African Diaspora Studies

M. Nicole Horsley
Assistant Professor and Coordinator

The African Diaspora Studies Minor examines the experiences of people of the African Diaspora: sub-Saharan Africa; Latin America; the Caribbean; the United States; Canada; and Europe. The African Diaspora is based upon a globalized notion of blackness—a collective notion of community and identity.  It describes the dispersal, movement, migration, and removal/exile of people from Africa. From an African American and African Diaspora Studies perspective, the minor examines the movement and migration of blackness through geography (Africa, the U.S., the Caribbean, and other locales); culture (art, music, film & media, beauty); and identity (race, gender, sexuality, class) to understand the afterlife of slavery through mass incarceration, anti-blackness, and other disparaging systems created to maintain white domination.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the major historical and sociopolitical developments in the experiences of people of the African diaspora.
2. Critically analyze information using theories, methods, and concepts from African Diaspora and African American Studies to bridge community action and scholarly inquiry.
3. Interpret the relationships among race, power, and resistance.
4. Examine how blackness and ethnicity intersect with other factors such as gender, class, sexuality, religion, and nationhood.
5. Illustrate a deep understanding for the development of the African Diaspora and the quest for liberation and social justice.

Minors are required to take six courses (18 credit hours), two from Conceptual Frameworks and one each from the following four categories:

1. Policy and Praxis
2. Culture and History
3. Power and Liberation
4. Comparative and International

The Minor in African Diaspora Studies:  Fall 2020 courses are in bold.

Conceptual Framework Courses (6 credits required in this category)

Policy & Praxis (choose one 3 credit course in this category)

Culture & History (choose one 3 credit course in this category)

Power & Liberation (choose one 3 credit course in this category)

Comparative & International (choose one 3 credit course in this category)