The African American & Black Diaspora Studies major focuses on Black people within a global context, with particular but not exclusive focus on Black people in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the circum-Atlantic world. It provides a broad interdisciplinary and comparative perspective to deepen understandings of Black life, culture, and history, the historical development and societal impact of racial thought, the place of Black people in modern society and political economy, genealogies of Black thought, political action, and expressive culture, and the imbrication of Black people within grids of racialization, gender, sexuality, social class, and nation, both historically and today. The major is designed to be flexible and easily tailored to each student's interests and learning goals, whether these focus on a particular population or facet of Black experience or on broader transnational or diachronic issues.
African American & Black Diaspora Studies majors are trained in the theoretical tools necessary for graduate studies. Majors are also well prepared for nonacademic fields, such as law, journalism, and activism/social work, and for community-facing roles and policy design across a variety of fields from the arts to public health. Regardless of their specific career paths, all majors gain the knowledge and skills necessary to participate in public life in a modern world structured by race and cross-cultural interactions.
Learning Outcomes
Demonstrate an understanding of African American studies within a global context, paying particular attention to peoples of African descent in the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia.
Apply and integrate multiple scholarly approaches to the wide range of cultural products and social and historical experiences of Black peoples.
Demonstrate the conceptual, theoretical, and research skills that can enable them to become lifelong critical investigators of cross-cultural interactions.
Acquire a background for continued graduate study as well as for working in nonacademic fields, such as law, journalism, and activism/social work.
