-24)
- PSYC 384 Psychology of Prejudice
- SOAN 108 In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter (not offered in 2023-24)
- SOAN 151 Global Minnesota: An Anthropology of Our State (not offered in 2023-24)
- SOAN 214 Neighborhoods and Cities: Inequalities and Identities
- SOAN 225 Social Movements
- SOAN 256 Africa: Representation and Conflict (not offered in 2023-24)
- SOAN 310 Sociology of Mass Incarceration (not offered in 2023-24)
- SOAN 314 Contemporary Issues in Critical Criminology (not offered in 2023-24)
- SOAN 326 Ecology and Anthropology Tanzania Program: Cultural Anthropology of East Africa
- SOAN 395 Ethnography of Reproduction
Additional Distribution Electives: Arts Practice
- Senior Seminar/Capstone Experience (3 credits)
This 3-credit course gives Africana Studies majors and minors the opportunity to apply what they have learned by preparing for and presenting at the annual National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) conference. Under the guidance of Africana Studies faculty members, students will interrogate the origins and institutionalization of Africana Studies, revise an Africana Studies-themed research paper completed in a previous course into a conference paper, and prepare and submit a paper proposal for NCBS. At NCBS, students will present their own research and engage with the work of Africana Studies scholars at panels, plenaries, and workshops. Afterward, they will write a short assessment of the conference and their experience in Africana Studies at Carleton.
- Comprehensive Exercise AFST 400 (6 credits)
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.
Other Courses Pertinent to Africana Studies
- ARTH 160 American Art to 1940 (not offered in 2023-24)
- CLAS 220 From the Horn to Melqart’s Pillars: African Perspectives in the Ancient Mediterranean (not offered in 2023-24)
- ECON 240 Microeconomics of Development
- EDUC 340 Race, Immigration, and Schools (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 234 Literature of the American South (not offered in 2023-24)
- FREN 246 Contemporary Senegal (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 125 African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 126 African American History II
- HIST 220 From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
- HIST 228 Civil Rights and Black Power
- HIST 304 Black Study and the University (not offered in 2023-24)
- MUSC 136 History of Rock (not offered in 2023-24)
- POSC 122 Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
- POSC 241 Ethnic Conflict
- RELG 122 Introduction to Islam
Africana Studies Minor
The Africana Studies minor 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 Africana Studies minor 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 Africana Studies minors draw connections among these courses through an interdisciplinary reflective capstone experience.
Fostering interdisciplinary critical thinking, the Africana Studies minor 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 Africana Studies Minor
The Africana Studies minor requires 39 credits (seven courses) as follows. Courses cannot double count for two requirements.
One core interdisciplinary (6-credit) course which, in part, specifically discusses Africana Studies as a coherent field of study:
- AFST 100 Sports, the Black Experience, and the American Dream
- AFST 100 Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 113 Introduction to Africana Studies
- AFST 115 Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 120 Race and Racism Outside the U.S. (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 220 Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 230 Black Diaspora, Politics of Place (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 325 Slavery in the Africana Imagination
Two survey courses (12 credits) that introduce the "state of the field" of African and/or African Diaspora studies within specific disciplines:
- AFST 100 Sports, the Black Experience, and the American Dream
- AFST 100 Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 113 Introduction to Africana Studies
- AFST 120 Race and Racism Outside the U.S. (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 210 Historiographies of Slavery (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 215 Contemporary Theory in Black Studies
- ARTH 140 African Art and Culture (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 117 African American Literature (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 238 African Literature in English
- HIST 126 African American History II
- HIST 181 West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 183 History of Early West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 184 Colonial West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 220 From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
- HIST 284 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia
- SOAN 108 In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter (not offered in 2023-24)
Three distribution courses (18 credits) that combine depth and breadth in the field. Each student should take 18 credits chosen from at least two of the following disciplinary groups: Literary and Artistic Analysis, Humanistic Inquiry and Social Inquiry. 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 Africana Studies encompassing African, African American and African Diaspora 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.
- Literary/Artistic Analysis
- CAMS 219 African Cinema: A Quest for Identity and Self-Definition
- DANC 266 Reading The Dancing Body (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 205 “Passing Strange”: Shakespeare’s Othello and its Modern Afterlives
- ENGL 230 Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present
- ENGL 233 Writing and Social Justice (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 238 African Literature in English
- ENGL 252 Caribbean Fiction (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 258 Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 350 The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts (not offered in 2023-24)
- ENGL 352 Toni Morrison: Novelist
- FREN 245 Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean (not offered in 2023-24)
- FREN 308 France and the African Imagination
- MUSC 126 America's Music
- MUSC 130 The History of Jazz (not offered in 2023-24)
- MUSC 131 The Blues From the Delta to Chicago (not offered in 2023-24)
- MUSC 140 Ethnomusicology and the World's Music
- MUSC 232 Golden Age of R & B (not offered in 2023-24)
- MUSC 334 Marvin Gaye (not offered in 2023-24)
- Humanistic Inquiry
- AFST 115 Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 130 Global Islam and Blackness (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 210 Historiographies of Slavery (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 325 Slavery in the Africana Imagination
- AMST 225 Beauty and Race in America
- GWSS 265 Black Feminist Thought (not offered in 2023-24)
- GWSS 289 Pleasure, Intimacy, Violence (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 125 African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 127 Early Africa in the Global Context
- HIST 128 Southern Africa to the Minerals Revolution
- HIST 180 Modern Africa, 1800-Present
- HIST 181 West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 184 Colonial West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 218 Black Women's History
- HIST 219 Black Revolutions in the Atlantic World (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 220 From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
- HIST 224 Disease, Health, and Healing in African History
- HIST 225 Migrant Labor and Masculinities in Southern African History
- HIST 228 Civil Rights and Black Power
- HIST 230 Black Americans and the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 281 War in Modern Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
- HIST 282 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: African Diaspora in Arabia
- HIST 283 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Thinking Historically in the Present
- HIST 284 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia
- HIST 285 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Critical Historical Research
- HIST 383 Africa's Colonial Legacies (not offered in 2023-24)
- PHIL 228 Freedom and Alienation in Black American Philosophy (not offered in 2023-24)
- PHIL 260 Philosophy of Race
- RELG 212 Black Religious Thought
- RELG 220 Justice and Responsibility (not offered in 2023-24)
- RELG 227 Liberation Theologies (not offered in 2023-24)
- RELG 236 Black Love: Religious, Political, and Cultural Discussions
- RELG 267 Black Testimony: Art, Literature, Philosophy
- Social Inquiry
- AFST 220 Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered in 2023-24)
- AFST 330 Black Europe
- EDUC 138 Multicultural Education
- EDUC 225 Issues in Urban Education (not offered in 2023-24)
- EDUC 245 School Reform: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
- EDUC 338 Multicultural Education
- GWSS 250 Politics of Reproductive Justice (not offered in 2023-24)
- POSC 218 Schools, Scholarship and Policy in the United States (not offered in 2023-24)
- POSC 266 Urban Political Economy (not offered in 2023-24)
- POSC 273 Race and Politics in the U.S.
- POSC 275 Black Political Thought
- POSC 302 Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
- POSC 366 Urban Political Economy (not offered in 2023-24)
- PSYC 384 Psychology of Prejudice
- SOAN 108 In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter (not offered in 2023-24)
- SOAN 151 Global Minnesota: An Anthropology of Our State (not offered in 2023-24)
- SOAN 214 Neighborhoods and Cities: Inequalities and Identities
- SOAN 225 Social Movements
- SOAN 256 Africa: Representation and Conflict (not offered in 2023-24)
- SOAN 310 Sociology of Mass Incarceration (not offered in 2023-24)
- SOAN 314 Contemporary Issues in Critical Criminology (not offered in 2023-24)
- SOAN 326 Ecology and Anthropology Tanzania Program: Cultural Anthropology of East Africa
- SOAN 395 Ethnography of Reproduction
- Additional Distribution Electives:
Senior Seminar/Capstone Experience (3 credits)
- AFST 398 Africana Studies Capstone
Minors are highly encouraged to take the AMST 345 junior methods course.