The Undergraduate Program in Afro-American Studies
Degree: Bachelor of Arts
Chief Undergraduate Advisor: Britt Rusert
Contact: Tricia Loveland
Office: 329 New Africa House
Phone: (413) 545-2751
Email: tlovelan@afroam.umass.edu
Chair of Department: Professor John H. Bracey
Professors Allen, Bracey, Jimoh, Shabazz, Sinha, Smethurst, Tracy; Associate Professor Strickland; Assistant Professors Morrison, Rusert; Adjunct Professors Bowman, Higginson, Paynter.
The Field
The W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies is one of the largest such departments in the country, offering an undergraduate major for all students who desire indepth knowledge of the history and culture of Black people in Africa and the New World. The course of study is interdisciplinary with courses in African and Afro-American history, art, political science, and literature. The training and experience of the faculty provides a perspective on the history, culture, and place in the world of Africans and Afro-Americans that differs markedly from that of the traditional disciplines. This approach to the study of human beings offers a better understanding of the totality of the individual or group experience in the context of American society.
The Minor
A minor sequence in Afro-American Studies requires that a student elect a minimum of five (5) courses the Du Bois Department. Any department-based course not taken as an independent study counts towards the minor requirement. Credits earned in any regular courses taught in other Five College Black Studies departments count towards the minor requirement as well. Students who intend to fulfill the minor requirements in Afro-American Studies are required to register with the department at the beginning of their junior year. Graduating seniors must submit a Declaration of Minor form to the department main office at the beginning of the semester in which they intend to graduate.
The Major
The major in Afro-American Studies requires that a student complete a minimum of eleven (11) courses in the Du Bois Department in addition to the AFROAM 365: Junior Year Writing requirement--total of twelve (12) courses. Independent study credits do not count toward the major requirements.
Attention: Senior Thesis No Longer Required--now "optional"
I. INTRODUCTION (1 course)
101 Introduction to Black Studies
II. INTRODUCTORY SEQUENCE (4 courses)
Humanities Group (2 courses required)
111 Survey of African Art
113 Aesthetics of Afro-American Art
117 Survey of Afro-American Literature I
118 Survey of Afro-American Literature II
151 Culture and Literature
155 Concepts in Afro-American Music I
156 Concepts in Afro-American Music II
MUSIC 102 Afro-American Music
MUSIC 103 History of Jazz
History and Social Science Group (2 courses required)
132 Afro-American History, 1619-1860
133 Afro-American History, Civil War to 1954
161 Introduction to Afro-American Political Science
ECON 144 Political Economy of Racism
HISTORY 160 History of Africa to 1500
HISTORY 161 History of Africa since 1500
II. ADVANCED SEQUENCE (5 courses)
Four courses at the 200-400 level and AFROAM 365. History, Social Sciences, Literature, Creative and Performing Arts
222 The Black Church in the U.S.
232 History of Black Nationalism
234 Literature of the Harlem Renaissance (ALU)
235 Black Sociological Thought (SBU)236 History of the Civil Rights Movement (HSU)
238 Arts and Cultural Identity
252 Afro-American Image in American Writing
254 Introduction to African Studies (HSU)
257 Afro-American Novel
262 Radical Traditions in American History
264 Foundations of Black Education in the U.S. (HSU)
290C The Blues Came Down Like Dark Night Showers of Rain (ATU)
290D Afro-Am Poetry: Beginning to 1900 (ALU)
291C Black Autobiographies
318 Black Music and Theater
326 Black Women in U.S. History (HSU)
331 The Life and Writings of W.E.B. Du Bois (U)
332 Blacks and Jews (U)
345 Southern Literature (ALU)
350 Seminar: African American Islam
361 Revolution in the Third World
365 Composition: Style & Organization
390A Jazz and Blues Literature (ALU)
390B Life & Work of Richard Wright
390C Afro-American Literature of the 1930’s (ALU)
390D Langston Hughes (ALU)
390E Race, Ethnicity and Gender in U.S. History (HSU)
391A Political Thought of Martin and Malcolm
391B Modern Afro-American Women Novelists
391C Creative Writing
391 Critique of the Concept of Racism
394A Seminar: African Art History
395A Seminar: The Writings of Chinua Achebe
397A Abolition and Antislavery
III. Junior Year Writing
365 Composition: Style and Organization
IV. Senior Seminar Sequence (2 courses)
494DI Du Bois Senior Seminar, 3 credits (IE designation, Fall offering)
496 Independent Project, 3 credits (Senior Thesis Optional)
All majors are required to write a senior thesis under the supervision of a faculty member, and to attend a related senior seminar. Students ready to undertake their thesis projects must contact the department secretary to begin the process. For May graduation the process begins at the beginning of the preceding fall semester, for February graduation at the beginning of the preceding spring semester. At that time students must read and sign a copy of the Senior Thesis Project Rules, Regulations and Deadlines.
*Note: Only 1 course in AFROAM can count toward Gen. Ed. as well.
Career Opportunities
Graduates of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies have entered graduate schools in the fields of African and Afro-American studies, history, political science, public health, industrial relations, urban planning, law, literature, and several other areas. They have secured employment in areas such as teaching, journalism, television communications, criminal justice, insurance sales, and community organizing.
Please click"What Can I Do With A Black Studies Major? 222 Answers" by Robert Fikes, Jr., Librarian, San Diego State University, for more information (PDF).
† - Courses accepted towards the Advanced Sequence from outside departments
ANTHRO 382 Caribbean Cultures
ANTHRO 470 Cultures of Africa
ANTHRO 497AA African American Anthropology
FRNCH STDS 564 Literature of Africa and the Caribbean
JOURN 310 The Press and the Third World
POLSCI 307 Black Politics
POLSCI 341 Government and Politics of Central America and the Caribbean
POLSCI 343 Government and Politics of East Africa
POLSCI 345 Revolutionary Nationalism and Imperialism in the Caribbean
POLSCI 346 Government and Politics of West Africa
POLSCI 397 Comparative Politics of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Haiti
SOC 340 Race Relations
SOC 397 Martin Luther King Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement
WOST 292 Black Women in U.S. History
WOST 394 Black Feminist/Womanist Thought
WOST 297 Afro-American Women in the Civil Rights Movement