The Graduate Certificate in African Diaspora Studies in Afro-American Studies
Certficate Co-Directors: John H. Bracey, Agustin Lao-Montes and Kym Morrison
Applying for the Certificate:
Contact Tricia Loveland
Office: 329 New Africa House
Phone: (413) 545-2751
Afro-American Studies Faculty:
Ernest Allen, John Bracey, A Yemisi Jimoh, Kym Morrison, Britt Rusert, Amilcar Shabazz, Manisha Sinha, James Smethurst, Bill Strickland and Steven Tracy
Affiliated Faculty:
Sonia Alvarez, Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Joye Bowman, Lisa Green, Jose Hernandez, John Higginson, Emily Lordi, Roberto Marquez, Agustin Lao-Montes, Rachel Mordecai, Robert Paynter, Joyce Vincent (more to come check back for details).
Graduate Certificate in African Diaspora Studies
A Graduate Certificate in African Diaspora Studies in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will introduce students to the current scholarship on the African Diaspora as well as a basic grounding in the historical, political, literary, and cultural responses of African peoples to their diasporic conditions. A successful recipient of a Graduate Certificate in African Diaspora Studies from UMass Amherst would be expected to have acquired the following knowledge:
●Grounding in the complex political and historical development of Pan-Africanism and the African Diaspora in the Americas;
●Conceptual strategies and critical apparati for engaging with a variety of discourses on the African Diaspora;
●Working knowledge of the issues, themes, and concepts informing the current scholarship in African Diaspora Studies, especially a critical engagement with issues such as refugee status, exile, migration, immigration, trans-nationalism, and expatriation;
●Critical knowledge of the scholarship in at least one aspect of African Diaspora Studies
Applying for the Certificate in African Diaspora Studies: The Certificate welcomes applications from persons who meet the following criteria:
●Have gained admission into a graduate degree-granting department at UMass Amherst.
●Have earned a bachelor’s or graduate degree from an accredited university and have made application for and gained admission to UMass as a non-degree student through the Graduate Admissions Office.
Requirements: Five graduate courses distributed as follows:
●AfroAm 692Q: African Diaspora Studies: Introduction to Concepts and Historiography
This course will offer an introduction to 1) key concepts and definitions e.g. diaspora, Pan-Africanism, Afro-centrism, etc. 2) the classic works in the field. 3) major trends in contemporary scholarship.
● Four electives selected among the current offerings by the UMass Amherst and Five Colleges African Diaspora Faculty or alternate courses with the approval of one of the certificate co-directors.
The Graduate Certificate in African Diaspora Studies Requirements Form