Africana Studies Minor

FACULTY:

Courtney Thompson, Chair
Omar Dieng
Miriam Kilimo
Lee McBride

Africana Studies is an academic discipline rooted in a political, social, historical, and cultural context that seeks to introduce students to knowledge and perspectives about people of African descent and the African Diaspora that are often overlooked in traditional disciplines. As a corrective, Africana Studies challenges the long-standing epistemic and paradigmatic approaches of traditional disciplines to the study of people of African descent and emphasizes Black agency and struggles for equality and freedom.

Our interdisciplinary trained faculty help students investigate, analyze, and develop multidisciplinary competencies to better understand the historical and contemporary experiences of Black people in the global world. Since its inception in 1968, the Department of Africana Studies (formerly the Black Studies Program) has prepared College of Wooster graduates to succeed and become leaders in a multicultural world.

By the end of the senior year, an Africana Studies graduate will be able to: discuss the history, development, and significance of Africana Studies as a discipline; analyze the experiences and agency of people of African descent relative to race, gender, class, sexuality, politics, migration, nationalism, and resistance from a global perspective; use appropriate methods of inquiry rooted in Afrocentric theory, Black feminist theory, critical race theory, or other relevant theoretical framework to critically evaluate topics relevant to the African Diaspora; and research, organize, and draft a well-written thesis project on an approved topic relevant to the African Diaspora.

Minor in Africana Studies

Consists of six courses:

AFST 10000 - Introduction to Africana Studies
AFST 21300 - Racism 101
One 100-level course in Africana Studies
One 200-level courses (or higher) in Africana Studies
One 200-level Theory & Methods course
One elective course in Africana Studies or cross-listed courses

Special Notes

S/NC courses are not permitted in either the major or minor.
Only grades of C- or better are accepted for the major or minor.

Cross-listed Courses Accepted for Africana Studies Credit

Art and Art History

ARTH 22000. African Art [C, AH, GE, W]

ARTH 33000. Exhibiting Africa

English

ENGL 21002. Black Women Writers [AH]

ENGL 22011. James Baldwin & Toni Morrison [AH]

ENGL 23002. Survey of African-American Literature [AH]

French and Francophone Studies

FREN 33500. W. Afr. & France:Encounters since 1900 Africa [AH, C, D, GE]

History

HIST 11500. History of Black America [C, HSS]

HIST 20119. West Africa and the African American Connection [C, HSS, W]

HIST 23100. The Making of Africa [C, HSS]

HIST 23200. Africa From Colonization to Globalization [C, HSS]

HIST 27517. From Civil Rights to Black Lives [C, HSS]

HIST 27525. Modern Black Freedom Movement [HSS, PPRE, SJ]

Music

MUSC 21400. Hist of African American Music [AH, C]

MUSC 21700. Survey of Jazz [AH,C]

Philosophy

PHIL 26700. Africana Philosophy

PHIL 29921. W.E.B. DuBois and Sylvia Wynter [AH, PPRE, SJ]

Political Science

PSCI 20800. Race and Power [C, HSS, D, SJ]

PSCI 24900. The Government & Politics of Africa [C, HSS, D, GE]

Religious Studies

RELS 26100. The Black Religious Experience in America [C, R]

Sociology and Anthropology

SOCI 20900. Inequality in America [HSS]

SOCI 21400. Racial & Ethnic Groups in Amer Society [C, HSS, D]