Black Studies

Bachelor of Arts

The Black Studies Major offers students an interdisciplinary set of analytic and research tools for critical analysis and understanding of various aspects of Black culture and will foster a new appreciation for the contributions made by people of African descent to world cultures and human history. The major will provide students with clear, precise, reliable, and accurate knowledge about the African Diasporic communities of Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe within the framework of a liberal arts education. This interdisciplinary and multicultural course of study examines the African Diasporic communities’ contemporary state, history and traditions, unique culture, collective experience, and antecedent connection with Africa and African history. There is also a strong focus on engagement with local and international Black communities to create change. 

The Black Studies major has two required courses, BLS 101- Introduction to Black Studies and BLS 480- Seminar in Black Studies.

Students are also required to take eight additional Black Studies electives with at least two each in each of three thematic areas of concentration, Culture, Language, Literature and the Arts; Historical Inquiry; and Social and Structural Analysis. The electives therefore cover the history of Black peoples in Africa, the African Diaspora including the U.S., the Black cultural expression of those peoples, and the social structures that have oppressed and/or represented a path to liberation of those in Black communities around the world.