Program Requirements and Opportunities

The Africana Studies Program is an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and decolonial intellectual; philosophical; and political project that centers the histories, languages, politics, religions/spiritualities and oral & expressive cultures of Black peoples throughout the African diasporas. Africana studies considers how racial blackness, and the concept of race itself, influences the development of the modern world. We investigate the social, historical, cultural and aesthetic works and practices of Black communities throughout the diaspora with a particular focus on the centuries-long histories, politics, and cultures of how Black women, Black queer and trans folks have been and continue to be at the forefront of Black liberation movements.

The Africana Studies program values a range of interdisciplinary research and course foci, including forced or choiced migration, decolonization, political economy and globalization, anti-Black racism, institutional power, oppression, heritage, joy, resistance, and liberation. These topics encourage students to appreciate and critique the multiplicity of what Blackness is, while creating visions for all that it can be. We are committed to speaking truth to power and working to redistribute power equitably and justly, ensuring that students have tools to examine their own positionality, navigate systems, and effect change.The interdisciplinary nature of our program affords students the opportunity to experience a vast exploration of the lives, knowledge systems, and cultures of Africa and African descendants throughout the world.

The Minor in Africana Studies at Bryn Mawr College trains students to think critically, write analytically, and engage expansive theoretical and methodological frameworks. Students are encouraged to contemplate literary, artistic, and cultural expressions as well as archives, and political & social movements and institutions.s. Our course offerings, pedagogical commitments, and theoretical underpinnings are grounded in Black Queer Feminisms throughout the African diasporas. We are particularly invested in cultivating, mentoring, and nurturing an intellectual, philosophical, and political project of Black Studies that centers the political and scholarly labor of Black women and Black Queer & Trans scholars.
 
Students are encouraged to begin their work in the Africana Studies Program by taking any one of six gateway courses:

• HST B102: Introduction to African Civilizations (Ngalamulume)
• AFST B102: Introduction to Africana Studies (López Oro)
• AFST B202: Black/Queer/Diaspora (López Oro)
• AFST B204: #BlackLivesMatterEverywhere: Theories & Ethnographies on the African Diaspora (López Oro)
• AFST B206: Black Latinx Américas: Movements, Politics, and Cultures (López Oro)
• AFST B234: Advancing Racial Justice: Engaging with Community Organizations (Bailey)
• AFST B300: Black Women’s Studies (López Oro)

The required gateway course provides students with an intellectual experience in multiple disciplines as well as the foundations for subsequent courses in Africana Studies. The course should be completed by the end of the student’s junior year. We also encourage our Minors to also take the following cross-listed courses as part of their academic training in the field of Black Studies:

• ARCH B101: Introduction to Egyptian and Near Eastern Archaeology (Bradbury)
• ARTD B138: Hip Hop Lineages (Jones)
• ENGL B247: Introduction to 20th Century African American Literature (Alston)
• ENGL B356: Black Britain (Flower)
• ENGL B372: Black Ecofeminism(s): Critical Approaches (Alston)
• EDUC B200: Community Learning Collaborative: Practicing Partnership (Wilson)
• EDUC B266: Geographies of School and Learning: Urban Education Reconsidered (Wilson)
• HIST B243: Atlantic Cultures: Maroon Communities New World (Gallup-Diaz)

Africana Studies: Minor Requirements

The requirements for a minor in Africana Studies are the following:

One-semester core course:

• AFST B202: Black/Queer/Diaspora (López Oro)
• AFST B204: #BlackLivesMatterEverywhere: Theories & Ethnographies on the African Diaspora (López Oro)
• AFST B206: Black Latinx Américas: Movements, Politics, and Cultures (López Oro)
• AFST B234: Advancing Racial Justice: Engaging with Community Organizations (Bailey)
• AFST B300: Black Women’s Studies (López Oro)
• HST B102: Introduction to African Civilizations (Ngalamulume)
• HST B200: The Atlantic World

Students may not count core courses twice. Any additional core course will count as a general elective.

Five additional semester courses:

• Courses must be selected from at least two different departments and divisions.
• Chosen from an annual Bryn Mawr-approved list of courses at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Penn, or Swarthmore, or by permission of the Bryn Mawr Africana Steering Committee.
• At least three of these courses must be taken at Bryn Mawr or Haverford.
• One course from studying away may fulfill this requirement if approved in advance by the Steering Committee.
• At least one of the additional courses should normally be at the 300-level.
• Units of Independent Study (403) may be used to fulfill this requirement.
• Only two courses of these five Africana Studies courses may overlap with courses taken to fulfill requirements in the student’s major.

Students are encouraged to organize course work along prototypical routes:

• Regional or area studies; for example, focusing on Black people in Latin America, the English-speaking Caribbean or North America.
• Thematic emphases; for example, exploring class politics, conflicts and/or economic development in West and East Africa.
• Comparative emphases; for example, problems of development, governance, public health or family and gender.
• The student should indicate the proposed focus of the minor in writing at the time of registration for the minor.

Capstone experience:

• Should consolidate or synthesize the student’s focus in the minor (e.g. a thematic or comparative emphasis).
• Constitutes a sixth course or its equivalent.
• Can be satisfied by taking a capstone course at the 300-level within the major or another field.
• If the department in which the student is majoring requires a thesis, the Africana Studies requirement can be satisfied by writing on a topic related to the minor that is approved by the student’s department; if the major does not require a thesis or the student does not choose to write a thesis, a seminary project may be substituted formulated within the framework of a capstone course or as an independent study project.