Painting by Faith Ringgold: The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles

Africana Studies explores the traditions and experiences of Africans in the New and Old Worlds. Students examine a range of topics using a cross-cultural and comparative lens. We study cultural and artistic creativity and construction of self. And we investigate marginality, responses to exclusion, and gender, class, race, and ethnicity.

Painting by Faith Ringgold: The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles

About 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 tagged AFST Pertinent 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 113: Introduction to Africana Studies · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 115: Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 120: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
  • AFST 220: Color, Class, and Status in Black America
  • AFST 225: Black Music, Resistance, and Liberation
  • AFST 230: Black Diaspora, Politics of Place · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 289: Global Blackness and Social Movements
  • AFST 300: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US
  • AFST 325: Slavery in the Africana Imagination · not offered in 2024-25
  • 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 113: Introduction to Africana Studies · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 120: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
  • AFST 215: Contemporary Theory in Black Studies · not offered in 2024-25
  • ARTH 140: African Art and Culture · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 238: African Literature in English · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 126: African American History II
  • HIST 181: West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 183: History of Early West Africa · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 184: Colonial West Africa · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 284: History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 108: In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter · not offered in 2024-25
  • 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 · not offered in 2024-25
  • DANC 266: Reading the Dancing Body
  • ENGL 205: “Passing Strange”: Shakespeare’s Othello and its Modern Afterlives · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 230: Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present
  • ENGL 233: Writing and Social Justice
  • ENGL 238: African Literature in English · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 252: Caribbean Fiction · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 258: Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 350: The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 352: Toni Morrison: Novelist · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 395: Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts
  • FREN 245: Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean
  • FREN 308: France and the African Imagination · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 126: Music in the American South Program: America’s Music · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 131: The Blues From the Delta to Chicago · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 140: Ethnomusicology and the World’s Music
  • MUSC 232: Golden Age of R & B
  • THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues · not offered in 2024-25

Humanistic Inquiry

  • AFST 115: Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 130: Global Islam and Blackness · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 200: Frederick Douglass: the Politics and Philosophy of Citizenship
  • AFST 225: Black Music, Resistance, and Liberation
  • AFST 300: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US
  • AFST 325: Slavery in the Africana Imagination · not offered in 2024-25
  • AMST 217: Race, Gender, and Sports in America
  • AMST 225: Beauty and Race in America · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 265: Black Feminist Thought · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 289: Pleasure, Intimacy, Violence · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 125: African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War
  • HIST 127: Early Africa in the Global Context · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 128: Southern Africa to the Minerals Revolution · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 180: Modern Africa, 1800-Present · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 181: West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 184: Colonial West Africa · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 209: Slavery in the Atlantic World
  • HIST 218: Black Women’s History · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 219: Black Revolutions in the Atlantic World · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 224: Disease, Health, and Healing in African History · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 228: Civil Rights and Black Power · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 230: Black Americans and the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 280: Gender and Sexuality in African History
  • HIST 281: War in Modern Africa · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 282: History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: African Diaspora in Arabia · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 284: History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 285: History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Critical Historical Research · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 286: Ecology and Society in African History · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 288: Writing the African Revolution
  • HIST 383: Africa’s Colonial Legacies · not offered in 2024-25
  • PHIL 260: Philosophy of Race
  • RELG 212: Black Religious Thought · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 220: Justice and Responsibility · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 227: Liberation Theologies
  • RELG 236: Black Love: Religious, Political, and Cultural Discussions · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 267: Black Testimony: Art, Literature, Philosophy · not offered in 2024-25
  • SPAN 246: Not by Blood: Family Beyond Kinship
  • THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues · not offered in 2024-25

Social Inquiry

  • AFST 220: Color, Class, and Status in Black America
  • AFST 289: Global Blackness and Social Movements
  • AFST 330: Black Europe · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 225: Issues in Urban Education · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 245: School Reform: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 338: Multicultural Education
  • GWSS 250: Politics of Reproductive Justice · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 266: Urban Political Economy
  • POSC 273: Race and Politics in the U.S.
  • POSC 275: Black Political Thought · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 302: Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
  • POSC 366: Urban Political Economy · not offered in 2024-25
  • PSYC 384: Psychology of Prejudice
  • SOAN 108: In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 151: Global Minnesota: An Anthropology of Our State · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 214: Neighborhoods and Cities: Inequalities and Identities
  • SOAN 225: Social Movements
  • SOAN 256: Africa: Representation and Conflict · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 283: Immigration, Citizenship, and Belonging in the U.S.
  • SOAN 310: Sociology of Mass Incarceration · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 314: Contemporary Issues in Critical Criminology · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 326: Ecology and Anthropology Tanzania Program: Cultural Anthropology of East Africa
  • SOAN 395: Ethnography of Reproduction · not offered in 2024-25

Additional Distribution Electives: Arts Practice

 

  • Senior Seminar/Capstone Experience (3 credits)

This three-credit course gives Africana Studies majors and minors the opportunity to reflect on their learning in Africana Studies and to prepare to apply this knowledge to future endeavors. In this capstone course, the student creates a portfolio of their work in Africana Studies and writes a five-ten 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 and related to their AFST major/minor, and to draw connections among them.

  • 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.

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 113: Introduction to Africana Studies · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 115: Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 120: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
  • AFST 220: Color, Class, and Status in Black America
  • AFST 225: Black Music, Resistance, and Liberation
  • AFST 230: Black Diaspora, Politics of Place · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 289: Global Blackness and Social Movements
  • AFST 300: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US
  • AFST 325: Slavery in the Africana Imagination · not offered in 2024-25

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 113: Introduction to Africana Studies · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 120: Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
  • AFST 215: Contemporary Theory in Black Studies · not offered in 2024-25
  • ARTH 140: African Art and Culture · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 238: African Literature in English · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 126: African American History II
  • HIST 181: West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 183: History of Early West Africa · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 184: Colonial West Africa · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 284: History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 108: In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter · not offered in 2024-25

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 · not offered in 2024-25
  • DANC 266: Reading the Dancing Body
  • ENGL 205: “Passing Strange”: Shakespeare’s Othello and its Modern Afterlives · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 230: Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present
  • ENGL 233: Writing and Social Justice
  • ENGL 238: African Literature in English · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 252: Caribbean Fiction · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 258: Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 350: The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 352: Toni Morrison: Novelist · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 395: Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts
  • FREN 245: Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean
  • FREN 308: France and the African Imagination · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 126: Music in the American South Program: America’s Music · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 131: The Blues From the Delta to Chicago · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 140: Ethnomusicology and the World’s Music
  • MUSC 232: Golden Age of R & B
  • THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues · not offered in 2024-25

Humanistic Inquiry

  • AFST 115: Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 130: Global Islam and Blackness · not offered in 2024-25
  • AFST 200: Frederick Douglass: the Politics and Philosophy of Citizenship
  • AFST 225: Black Music, Resistance, and Liberation
  • AFST 300: Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US
  • AFST 325: Slavery in the Africana Imagination · not offered in 2024-25
  • AMST 217: Race, Gender, and Sports in America
  • AMST 225: Beauty and Race in America · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 265: Black Feminist Thought · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 289: Pleasure, Intimacy, Violence · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 125: African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War
  • HIST 127: Early Africa in the Global Context · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 128: Southern Africa to the Minerals Revolution · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 180: Modern Africa, 1800-Present · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 181: West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 184: Colonial West Africa · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 209: Slavery in the Atlantic World
  • HIST 218: Black Women’s History · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 219: Black Revolutions in the Atlantic World · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 224: Disease, Health, and Healing in African History · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 228: Civil Rights and Black Power · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 230: Black Americans and the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 280: Gender and Sexuality in African History
  • HIST 281: War in Modern Africa · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 282: History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: African Diaspora in Arabia · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 284: History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 285: History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Critical Historical Research · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 286: Ecology and Society in African History · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 288: Writing the African Revolution
  • HIST 383: Africa’s Colonial Legacies · not offered in 2024-25
  • PHIL 260: Philosophy of Race
  • RELG 212: Black Religious Thought · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 220: Justice and Responsibility · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 227: Liberation Theologies
  • RELG 236: Black Love: Religious, Political, and Cultural Discussions · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 267: Black Testimony: Art, Literature, Philosophy · not offered in 2024-25
  • SPAN 246: Not by Blood: Family Beyond Kinship
  • THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues · not offered in 2024-25

Social Inquiry

  • AFST 220: Color, Class, and Status in Black America
  • AFST 289: Global Blackness and Social Movements
  • AFST 330: Black Europe · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 225: Issues in Urban Education · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 245: School Reform: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 338: Multicultural Education
  • GWSS 250: Politics of Reproductive Justice · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 266: Urban Political Economy
  • POSC 273: Race and Politics in the U.S.
  • POSC 275: Black Political Thought · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 302: Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
  • POSC 366: Urban Political Economy · not offered in 2024-25
  • PSYC 384: Psychology of Prejudice
  • SOAN 108: In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 151: Global Minnesota: An Anthropology of Our State · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 214: Neighborhoods and Cities: Inequalities and Identities
  • SOAN 225: Social Movements
  • SOAN 256: Africa: Representation and Conflict · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 283: Immigration, Citizenship, and Belonging in the U.S.
  • SOAN 310: Sociology of Mass Incarceration · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 314: Contemporary Issues in Critical Criminology · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 326: Ecology and Anthropology Tanzania Program: Cultural Anthropology of East Africa
  • SOAN 395: Ethnography of Reproduction · not offered in 2024-25

Additional Distribution Electives

Senior Seminar/Capstone Experience (3 credits)

This three-credit course gives Africana Studies majors and minors the opportunity to reflect on their learning in Africana Studies and to prepare to apply this knowledge to future endeavors. In this capstone course, the student creates a portfolio of their work in Africana Studies and writes a five-ten 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 and related to their AFST major/minor, and to draw connections among them.

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

Africana Studies Courses

  • AFST 100 Sports, the Black Experience, and the American Dream

    With an emphasis on critical reading and writing in an academic context, this course will examine the role of sports in American politics and social organizations. The course pays attention to the African American experience, noting especially the confluence of race and sports. What can sports tell us about freedom, equality, and the pursuit of happiness? How has the Black community contributed to our appreciation of these American virtues? We will read short texts and biographies, and we will watch movies such as King Richard and The Blind Side. Students will produce short writing exercises aimed at developing their critical thinking and clear writing.

  • AFST 101 Ecology and Anthropology Tanzania Program: Elementary Swahili

    Elementary Swahili introduces students to the communicative use of Swahili, emphasizing communicative competence in real contexts. Ninety percent of instruction is conducted in the target language. Vocabulary and grammar are taught in context. Instruction pays attention to the cultural information in relevant contexts of communication. The main learning/teaching styles used include role plays, prepared presentations, interactive lectures, classroom conversations, and dramatization. In addition to the class textbook, authentic source materials are used, such as pictures, songs, short stories, poems and essays. Student assessment is continuous, and includes classroom participation, homework, written exams and oral exams.

  • AFST 113 Introduction to Africana Studies

    This course focuses on the histories, ideas, experiences, and dreams that have shaped the lives of people of African descent. Then and now perspectives will define our exploration of incarceration and freedom; migration and emigration; separatism versus integration; race and class; art and politics. Discussion topics and seminal ideas will be drawn from texts including the following: the anthology Call and Response (on key debates in Black studies); the historical memoir Lose Your Mother (chronicling a journey along the Atlantic slave route); a work of fiction Middle Passage (that tells a story of enslavement, revolt, and redemption).

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • AFST 115 Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America

    This course examines motifs of Black Heroism throughout the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and Early America. We take an interdisciplinary and Black Studies approach to topics like slave life and maroonage, freedom suits, military enlistment, and more. The course material will include fiction like Frederick Douglass' The Heroic Slave as well as theoretical texts like Neil Roberts Freedom as Maroonage. The aim of the course is to provide a look at the multifacted lives of Black people in the diaspora and early America with an emphasis on complex and quotidian resistance to domination.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • AFST 120 Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States

    This course examines blackness and whiteness as constructs outside the U.S.  Racial categories and their meanings will be considered through a range of topics: skin color stratification, nationalism, migration and citizenship, education, popular culture and media, spatial segregation and others.  Central to the course will be considering how racism and anti-blackness vary across societies, as well as the transnational and global flows of racial ideas and categories. Examples will be drawn from the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.  

  • AFST 130 Global Islam and Blackness

    This course will introduce students to key trends and moments in Islamic thought and activism in Africa and the black diaspora. It explores the historical construction of the categories of “race” and “religion” through a focus on Islam and blackness. We will analyze how blackness and Islam, and their relationship, has been conceptualized and presented by non-Africans, as well as the history of Islam in Africa and in the black diaspora. We will explore the construction of blackness within Islamic history and cultures, highlighting the notion of the Moor in medieval times and the Nation of Islam in U.S. history.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • AFST 200 Frederick Douglass: the Politics and Philosophy of Citizenship

    This course provides a critical study of Frederick Douglass, a man who rose from slavery to establish himself as one of the most important thinkers of his time. Through a political philosophical reading of his works, the course will trace the evolution of his views on freedom, equality, citizenship, political and moral responsibility, among others. Questions that will guide our discussions include: what does it mean to be free? What are the responsibilities of citizens in a liberal democracy? What lessons can the black experience teach us about these? In addition to Douglass’ primary texts, the class will read secondary texts that celebrate his political philosophical legacy

  • AFST 215 Contemporary Theory in Black Studies

    This course examines the major theories of the Africana intellectual tradition. It introduces students to major concepts and socio-political thoughts that set the stage for Africana Studies as a discipline. With the knowledge of the historical contexts of the Black intellectual struggle and the accompanying cultural movements, students will examine the genealogy, debates and the future directions of Black Studies. Students are invited to take a dedicated dive into primary scholarship by focusing on foundational thinkers to be studied such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Frantz Fanon, Steve Biko, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and bell hooks, among others.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • AFST 220 Color, Class, and Status in Black America

    As a racial category and identity, “Black” is often treated in a homogenous, monolithic way, obscuring the internal diversity and inequality within the black population in the U.S. In this course, we consider the inequalities within black communities and the black population living in the U.S., historically and through to the present. “Colorism,” or skin tone stratification, represents one status linked to class and ranking in society; but does colorism matter more than other statuses to class? Class differences are in fact profound within black communities, and they are correlated to multiple social statuses–skin tone, immigrant status, national origin, and even political orientation. We will examine how these status, color, and class interact, and how they shape class relations and tensions, lived experience, and notions of authenticity (“blackness”) in everday life and popular culture. Course topics include the Black middle class; education; neighborhood segregation; gender and sexuality; and media representations and popular culture.

  • AFST 225 Black Music, Resistance, and Liberation

    For every defining moment in black history, there is a song. Every genre of black music makes a statement not only about the specific historical epoch it was created but also about the people’s dreams. For black people, songs are a means of resistance to oppression and an expression of the will to live. Through the analysis of black music, this course will expose students to black people’s struggles, hopes, and aspirations, and also American history, race relations, and much more. The class will read insightful texts, listen to songs, watch films, and engage in animated discussions.

  • AFST 230 Black Diaspora, Politics of Place

    Central to diasporic identity formation and imagination is the simultaneous belonging to a multiplicity of places. For black diasporic subjects, struggles against oppression and for new political futures inspire transgression against normative political boundaries. This class explores the role of place and politics in the making of the black diaspora in Europe and the Americas. It emphasizes the intellectual and political connections and the sense of shared identity and destiny. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this course will offer a global history of race, identity, and politics through the lens of the black diaspora.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • AFST 289 Global Blackness and Social Movements

    This course considers Black social movements from around the globe, with an emphasis on non-U.S. contexts.  Examining multiple movements both past and present, it takes a comparative approach to understanding the unique and variable ways that Black communities have articulated the Black condition, and mobilized and resisted oppression.  Central to the course is the question of Blackness as a global and transnational identity; as well as the extent to which movements themselves form ties and mutually inform each other across national boundaries. 

  • AFST 300 Race, Racism, and the Beloved Community in the US

    Race and racism played a significant role in the construction of the United States of America. But so did the quest for a more perfect union and the beloved community. This course introduces students to the complexity of racial ideology and the ways it privileges one group of people while placing others at a disadvantage. We shall examine the experiences of all racialized groups (Blacks, Asians, American Indians, Latinos) and how they resisted the injustice against them. Most importantly, we shall analyze how their quest for liberation brought America closer to its foundational ideal that all humans are created equal and are endowed with unalienable rights.

  • AFST 325 Slavery in the Africana Imagination

    Through the lens of former slaves and their descendants in America, this course explores ways in which the slave and neo-slave narratives attend to the larger existential question of what it means to be free. The corollary notions of race, gender, identity, solidarity, among others, will also be considered. In addition, this class will investigate the ways in which the re-inscription of slavery, in contemporary literature, has impacted the development of the Africana literary tradition in terms of content, genre, and form. This course adopts an interdisciplinary approach to slavery that utilizes philosophy, literature, and media studies.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • AFST 330 Black Europe

    This course examines the history and experiences of people of African descent and black cultures in Europe. Beginning with early contacts between Africa and Europe, we examine the migration and settlement of African people and culture, and the politics and meaning of their identities and presence in Europe. Adopting a comparative perspective, we consider how blackness has been constructed in various countries through popular culture, nationalism, immigration policy, and other social institutions. We further consider how religious, gender, and immigrant identities inform notions of blackness. We conclude by examining contemporary Black European social movements.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • AFST 398 Africana Studies Capstone

    This three-credit course gives Africana Studies majors and minors the opportunity to reflect on their learning in Africana Studies and to prepare to apply this knowledge to future endeavors. In this capstone course, the student creates a portfolio of their work in Africana Studies and writes a five-ten 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 and related to their AFST major/minor, and to draw connections among them.

  • AFST 400 Integrative Exercise

    The comprehensive exercise is a substantial (approximately 34-40 page) research paper on a topic within African, African American, and/or African Diaspora studies. The student should have completed a 300-level AFST course, or a 300-level course that counts toward the AFST major. The comps process begins with a Comps Topic Development Worksheet during spring term of the junior year, a comps topic intention form followed by a proposal in fall term of the senior year, and ends with a final written thesis and oral presentation early in spring term.

    • Fall 2024, Winter 2025
    • S/NC
    • Student is in the AFST Program of Study and has Senior Priority.

    • Chielo Eze 🏫 👤

Other Courses Pertinent to Africana Studies

  • ARTH 160: American Art to 1940
  • CLAS 220: From the Horn to MelqartAs Pillars: African Perspectives in the Ancient Mediterranean · not offered in 2024-25
  • ECON 240: Microeconomics of Development
  • EDUC 340: Race, Immigration, and Schools · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 234: Literature of the American South · not offered in 2024-25
  • FREN 246: Contemporary Senegal · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 125: African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War
  • HIST 126: African American History II
  • HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 228: Civil Rights and Black Power · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 304: Black Study and the University · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 136: History of Rock · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
  • POSC 241: Ethnic Conflict · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 122: Introduction to Islam