African American Studies Minor

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The minor in African American Studies compresses the unique and diverse experiences of African Americans into a manageable and definable programs of study that acknowledges the interconnectedness of these experiences with the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora. Viewed from multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary perspectives, courses in the African American studies minor provide the opportunity for students to study, analyze and develop a comprehensive understanding of the African American experience in ways that both link and differentiate past and present circumstances in the African Diaspora. A diaspora approach to the study of the African American experience is concerned with the following two issues: 1) the way in which African cultural, social, religious, and political forms influence African descended persons and communities, and how such forms changed through interaction with non-African cultures; and 2) comparisons and correspondence among communities of African descended people who are geographically separated and/or culturally distinct.

The African American Studies minor, housed in the History Department, consists of a minimum of 21 semester hours:

Required Courses (9 hrs)

AFAM 190: African American Experience

AFAM 343: Communities of Struggle

AFAM 353: Radical Blackness

Restricted Electives (12 hrs)

Choose from the following categories (note that for all electives, students may not have more than 6 hours with any one course prefix):

History (3 hrs)

HIST 330: History of Africa Before 1500

HIST 359: Blacks in American History Since 1877

HIST 390: Blacks in the American South

Cultural Studies (3 hrs)

ENG 393: African American Literature

COMM 463: Advanced Intercultural Communication

FLK 330: Cultural Connections and Diversity

RELS 309: Global Christianity

Other Electives (6 hrs)

Additional courses may be approved by the advisor.

AFAM/HIST 329: Black Intellectual History

AFAM 490: African American Seminar

CSJ 200: Introduction to Social Justice

CRIM 361: Race, Class, and Crime

ENG 388: Postcolonial Studies

PH 412: Health Disparities and Health Equity

PS 373: Minority Politics

RELS 306: Islam

RELS 331: Islam in America: Hope & Hip Hop

SOCL 260: Race and Ethnic Relations

SOCL 362: Social Institutions: Race, Class, and Gender

ANTH 342: Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean

ANTH 410: African-American Music

FLK 342: Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean

FLK 377: African-American Folklore

FLK 410: African-American Music

 

In addition to these courses, faculty in the minor program offer a variety of study abroad/ study away opportunities.

For more information, contact the African American Studies Advisor, Andrew Rosa (andrew.rosa@wku.edu).