African Area StudiesAfrican Area StudiesProfessors—Bettelheim, Hoffman, Nobles, Obenga, T'Shaka, Yansane
Associate Professor—Richards
Assistant Professors—Getz, Wangui
Lecturer—Bernstein
This aggregate of courses should lead students to appreciate the richness of Africa and its unity in diversity. It should help students to understand the issues facing African communities, societies, and nation-states in the past as well as the present. Students will examine African accomplishments, mores, traditions, cultures, and civilizations. Students should finish the minor with a greater degree of understanding of, and tolerance for, cultural differences and ethnic pluralism as well as the problems inherent in the process of social change in Africa.
Students who select this minor are presented with different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Each course provides alternate ways to describe and analyze what was, and what is, important to individual Africans; to African communities, societies, and nation-states; to the African continent as a whole; and/or to the whole of Africa as part of the Third World. Common to all the perspectives is the examination of the process of change/development/modernization. It is hoped that students will be provided the tools to enable them to build their own frames of reference, syntheses of concepts, data, and theories, as well as to enrich their social attitudes and cultural values concerning Africa.
Students will be encouraged to take advantage of the African Area Studies Minor to apply their knowledge, understanding, and interest in things African to their career goals (teaching, journalism, business, and international endeavors in the public sector, non-governmental agencies, and multilateral institutions).
Students interested in this minor should see one of the African Area Studies faculty to choose the courses most appropriate to them. (NOTE: No more than six units may be taken on a CR/NC basis; no more than nine units may be transferred from other campuses.) All students completing the minor are required to demonstrate intermediate level competency in a relevant language other than English. For specific information on how to meet the requirement students should consult with the coordinator of the minor program.
The African Area Studies Minor consists of a core curriculum of three courses which contain material and perspectives which reach across the normal disciplinary divisions of the university, plus fifteen units of upper division courses taken from the following list, on advisement.
On-line course descriptions are available.
| Core Curriculum | Units | |
| One course selected from each of the following areas: | ||
| Classical Africa | 3 | |
| AFRS 305 | Ancient Egypt | |
| CLAR 500 | Ancient Egyptian Civilization | |
| Africa: Tradition and Transition | 3 | |
| AFRS 302 | Black Diaspora | |
| HIST 610 | History of Africa | |
| ART 508 | African Art History | |
| DANC/AFRS 617 | Black Dance Experience | |
| Modern Africa | 3 | |
| AFRS 301 | Africa in Global Perspective | |
| HIST 611 | Modern Africa | |
| HUM 360 | Styles of African Cultural Expression | |
| Electives Units selected on advisement with at least one course from each group and no duplication of courses that were taken as part of the core curriculum |
15 | |
| Behavioral and Social Sciences | ||
| ANTH 315 | Regional Ethnography: East and South Africa | |
| ANTH 315 | Regional Ethnography: Peoples and Culture of West Africa | |
| GEOG 571 | Regional Studies: Africa | |
| HIST 600 | Ancient Egypt | |
| HIST 610 | History of Africa | |
| HIST 611 | Modern Africa | |
| I R 321 | Development and Foreign Policy—Africa | |
| Ethnic Studies | ||
| AFRS 300 | From Africa to Olmec America: Ancient African Prehistory and History | |
| AFRS 301 | Africa in Global Perspective | |
| AFRS 302 | Black Diaspora | |
| AFRS 305 | Ancient Egypt | |
| AFRS 411 | African/African-American Literature | |
| Humanities and Arts | ||
| ART 508 | African Art History | |
| CLAR 500 | Ancient Egyptian Civilization (to 2000 B.C.) | |
| CLAR 502 | Ancient Egyptian Language and Literature | |
| DANC/AFRS 617 | Black Dance Experience | |
| Total for minor | 24 | |
All students completing this area studies minor are required to demonstrate intermediate level competency in a language (other than English), relevant to the area. This requirement may be met by completing the university entrance requirement of two years of high school language study, one year of successful college level language study, or by demonstration of equivalent competency.