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Bachelor of Arts in African and African American Studies

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African and African American Studies

MAJOR

Majors must complete a total of 60 units, which include the following:

  1. AFRICAAM 105. Introduction to African and African American Studies (WIM),

    or ENGLISH 143. Introduction to African American Literature

    and

    ENGLISH 152D. W. E. B. Du Bois as Writer and Philosopher(WIM)

    or ENGLISH 172G. Great Works of the African American Literary Tradition

  2. One 5 unit course on Africa, approved by the AAAS Director and Associate Director
  3. AFRICAAM 200X. Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Seminar (
  4. 40 units from other AAAS core and cognate courses.

At least 10 of these units must be core courses, which are defined as courses that are primarily focused on Africa, African American Studies, the Caribbean, or the African Diaspora.

Students also work closely with a faculty adviser, the AAAS associate director, and the AAAS director in developing a coherent thematic emphasis within their major that reflects their scholarly interests in the field.

THEMATIC EMPHASIS

AAAS majors select a thematic emphasis, devoting at least 25 units in their major program of study toward their emphasis. Selecting an emphasis allows students to customize their curriculum and synthesize course work taken across various departments and programs into a coherent focus. Emphases offered include:

All emphases (those listed as well as proposed alternatives) must be approved by the director and a course plan developed and approved by the director, associate director, and faculty adviser within the first year of declaring the major.

HONORS PROGRAM

AAAS offers a special program leading to honors in African and African American Studies. Students accepted to this program mustcomplete an honors thesis on an approved topic, on which work normally begins in the junior year and be completed by mid-May of the senior year. The honors thesis is intended to enable students to synthesize skills to produce a document or project demonstrating a measure of competence in their specialty.

The honors program begins with extensive advising from the faculty adviser and a petition for honors, approved no later than the Spring Quarter of the junior year. Students must enroll in AFRICAAM 200X, Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Seminar, during Autumn Quarter of the senior year and may take up to an additional 10 units of honors work to be distributed across Winter and Spring quarters of senior year. Senior Research units are taken in addition to the required courses for the major. In May of the senior year, honors students share their research findings in a public presentation to which faculty and students are invited.

Majors who have maintained a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.5 in the major may apply for the honors program. Forms are available in the AAAS office.

CORE COURSES

Subject and Catalog Number

Units

AFRICAAM 105. Intro to African and African American Studies (WIM)

5

AFRICAAM 106: Race, Ethnicity, and Linguistic Diversity in the Classroom

5

AFRICAAM 123/ENGLISH 172G. Great Works of the African American Tradition

5

AFRICAAM 200X. Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Seminar

5

AFRICAAM 43/ENGLISH 143. Introduction to African and African American Literature

5

AFRICAAM 152/ENGLISH 152D. W. E. B. Du Bois and American Culture
(WIM)

5

AFRICAAM 123/ENGLISH 172G. Great Works of the African American Tradition

5

FRENLIT 133. Literature and Society: Introduction to Francophone Literature from Africa and the Caribbean

4

HISTORY 145B. Africa in the 20th Century

5

HISTORY 166. Introduction to African American History: The Modern African American Freedom Struggle

4-5

LINGUIST 65. African American Vernacular English

3-5

POLISCI 225R. Black Politics in the Post-Civil Rights Era (not given this year)

5

SOC 144. Race and Crime in America

5

AAAS COURSES

COGNATE COURSES

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