Learn about current scholarship on the African Diaspora.
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:
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Grounding in the complex political and historical development of Pan-Africanism and the African Diaspora in the Americas;
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Conceptual strategies and critical apparati for engaging with a variety of discourses on the African Diaspora;
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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;
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Critical knowledge of the scholarship in at least one aspect of African Diaspora Studies.
Certificate 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.
Office: 329 New Africa House
Phone: (413) 545-2751