Major Requirements – 63 Total Credits
Courses cannot double count for two requirements.
Interdisciplinary Course – Required 6 credits
Each student must complete one interdisciplinary 6-credit course which, in part, specifically discusses Africana Studies as an interdisciplinary field:
- AFST 100.01: Ethics and Human Rights in Africa (26/FA)
- AFST 102: Sports and the Black Experience (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 113: Introduction to Africana Studies (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 120: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 135: Black Love and Global Solidarities
- AFST 210: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 213: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 220: Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 225: Black Music, Resistance, and Liberation (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 235: Black Love and Global Solidarities
- AFST 260: The Black Radical Tradition
- AFST 289: Global Blackness and Social Movements
- AFST 300: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 325: Slavery in the Africana Imagination (not offered 2026-27)
Survey Courses – Required 18 credits
Each student must take three of the following 6-credit courses.
- AFST 102: Sports and the Black Experience (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 113: Introduction to Africana Studies (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 120: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 210: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 215: Contemporary Theory in Black Studies (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 345: Afro-descendant Identies in Latin America Program: Afro-Latin America in Comparative Perspective (not offered 2026-27)
- ENGL 238: African Literature in English (not offered 2026-27)
- HIST 126: Black Freedom: Reconstruction to #BlackLivesMatter (not offered 2026-27)
- HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
- RELG 251: African American Religious History (not offered 2026-27)
Distribution Courses – Required 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: Theory and Practice of American Studies junior methods course, GWSS 200: Gender, Sexuality & the Pursuit of Knowledge, 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 (not offered 2026-27)
- DANC 266: Reading the Dancing Body (not offered 2026-27)
- ENGL 205: “Passing Strange”: Shakespeare’s Othello and its Modern Afterlives (not offered 2026-27)
- ENGL 230: Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present (not offered 2026-27)
- ENGL 238: African Literature in English (not offered 2026-27)
- ENGL 258: Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage
- ENGL 350: The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts
- ENGL 352: Toni Morrison: Novelist (not offered 2026-27)
- FREN 236: Francophone Cinema and the African Experience (not offered 2026-27)
- FREN 245: Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean (not offered 2026-27)
- FREN 308: France and the African Imagination (not offered 2026-27)
- FREN 336: Francophone Cinema and the African Experience (not offered 2026-27)
- MUSC 126.01: America’s Music (27/SP)
- MUSC 130: The History of Jazz (not offered 2026-27)
- MUSC 232: Golden Age of R & B
- MUSC 332: Golden Age of R & B
- THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues (not offered 2026-27)
Humanistic Inquiry
- AFST 102: Sports and the Black Experience (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 105: Black Lives Inspire: Reading of African American Memoirs
- AFST 135: Black Love and Global Solidarities
- AFST 200: Frederick Douglass: The Politics and Philosophy of Citizenship (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 201: Comedy, Controversies, and Conversations
- AFST 205: Black Lives Inspire: Reading of African American Memoirs
- AFST 213: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 225: Black Music, Resistance, and Liberation (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 235: Black Love and Global Solidarities
- AFST 260: The Black Radical Tradition
- AFST 300: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 325: Slavery in the Africana Imagination (not offered 2026-27)
- AMST 217: Race, Gender, and Sports in America (not offered 2026-27)
- AMST 225: Beauty and Race in America (not offered 2026-27)
- GWSS 265: Black Feminist Thought (not offered 2026-27)
- HIST 125: Roots and Resistance: Africa to the U.S. Civil War (not offered 2026-27)
- HIST 209: Slavery in the Atlantic World (not offered 2026-27)
- HIST 217: Pirates, Rebels, Voodoo Queens: Black New Orleans (not offered 2026-27)
- HIST 218: Black Women’s History (not offered 2026-27)
- HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
- HIST 228: Civil Rights and Black Power (not offered 2026-27)
- HIST 280: Gender and Sexuality in African History (not offered 2026-27)
- PHIL 260: Critical Philosophy of Race (not offered 2026-27)
- RELG 227: Liberation Theologies (not offered 2026-27)
- RELG 251: African American Religious History (not offered 2026-27)
- RELG 267: Black Testimony: Art, Literature, Philosophy (not offered 2026-27)
- RELG 277: Death in American Culture
- SPAN 246: Not by Blood: Family Beyond Kinship (not offered 2026-27)
- THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues (not offered 2026-27)
Social Inquiry
- AFST 120: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 210: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
- AFST 220: Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 230: Black Europe (not offered 2026-27)
- AFST 289: Global Blackness and Social Movements
- AFST 330: Black Europe (not offered 2026-27)
- EDUC 225: Issues in Urban Education (not offered 2026-27)
- EDUC 245: School Reform: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (not offered 2026-27)
- EDUC 338: Multicultural Education
- GWSS 150: Politics of Reproductive Justice (not offered 2026-27)
- GWSS 250: Politics of Reproductive Justice (not offered 2026-27)
- POSC 209: Cause and Effect: Politics of U.S. Social Policy
- POSC 239: Gender & Politics in Africa (not offered 2026-27)
- POSC 266: Urban Political Economy (not offered 2026-27)
- POSC 273: Race and Politics in the U.S.
- POSC 275: Black Political Thought (not offered 2026-27)
- POSC 302: Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
- POSC 311: Bureaucracy and Belonging: Administrative Burden in U.S. Politics and Policy
- PSYC 384: Psychology of Prejudice
- RELG 170: Introduction to Black Religion
- SOAN 214: Neighborhoods and Cities: Inequalities and Identities
- SOAN 225: Social Movements
- SOAN 256: Africa: Representation and Conflict (not offered 2026-27)
- SOAN 272: Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
- SOAN 283: Immigration, Citizenship, and Belonging in the U.S. (not offered 2026-27)
- SOAN 287: Afro-descendant Identities in Latin America Program: Afro-Descendant Identities and Society (not offered 2026-27)
- SOAN 326: Ecology and Anthropology in Tanzania Program: Cultural Anthropology of East Africa
- SOAN 395: Ethnography of Reproduction (not offered 2026-27)
Additional Distribution Electives: Arts Practice
Senior Seminar – Required 3 credits
- AFST 398: Africana Studies Capstone
Senior Integrative Exercise – Required 6 credits
- AFST 400: Integrative Exercise