Afro-American Studies Minor

The minor in Afro-American Studies is designed to provide students with an interdisciplinary perspective of the life of African Americans, including  Africans and African people throughout the Diaspora and their contributions to humanity.

Specifically, the program is designed to acquaint students with:

  • Historical experience of Africans and African Americans;
  • Contributions of Africans and African Americans to the humanities;
  • African American experience from a behavioral and/or social science perspective as well as contributions of Black people to those areas of study;
  • Influence of the African American experience in the fields of communications and/or social work.

To complete the minor, students must earn 24 semester hours of designated Afro-American studies courses with no more than three semester hours of directed readings or independent study.
All internships, independent study and directed reading courses must relate to the area of Afro-American studies and may be applied to the minor upon prior approval of the director.
In each course, at least a "C" must be achieved to earn credit toward the minor.

There are 12 semester hours of required courses and 12 semester hours of elective courses. At least one elective course must be taken from each of the three option areas.

Required Courses

  • AFR 100 -- Introduction to Afro-American Studies*
  • HIS 106 -- History of African Americans to 1877*
  • HIS 107 -- History of African Americans since 1877*
  • HIS 431 -- Historical Themes in African American History*

Required Area Options

History Option

  • HIS 310 -- Colonial America to 1763
  • HIS 313 -- Expansion and Conflict, 1865-1861
  • HIS 316 -- Modern United States History Since 1939
  • HIS 317 -- History of the New South
  • HIS 318 -- Current Events in a Historical Perspective (when applicable)
  • HIS 325 -- Early Latin American History
  • HIS 335 -- History of Ancient Africa
  • HIS 336 -- History of Modern Africa
  • HIS 380 -- History and Film (when taught as History: African Americans and Film)
  • HIS 417 -- Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860-1877
  • HIS 426 -- Historical Geography of the United States
  • HIS 427 -- Urban History of the United States
  • HIS 435 -- History of Race Relations in the Americas, 1492-c. 1800
  • HIS 436 -- History of Race Relations in the Americas, c. 1800 to the Present
  • HIS 438 -- African-American Women's History and Culture
  • HIS 444 -- History of Women in the United States to 1900
  • HIS 445 -- History of Women in the United States since 1900
  • HIS 496 -- Internships: Public History (when applicable)
  • HIS 499 -- Seminars (when applicable)
  • HIS 533 -- Expansion and Conflict
  • HIS 535 -- Civil War and Reconstruction 
  • HIS 539 -- Modern United States History
  • HIS 546 -- History of the American Family
  • HIS 552 -- History of the Old South
  • HIS 553 -- History of the New South
  • HIS 556 -- African Americans in U.S. Culture, Education, and Politics
  • HIS 561 -- Modernization in the Non-Western World
  • HIS 594 -- Topics: History (when applicable)  

Behavioral and Social Sciences/Social Work Option

  • ANT 240 -- Peoples of Africa*
  • ANT 301 -- World Patterns of Race and Ethnicity
  • ANT 330 -- Women, Gender, and Culture, a Global Perspective
  • GEO 103 -- Geography of the Third World*
  • GEO 309 -- Historical Geography of the United States
  • GEO 310 -- Geography of Population
  • GEO 403 -- Geography of Africa
  • GEO 492 -- Directed Research: Geography (when applicable)
  • GEO 594 -- Topics: Geography (when applicable)
  • GEO 594 -- Seminar: Geography (when applicable)
  • HNR 303 -- Honors Seminar: Humanity and the Imagination
  • HNR 306 -- Studies in Diversity
  • HSR 500 -- Multicultural Family Work: Principles and Practices
  • JUS 231 -- Race, Gender, and the Crime*
  • JUS 318 -- The African American, The Law and The Courts
  • JUS 321 -- Black Women, Crime and Politics
  • PSC 215 -- Race, Gender and Politics
  • PSC 338 -- U.S. Foreign Policy in the Developing World
  • RTV 105 -- Race, Gender, and The Mass Media*
  • SOC 210 -- Analysis of Racism and Sexism in the United States*
  • SOC 300 -- Race and Ethnic Relations
  • SOC 301 -- World Patterns of Race and Ethnicity
  • SWK 307 -- Human Experience II: Literary Perspectives
  • SWK 308 -- Social Work Research (when offered as Afrocentric Paradigm) 

Humanities and Creative Productions/Communications Option

  • ENG 211 -- Survey of Women's Literature I*
  • ENG 212 -- Survey of Women's Literature II*
  • ENG 217 -- African-American Literature to 1940*
  • ENG 218 -- African-American Literature 1940-Present*
  • ENG 300 -- American Women Poets*
  • ENG 305 -- American Women Writers*
  • ENG 354 -- Southern Women Writers
  • ENG 467 -- Topics in African-American Literature*
  • MUS 107 -- Survey of African American Music*
  • MUS 234 -- Appreciation of Jazz*
  • MUS 254 -- Women in Music in Europe and America II: The 20th Century
  • PHI 394 Topics: Philosophy (when applicable)
  • REL 325 -- African American Religious Experience in America*
  • REL 394 -- Topics Religious Studies (when offered as The Ethics and Theology of Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X)
  • SPE 350 -- Rhetoric of Minority Groups
  • SPE 355 -- Cross-Cultural Communication
  • TAR 102 -- Survey of Race and Gender in Dramatic Literature*
  • TAR 452 -- Special Problems in Theatre (literature) (when applicable)

NOTE: Courses marked with an asterisk (*) satisfy the general studies requirements in the areas of history, literature, fine arts, social sciences, non-western and race/gender studies.
Introduction to Afro-American Studies (AFR 100) fulfills the general studies requirement in non-western perspective or the general studies requirements in either social sciences or race/gender.