Sean Eversley-Bradwell, Assistant Professor and Coordinator
African Diaspora Minor
The courses in the African diaspora minor cover a broad range of issues, from the historically constructed and contested nature of individual identities to issues of cultural and historical representation and social justice for groups of people.
Specifically, the minor’s goals are to encourage, allow, and facilitate:
- A study of the Self in relationship to the Other by investigating the particular areas of racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity as well as the nature of encounters between diverse groups of people. (The focus of many of the courses is on social movements, diasporas, migrations, and a questioning of borders/boundaries, identities, and representations.)
- Use of historical and comparative methodologies for providing a contextual understanding of the issues being studied.
- A creative combination of epistemological/theoretical concerns with an analysis of “real-life” problems so that theory can serve as an entry point into praxis. This is necessary for understanding that ideas shape practices and that practices, in turn, reframe our ideas about the world.
- A critical approach to issues of representation and identity, and, for those so motivated, an opening to construct theories of ethnic/cultural/racial encounters.
- An interrogation of notions of location and place. While the minor focuses on the experiences of African Americans, it will also problematize the inside/outside binary (e.g., the United States versus groups that are geographically outside the United States, or that are geographically within the United States but excluded from the dominant discourse). In other words, the minor will allow students to study the United States within various global contexts. This is necessary for understanding the interconnected nature of contemporary social life.
Requirements for the Minor in African Diaspora
Required courses
| CSCR 10600 |
Introduction to African Diaspora |
3 |
| POLT 14500 |
Politics of Identity |
3 |
Electives
Policy and Praxis
Select 3 credits from the following:
| CSCR 43300 |
Education, Oppression, Liberation (3) |
|
| HPS 20500 |
Critical Health Issues (3) |
3 |
Culture and History
Select 3 credits from the following:
| CSCR 25000 |
Hip-Hop Cultures (3) |
|
| HIST 20900 |
Ethnic United States since the Civil War (3) |
|
| HIST 37100 |
Slavery and the Union (3) |
|
| ENGL 47000 |
Seminar* (3) |
|
| MUNM 25900 |
African American Music (3) |
|
| MUNM 25600 |
Bessie Smith to MTV (3) |
3 |
Power and Liberation
Select 3 credits from the following:
| CSCR 32400 |
Critical Race Theories (3) |
|
| POLT 14100 |
Power: Sex, Class, and Race (3) |
|
| POLT 34200 |
Liberalism and Marxism (3) |
|
| POLT 40100 |
Seminar: Comparative and International Studies* (3) |
3 |
Comparative and International
Select 3 credits from the following:
| ANTH 39000 |
Africa (3) |
|
| POLT 40200 |
Seminar* (3) |
|
| POLT 34001 |
Selected Topics* (3) |
|
| POLT 34004 |
Music of the African Diaspora (3) |
3 |
|
Total, African diaspora minor |
18 |
*Students should check with the director of the program for a list of approved seminars.