The program in African American and African Diaspora Studies is designed to provide students with the critical tools required, and to expose them to the historical knowledge and current research necessary, for an informed understanding of Black experiences today. The program systematically documents critical aspects of Black experiences from its antecedents in antiquity to the prominent issues of the present day. Engaging both past and contemporary aspects of these experiences provides students access to materials and events that have historically not been given adequate treatment, and allows students to contextualize current issues relating to people of African descent in an academically critical way. The program is designed to give students of people of African descent before the beginnings of the enslavement of African peoples up to the present time, as well as effectively prepare students who desire to continue on to graduate work in Black Studies.
Minimum GPA: 2.50
Learning Outcomes
1. Through interdisciplinary study, develop and display university level critical thinking, research, and writing skills, especially as it pertains to Africa, African America, and the larger African Diaspora.
2. Identify and explain key political, cultural, and historical moments, forces, and agents that have shaped Africa, African America, and the larger African Diaspora.
3. Identify and explain major literary and/or artistic movements, their impacts, goals, and prominent figures that have shaped Africa, African America, and the larger African Diaspora.
4. Develop broad knowledge about global and local Black thought at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, class, and other identity markers.
5. Apply the methods and analytical approaches of the humanities, social sciences, and/or the arts to the study of Africa, African America, and the larger African Diaspora.
6. Identify and relate historical and contemporary issues, major debates, and key conversations in and about communities throughout Africa, African America, and the larger African Diaspora.
7. Understand the historical and cultural importance of activism, especially in relationship to the creation of the field of study.