Formally institutionalized in the American academy in the last half of the twentieth century, African and African American Studies is a vibrant and dynamic discipline that creates new knowledge about the world and human existence through the critical and comprehensive study of the peoples, cultures, and ideas of Africa and the African diaspora. Students in this degree program explore and examine key intellectual figures, ideas, themes in the discipline, central disciplinary questions and debates, prominent theoretical and methodological frameworks used by scholars in the discipline, and forms of interdisciplinary scholarship that form and inform the production and reproduction of knowledge. The goal of the program is to provide students at Winston-Salem State University with a broad and deep understanding of histories, cultures, and ideas of Africans and persons of African descent across space and time while advancing novel forms of interdisciplinary scholarship that contributes to the formation of new theories and methods for understanding the world and human experience.
Core Courses – 4 courses
AAS 2301: An Introduction to African and African-American Studies
AAS/HIS 2308: African World Cultures or HIS 3331 History of Africa or HIS 3341: Black American History to 1865 or HIS 3342: Black American History from 1865 to the Present or HIST 3345: Blacks in Urban American since 1945
AAS 2310: Research Methods in African and African American Studies or ENG 4355 Literary Criticism or HIST 2311: History Thinking and Methodology or IDS 4370 Research in Interdisciplinary Studies or POS 3349: Methodological Behavior Foundations in Political Science or PSY 3317: Research Methods in Psychology
AAS 4324: Senior Seminar in African and African American Studies
Areas of Specialization – 6 courses
Arts and Media
ART 2306: African American Art
HUM 2313: From Back Stage to Center Stage: Black Female Playwrights in America
MUS 3239: Afro-American Music
PED 2116: African Dance
Culture and Identity
HIS 3332: Cultural Dimensions of the African American Experience in the Caribbean
HUM 2310: African-American Culture
HUM 2311: Masculinity, Resistance Narratives and African American Cultural Texts
HUM 2312: Afrocentric Wisdom and Values
HUM 2314: Shade of Black
HUM 2315: Black Female Identity Through Time
IDS 4371: The American South in Popular Culture
REL 3316: History of the Black Church
SPH 2345: Great African American Speeches of the 20th and 21st Centuries
History and Theory
AAS 2303: African Political Thought
AAS 3306: Negritude and Afrocentricity
EDU 3343: Cultural Diversity
HIS 3345: Blacks in Urban America since 1945
HIS 3352: The African Presence in Mexico
HIS 3353: The African Presence in the Americas
HIS 4355: African Experience in America
HIS 4356: Seminar in Afro-American History
HIS 4455: African Experience in America
POS 4356: Black Political Thought
SOC 3344: Sex, Gender, and Feminist Thought
SOC 4364: Race and Culture
Literatures and Languages
ENG 1315: Black Speculative Literature of the 20th and 21st Centuries
ENG 3309: Post-Colonial Literature
ENG 3344: Literature of the African Diaspora
ENG 3349: The Vernacular in African American Literature and Culture
ENG 3381: Black Writers in American Literature
ENG 33xx: Studies in African-American Literature
ENG 33..: African American Cultural Texts: 1965-Present
ENG 4xxx: African American Women Writers
FLS 3311: Yoruba Culture and Civilization in the Americas
POR 2305: Literature of Brazil and the Portuguese-Speaking World
POR 3311: Literature of Brazil and Portuguese Speaking Africa in Translation
POR 3312: Afro-Brazilian Studies
SPA 4338: Masterpieces of Afro-Hispanic Literature
SWA 1311: Elementary Swahili I
SWA 1312: Elementary Swahili II
Politics and Society
AAS 2302: Politics of Africa
AAS 4302: Race and Economics in the USA
EDU 2334: Education, Culture and Society
GEO 3311: Urban Geography
JUS 3382: Class, Race, Gender and Justice
POS 3315: The Politics of South Africa
POS 3331: Civil Rights
POS 3371: Urban Politics
SOC 4311: Sociology of the African American
Science and Technology
BIO 1303: Human Heredity, Genetics and Society
BIO 1305: Scientific Ethics
HED 2206: Understanding Health Disparities in the U.S.
HIS 3351: History of Science
MTH 4304: History of Mathematics
PSY 3309: Cross-Cultural Psychology
PSY 3312: Introduction to Black Psychology
Minor in African and African American Studies – 6 courses
AAS 2301: An Introduction to Africana Studies
AAS 2310: Research Methods in African and African American Studies or ENG 4355 Literary Criticism or HIST 4316 Historiography or IDS 4370 Research in Interdisciplinary Studies or POS 3349: Methodological Behavior Foundations in Political Science or PSY 3317: Research Methods in Psychology
4 additional courses at the 3000 and 4000 level