Undergraduate
What can I do with a major in Afro-American Studies?
As an Afro-American Studies major, you will gain skills in project development, research and analysis, interpersonal and cross-cultural communication, critical thinking, problem solving and writing—all skills employers look for in new hires.
The undergraduate degree in Afro-American Studies prepares you for the complex challenges that face our communities, country, and the world in the 20th century.
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The Field
The W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies is one of the largest and most comprehensive departments in the country, offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees for students seeking in-depth knowledge of the history and culture of Black people in Africa and the New World. The program of study is interdisciplinary with courses in African and African-American participate in a variety of on-campus and off-campus learning situations. The training and experience of the faculty provides a perspective on the history, culture, and place in the world of Africans and African-Americans that differs markedly from that of the traditional disciplines. Our department seeks to reproduce both the scholarship and the social commitment of Du Bois in a new generation of scholars who will carry into the twenty-first century the work that Du Bois accomplished in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rigorously trained by our faculty in the highest ideals and most advanced techniques of scholarship, our students are urged to carry that scholarship out of the academy and into the world, for the good of the community and the nation. We endeavor to produce well trained scholars who will bring a unique fusion of cross-disciplinary scholarship and social commitment to the communities in which they live.
Career Opportunities
Graduates of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies have secured employment in areas such as Public Relations & Marketing, Education, Business & Finance, Performance & Creative Writing, Global Affairs & Development, Government & Public Administration, Environmental Justice, Public Health & Medicine, Law, and, Community Organizing.
What Can I Do With A Black Studies Major? 500+ Questions, by Robert Fikes, Jr., Librarian, San Diego University.
Degree: Bachelor of Arts
Director of Undergraduate Studies: Britt Rusert
Contact: Tricia Loveland
Office: 329 New Africa House
Phone: (413) 545-2751
Chair of Department: Yolanda Covington-Ward, Professor
Professors: Bracey, Jimoh, Shabazz, Smethurst, Tracy
Associate Professors: Parker, Rusert, Losier, Lao-Montes (Sociology)
Assistant Professor: Kerth
