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This archived information is dated to the 2009-10 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin.

Bachelor of Arts in African and African American Studies

MAJOR

Majors must complete a total of 60 units, which include the following:

  1. 1. AFRICAAM 105. Introduction to African and African American Studies,

    or ENGLISH 143. Introduction to African American Literature

    and

    ENGLISH 152D. W. E. B. Du Bois as Writer and Philosopher

    or ENGLISH 172G. Great Works of the African American Literary Tradition

  2. One 5 unit course on Africa, approved by the AAAS Director and Associate Director
  3. AFRICAAM 200X. Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Seminar
  4. 40 units from other AAAS core and cognate courses.

At least 10 of these units must be core courses, which are defined as courses that are primarily focused on Africa, African American Studies, the Caribbean, or the African Diaspora.

Students also work closely with a faculty adviser, the AAAS associate director, and the AAAS director in developing a coherent thematic emphasis within their major that reflects their scholarly interests in the field.

THEMATIC EMPHASIS

AAAS majors select a thematic emphasis, devoting at least 25 units in their major program of study towards the emphasis. Selecting an emphasis allows students to customize their curriculum and to synthesize course work taken across various departments and programs into a coherent focus. Emphases offered include:

Africa; African America; Diaspora; Identities, Diversity, and Aesthetics (IDA); Gender; Class; Theory; Historical Period.

All emphases (those listed as well as proposed alternatives) must be approved by the director and a course plan developed and approved by the director, associate director, and faculty adviser within the first year of declaring the major.

HONORS PROGRAM

AAAS offers a special program leading to Honors in African and African American Studies. Students accepted to this program will complete an honors thesis on an approved topic, on which work will normally begin in the junior year and be completed by mid-May of the senior year. The honors thesis is intended to enable students to synthesize skills to produce a document or project demonstrating a measure of competence in their specialty.

The Honors program begins with extensive advising from the faculty adviser and a petition for Honors, approved no later than the Spring Quarter of the junior year. Students must enroll in AFRICAAM 200X, Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Seminar, during Autumn of the senior year and may take up to an additional 10 units of honors work to be distributed as best fits the student's program. Senior Research units are taken in addition to the required courses for the major. In May of the senior year, Honors students share their research findings in a public presentation to which faculty and students are invited.

Majors who have maintained a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.5 in the major may apply for the honors program. Forms are available in the AAAS office.

CORE COURSES

Subject and Catalog Number

Units

AFRICAAM 101. African and African American Lecture Series

1-3

AFRICAAM 105. Intro to African and African American Studies (required)

5

AFRICAAM 123/ENGLISH 172G. Great Works of the African American Tradition

5

AFRICAAM 200X. Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Seminar

5

ENGLISH 143. Introduction to African and African American Literature

5

ENGLISH 152D. W. E. B. Du Bois and American Culture
(required)

5

or ENGLISH 172G. Great Works of the African American Tradition

5

FRENLIT 133. Literature and Society: Introduction to Francophone Literature from Africa and the Caribbean

4

HISTORY 145B. Africa in the 20th Century

5

HISTORY 166. Introduction to African American History: The Modern African American Freedom Struggle

4-5

LINGUIST 65. African American Vernacular English

3-5

POLISCI 225R. Black Politics in the Post-Civil Rights Era (not given this year)

5

SOC 144. Race and Crime in America

5

AAAS COURSES

AFRICAAM 12. Presidential Politics: Race, Class, Faith and Gender in the 2008 Election

AFRICAAM 40. The Muse, Musings, and Music

AFRICAAM 54/HISTORY 54N. African American Women's Lives

AFRICAAM 60/RELIGST 60. Nation, Diaspora, and the Gods of African America

AFRICAAM 64/HISTORY 64C/164C. From Freedom to Freedom Now: African American History 1865-1965

AFRICAAM 75. Black Cinema

AFRICAAM 75B. Black Sitcoms

AFRICAAM 101. African and African American Lecture Series: Race and Faith

AFRICAAM 105. Introduction to African and African American Studies

AFRICAAM 105R/RELIGST 105. Race, Faith, and Migration

AFRICAAM 123/ENGLISH 172G. Great Works of the African American Tradition

AFRICAAM 145. Writing Race, Writing Faith: An Exploration of the Poetics and Politics of Spirituality in Black Literature

AFRICAAM 200Y. Thesis Research

AFRICAAM 200Z. Thesis Research

AFRICAAM 255/HISTORY 255D/355D. Racial Identity in the American Imagination

COGNATE COURSES

AFRICAST 111/211. Education for All? The Global and Local in Public Policy Making in Africa

AFRICAST 112/212. Aids, Literacy, and the Land: International Aid and the Problems of Development in Africa

AMELANG 100A,B,C. Beginning Amharic

AMELANG 102A,B,C. Advanced Amharic

AMELANG 106A,B,C. Beginning Swahili

AMELANG 107A,B,C. Intermediate Swahili

AMELANG 108A,B,C. Advanced Swahili

AMELANG 133A,B,C. The African Forum

AMELANG 156A,B,C. Beginning Zulu

AMELANG 157A,B,C. Intermediate Zulu

AMELANG 158A,B,C. Advanced Zulu

AMSTUD 105. From Blues to Rap: Representing Music in African American Literature

ARTHIST 160A/360A. Twentieth-Century African American Art

ARTHIST 192/392. Introduction to African Art

ARTHIST 234A. Harlem Renaissance

ARTHIST 256A. Critical Race Art History

CASA 36. Life on the Streets: Anthropology of United States Urban Life

CASA 72. Dance and Culture in Latin America

CASA 88. Theories of Race and Ethnicity

CASA 119. The State in Africa

CHICANST 180E. Introduction to Chicana/o Life and Culture

COMM 148. Hip-Hop and Don't Stop: Introduction to Modern Speech Communities

COMM 246. Language and Discourse: Race, Class, and Gender

COMPLIT 41Q. Ethnicity and Literature

COMPLIT 147. Comparative Approaches to African American and Asian American Literature

COMPLIT 148. Introduction to Asian American Cultures

COMPLIT 241. Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity

CSRE 198. Internship for Public Service

CSRE 203A. The Changing Face of America: Civil Rights and Education Strategies for the 21st Century

DANCE 42. Dances of Latin America

DANCE 43. Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Peruvian Dance

DANCE 44. Jazz Dance I

DANCE 51. Congolese Dance

DANCE 58. Beginning Hip-Hop

DANCE 59. Intermediate-Advanced Hip Hop

DANCE 105. Contemporary Afro Styles and Dance Making: Technique, Rhythm, and Architecture

DANCE 106. Essence of Contemporary Dance Performance: African Styles on Stage

DANCE 144. Jazz Dance II

DANCE 145. Jazz Dance III

DRAMA 17N. Salt of the Earth: The Docudrama in America

DRAMA 110. Identity, Diversity, and Aesthetics: The Institute for the Diversity in the Arts

DRAMA 155D. Performances of Race, Race-ing Performance

DRAMA 163. Performance and America

DRAMA 168. African American Drama: Traditions and Revisions

DRAMA 169. Contemporary Dramatic Voices of Color

DRAMA 177. Playwriting

DRAMA 179F. Flor y Canto: Poetry Writing Workshop

DRAMA 179G. Indigenous Identity in Diaspora: People of Color Art Practice in North America

DRAMA 219. Contemporary African American Drama

ECON 116. American Economic History

ECON 148. Urban Economics

EDUC 103B/337. Race, Ethnicity, and Linguistic Diversity In Classrooms: Sociocultural Theory and Practices

EDUC 156A. Understanding Racial and Ethnic Identity

EDUC 177. Education of Immigrant Students

EDUC 193C. Peer Counseling: The African American Community

EDUC 201A. History of African American Education

EDUC 201B. Education for Liberation

EDUC210. History of Education in the United States

EDUC 245. Understanding Racial and Ethnic Identity Development

EDUC 336X. Language, Identity, and Classroom Learning

ENGLISH 143. Introduction to African American Literature

ENGLISH 45/145. Writings by Women of Color

ENGLISH 55N. American Sports, American Lives

ENGLISH 69Q. Sources of Global Challenges Today, Possibilities for Global Solutions: A Literary Exploration

ENGLISH 146C. Hemingway, Hurston, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald

ENGLISH 172E. The Literature of the Americas

ENGLISH 172G. Great Works of the African American Literary Tradition

ENGLISH 172P. African American Poetry

ENGLISH 374. Writing Race and Nation: Mark Twain and Paul Lawrence Dunbar

FEMSTUD 140 J. Black Feminist Theory

FRENLIT 133. Literature and Society: Introduction to Francophone Literature from Africa and the Caribbean

FRENLIT 248. Literature, History, and Representation

HISTORY 48Q. South Africa: Contested Transitions

HISTORY 52N. The Harlem Renaissance

HISTORY 54N. African American Women's Lives

HISTORY 59. Introduction to Asian American History

HISTORY 61. The Constitution and Race

HISTORY 64. Introduction to Race and Ethnicity in the American Experience

HISTORY 145B. Africa in the 20th Century

HISTORY 147G. African History in Novels and Film

HISTORY 150A. Colonial and Revolutionary America

HISTORY 150B. 19th-Century America

HISTORY 150C. The United States in the Twentieth Century

HISTORY 151. Slavery and Freedom in American History

HISTORY 158. The United States Since 1945

HISTORY 166. Introduction to African American History: The Modern African American Freedom Struggle

HISTORY 243S. Human Origins: History, Evidence, and Controversy

HISTORY 245E. Health and Society in Africa

HISTORY 245G. Law and Colonialism in Africa

HISTORY 246. Successful Futures for Africa: An Inventory of the 1970s-2000s

HISTORY 246S. Popular Culture in Africa

HISTORY 248S. African Societies and Colonial States

HISTORY 255D. Racial Identity in the American Imagination

HISTORY 260. California's Minority-Majority Cities

HISTORY 261. Race, Gender, and Class in Jim Crow America

HISTORY 299M. Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute

HUMBIO 122S. Social Class, Race, Ethnicity, Health

HUMBIO 129/INDE 244. Ethnicity and Medicine

IHUM 68A/68B. Performing Religion

LINGUIST 65. African American Vernacular English

LINGUIST 152. Sociolinguistics and Pidgin Creole Studies

MUSIC 18A. Jazz History: Ragtime to Bebop (1900-1940)

MUSIC 18B. Jazz History: Bebop to Present (1940-Present)

MUSIC 20A. Jazz Theory

MUSIC 20B. Advanced Jazz Theory

MUSIC 20C. Jazz Arranging and Composition

MUSIC 153. The Soul Tradition in African American Music

MUSIC 161B. Jazz Orchestra

PHIL 177. Philosophical Issues Concerning Race and Racism

POLISCI 125V. Minority Representation and the Voting Rights Act

POLISCI 136. Philosophical Issues Concerning Race and Racism

POLISCI 141. The Global Politics of Human Rights

POLISCI 221. Tolerance and Democracy

POLISCI 221T. Politics of Race and Ethnicity in the United States

POLISCI 325S. Race and Place in American Politics

POLISCI 327. Minority Behavior and Representation

PSYCH 75. Cultural Psychology

PSYCH 180. Social Psychological Perspectives on Stereotyping and Prejudice

PSYCH 215. Mind, Culture, and Society

SOC 138. American Indians in Comparative Historical Perspective

SOC 139. American Indians in Contemporary Society

SOC 141A. Social Class, Race, Ethnicity, Health

SOC 143. Prejudice, Racism, and Social Change

SOC 144. Race and Crime in America

SOC 145. Race and Ethnic Relations

SOC 147/247. Comparative Ethnic Conflict

SOC 149. The Urban Underclass

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