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.
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.
Learn more about the requirements, or keep track of your progress (and get your plan approved) via the AFST minor-tracking form. To declare a minor, fill out this form between the second week of your 6th term and the second week of your 10th term at Carleton.
Minor Requirements – 39 Total Credits
Courses cannot double count for two requirements.
Interdisciplinary Course – Required 6 credits
One core interdisciplinary (6-credit) course which, in part, specifically discusses Africana Studies as a coherent field of study:
- AFST 100.01: Ethics and Human Rights in Africa (25/FA)
- AFST 102: Sports and the Black Experience
- AFST 113: Introduction to Africana Studies
- AFST 120: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 135: Black Love and Global Solidarities (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 210: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 213: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 220: Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 225: Black Music, Resistance, and Liberation
- AFST 235: Black Love and Global Solidarities (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 260: The Black Radical Tradition (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 289: Global Blackness and Social Movements (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 300: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 325: Slavery in the Africana Imagination (not offered 2025-26)
Survey Courses – Required 12 credits
Two survey courses (12 credits) that introduce the “state of the field” of African and/or African Diaspora studies within specific disciplines:
- AFST 102: Sports and the Black Experience
- AFST 113: Introduction to Africana Studies
- AFST 120: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 210: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 215: Contemporary Theory in Black Studies
- AFST 345: Afro-descendant Identities in Cuba and Brazil Program: Afro-Latin America in Comparative Perspective
- ARTH 140: African Art and Culture (not offered 2025-26)
- ENGL 238: African Literature in English (not offered 2025-26)
- HIST 126: Black Freedom: Reconstruction to #BlackLivesMatter
- HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film (not offered 2025-26)
- RELG 251: African American Religious History
Distribution Courses – Required 18 credits
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 and Artistic Analysis
- CAMS 219: African Cinema: A Quest for Identity and Self-Definition (not offered 2025-26)
- DANC 266: Reading the Dancing Body (not offered 2025-26)
- ENGL 205: “Passing Strange”: Shakespeare’s Othello and its Modern Afterlives (not offered 2025-26)
- ENGL 230: Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present (not offered 2025-26)
- ENGL 238: African Literature in English (not offered 2025-26)
- ENGL 258: Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage (not offered 2025-26)
- ENGL 350: The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts (not offered 2025-26)
- ENGL 352: Toni Morrison: Novelist (not offered 2025-26)
- FREN 236: Francophone Cinema and the African Experience
- FREN 245: Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean (not offered 2025-26)
- FREN 308: France and the African Imagination (not offered 2025-26)
- FREN 336: Francophone Cinema and the African Experience
- MUSC 126.01: America’s Music (26/SP)
- MUSC 130: The History of Jazz
- MUSC 232: Golden Age of R & B (not offered 2025-26)
- MUSC 332: Golden Age of R & B (not offered 2025-26)
- THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues (not offered 2025-26)
Humanistic Inquiry
- AFST 102: Sports and the Black Experience
- AFST 105: Black Lives Inspire: Reading of African American Memoirs (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 135: Black Love and Global Solidarities (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 200: Frederick Douglass: The Politics and Philosophy of Citizenship (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 201: Comedy, Controversies, and Conversations (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 205: Black Lives Inspire: Reading of African American Memoirs (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 213: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 225: Black Music, Resistance, and Liberation
- AFST 235: Black Love and Global Solidarities (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 260: The Black Radical Tradition (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 300: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 325: Slavery in the Africana Imagination (not offered 2025-26)
- AMST 217: Race, Gender, and Sports in America (not offered 2025-26)
- AMST 225: Beauty and Race in America
- GWSS 265: Black Feminist Thought
- HIST 125: Roots and Resistance: Africa to the U.S. Civil War (not offered 2025-26)
- HIST 209: Slavery in the Atlantic World (not offered 2025-26)
- HIST 217: Pirates, Rebels, Voodoo Queens: Black New Orleans
- HIST 218: Black Women’s History (not offered 2025-26)
- HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film (not offered 2025-26)
- HIST 228: Civil Rights and Black Power (not offered 2025-26)
- HIST 230: Black Americans and the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction (not offered 2025-26)
- HIST 280: Gender and Sexuality in African History (not offered 2025-26)
- PHIL 260: Critical Philosophy of Race
- RELG 220: Justice and Responsibility (not offered 2025-26)
- RELG 227: Liberation Theologies (not offered 2025-26)
- RELG 251: African American Religious History
- RELG 267: Black Testimony: Art, Literature, Philosophy (not offered 2025-26)
- RELG 277: Death in American Culture (not offered 2025-26)
- SPAN 246: Not by Blood: Family Beyond Kinship
- THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues (not offered 2025-26)
Social Inquiry
- AFST 120: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 210: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 220: Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 230: Black Europe
- AFST 289: Global Blackness and Social Movements (not offered 2025-26)
- AFST 330: Black Europe
- EDUC 225: Issues in Urban Education
- EDUC 245: School Reform: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (not offered 2025-26)
- EDUC 338: Multicultural Education
- GWSS 150: Politics of Reproductive Justice (not offered 2025-26)
- GWSS 250: Politics of Reproductive Justice (not offered 2025-26)
- POSC 239: Gender & Politics in Africa
- POSC 266: Urban Political Economy (not offered 2025-26)
- POSC 273: Race and Politics in the U.S.
- POSC 275: Black Political Thought (not offered 2025-26)
- POSC 302: Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
- PSYC 384: Psychology of Prejudice
- RELG 170: Introduction to Black Religion (not offered 2025-26)
- SOAN 214: Neighborhoods and Cities: Inequalities and Identities (not offered 2025-26)
- SOAN 225: Social Movements (not offered 2025-26)
- SOAN 256: Africa: Representation and Conflict
- SOAN 272: Sociology of Race and Ethnicity (not offered 2025-26)
- SOAN 283: Immigration, Citizenship, and Belonging in the U.S.
- SOAN 287: Afro-descendant Identities in Cuba and Brazil: Afro-Descendant Identities and Society
- SOAN 310: Sociology of Mass Incarceration (not offered 2025-26)
- SOAN 326: Ecology and Anthropology Tanzania Program: Cultural Anthropology of East Africa
- SOAN 395: Ethnography of Reproduction
Additional Distribution Electives: Arts Practice
Senior Seminar – Required 3 credits
- AFST 398: Africana Studies Capstone
Additional Departmental Notes
- Minors are highly encouraged to take the AMST 345: Theory and Practice of American Studies junior methods course.