Africana Studies Minor
Africana Studies is an interdisciplinary field that centers African, African American, and Caribbean history, culture, and politics. Using the methodological tools and theories of the social sciences and humanities, Africana Studies examines the political, social, and economic organization of nations, communities, and people from Africa and the African Diaspora.
Like all the minors in the Sociology and Anthropology Department, the minor does not prepare students for employment in one particular job, but for many different types of work that emphasize or require strong: writing skills, analytical and critical thinking, research skills, reading comprehension, and oral communication. This minor complements any major degree in which students anticipate working in diverse environments and in which they serve the public.
Consisting of 15 credits, students enrolled in the Africana Studies minor must maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.5 in their courses that qualify for the minor.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to:
- Demonstrate their ability to think critically about social, political, and economic issues pertinent to Africa and the African diaspora.
- Access and comprehend scholarly and mainstream sources on Africa and the African diaspora.
- Demonstrate understanding of the methodologies and skills used in the humanities and social sciences to study Africa and the African diaspora.
- Define and provide examples of colonization, decolonization, Black liberation/power movements, and their legacies.
- Explain, verbally and in writing, the concept of intersectionality and connect the experiences of people within the Africana Diaspora with race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality.
- Adopt a transnational lens and demonstrate an awareness of social justice issues and initiatives involving people of African descent in the United States and around the world.
About Academic Minors
Farmingdale State College students are invited to enhance their studies with an "Academic Minor." A minor is a cluster of thematically related courses drawn from one or more departments. In addition to department based minors (e.g. computer programming & info systems), interdisciplinary minors are also available (e.g. legal studies).
Academic minors are approved by the College-Wide Curriculum Committee and the Provost. Students must make application for an academic minor through the department offering the minor in conjunction with the Registrar's Office Specific course work must be determined in consultation with a faculty member in the department offering the minor. A statement of successful completion of the academic minor will appear on the student's transcript at the time of graduation.
- A minor is considered to be an optional supplement to a student's major program of study.
- Completion of a minor is not a graduation requirement and is subject to the availability of the courses selected. However, if the requirements for a minor are not completed prior to certification of graduation in the major, it will be assumed that the minor has been dropped. Consequently, the student will only be certified for graduation in their primary major.
- Only students in 4 year baccalaureate programs can apply for a minor.
- A minor should consist of 15 to 21 credits.
- At least 12 credits must be in courses at the 200 level or higher.
- At least 9 credits must be residency credits.
- Specific requirements for each minor are determined by the department granting the minor.
- Students must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of at least 2.0 in their minor. Some minors may require a higher GPA.
- Students are prohibited from declaring a minor in the same discipline as their major (e.g. one cannot combine an applied math minor with an applied math major). Academic minors may not apply to all curricula.
- Students are permitted to double-count courses.
- Students are only permitted to take more than one minor with appropriate written approval of their department chair or curriculum Dean.
Admission to Farmingdale State College - State University of New York is based on the qualifications of the applicant without regard to age, sex, marital or military status, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, disability or sexual orientation.
Contact Information
Sociology and Anthropology
Dr. Angela Jones
Memorial Hall, Room 123
934-420-6379
sociologyandanthropology@farmingdale.edu
Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pm
Fall 2023
Subject to revision
| Core: | (6 Credits) |
|---|---|
| SOC 150 Introduction to Africana Studies OR | |
| HIS 130 African American History to 1865 OR | |
| HIS 131 African American History Since 1865 | 3 |
| SOC 308 Black Political and Social Thought | 3 |
| Elective Courses: | (9 Credits) |
|---|---|
| ANT 211 Caribbean Cultures | 3 |
| ANT 300 Africanisms in the Americas | 3 |
| EGL 235 Caribbean Literature | 3 |
| EGL 309 African American Literature | 3 |
| HIS 280: Caribbean History | 3 |
| HIS 324 Roots of Black Americans | 3 |
| MLG 307 French and Francophone Fiction and Film | 3 |
| POL 374 Politics in Africa | 3 |
| SOC 253: Black Popular Culture | 3 |
| SOC 311: African American Leadership | 3 |
Curriculum Summary
Total Required Credits: 15
SOC 150 Introduction to Africana Studies
This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Africana Studies. The course centers African, African American, and Caribbean history, culture, and politics. Students will learn about the political, social, and economic organization of nations, communities, and people from Africa and the African Diaspora. Students will explore key dimensions of Black life throughout the diaspora and learn how African people in the Americas have shaped and contributed to a wide-range of social institutions and challenged public debates regarding citizenship, race, nationality, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. NOTE: Students cannot earn credit for SOC 150 and SOC 150*D SOC 150*D can be used to fulfill the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice requirement.
HIS 130 African American HIS to 1865
This course examines the history of African Americans in the United States from their African origins to the Civil War and emancipation through primary and secondary readings and visual and aural texts. It focuses on the ways that African Americans established their own cultures and worlds as they resisted and opposed various forms of oppression, including slavery, segregation, dispossession and disfranchisement. It provides students with an understanding of their key struggles for freedom, equality, community, power, and identity, including those related to gender and class, and of their integrative and alternative political, economic and social visions and institutions. NOTE: Students cannot earn credit for HIS 130 and HIS 130*D HIS 130*D can be used to fulfill the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice requirement.
HIS 131 African American History Since 1865
This course explores African American history from the end of the Civil War to the present by engaging wide-ranging issues, debates and topics that have shaped African American experiences since emancipation. Students will examine the struggles by African Americans to exert power over their own images and identities within a white power structure, to establish and define national leadership and institutions, to develop and implement protest strategies, to achieve their social, economic and political objectives, to redress economic inequality, and to express black cultural styles. In the process, the course will concentrate on African American agency, including the nature of both their resistance and oppression, and centrality of African Americans to shaping American history. NOTE: Students cannot earn credit for HIS 131 and HIS 131*D HIS 131*D can be used to fulfill the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice requirement.
SOC 308 Black Political and Social Thought
In this course, students will learn a wide-range of Black political theories from the 19th to 21st centuries. Students will be introduced to the ideas of prominent Black leaders who crafted ideas that helped people understand better the origins of racial discrimination and also provided concrete strategies for remedying institutionalized racism. Using an intersectional lens, students will also be introduced to how overlapping systems of oppression such as class, gender, and sexuality shape Black political and social thought. NOTE: Students cannot earn credit for SOC 308 and SOC 308*D SOC 308*D can be used to fulfill the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice requirement. Prerequisite(s): SOC 1XX or HIS 1XX (before 1865) or HIS 1XX (after 1865) or POL 105 and EGL 102
ANT 211 Caribbean Cultures
This course covers: pre-European cultures in the Caribbean, the post-Columbus plantation system, contemporary economics and politics, community structure, religion, marriage and family, ethnic diversity, immigration and the arts. An in-depth study of these topics will provide knowledge, understanding and appreciation of this region while offering insights into the development of communities in the U.S. with Caribbean heritage. NOTE: Students cannot earn credit for ANT 211 and ANT 211*D ANT 211*D can be used to fulfill the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice requirement.
ANT 300 Africanisms in the Americas
In providing the largest body of slave labor in known history, Africans changed the cultures of all inhabitants of the Americas and were themselves changed in the process. From cuisine to crafts, technologies to the arts, pan-Africans have influenced our language, music, philosophies, and social policies in ways both direct and subtle. Utilizing a four-field approach, this course will look at the migrations from Africa to the rest of the world through DNA markers, material and social culture; explore the changing meanings and presentations of pan-Africans in literature, religion, art, and film; discover some of the ways in which scientists and social scientists trace physical and cultural artifacts, and note some of the controversies and contexts for cultural claims. Prerequisites: ANT 100; or ANT 110; or ANT 120; or SOC 122; or SOC 150, and EGL 102 all with a grade of C+ or higher Recommended: ANT 210, Modern Anthropology and Globalization; ANT 211 Caribbean Cultures; ANT 260 Anthropological Theory; ANT 266 Anthropological Research
EGL 235 Caribbean Literature
This course examines the literature of the Caribbean region. Artistic works including primarily novel and poetry will be emphasized as will theoretical writings that consider cultural production in the context of transnational migrations, colonization and decolonization, globalization, the African diaspora, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. NOTE: Students cannot earn credit for EGL 235 and EGL 235*D EGL 235*D can be used to fulfill the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice requirement. Prerequisite(s): EGL 102 with a grade of C or higher
EGL 309 Voices of Black America in Poetry, Prose and Song
A study of the oral and literary tradition of African Americans in poetry, prose and song. This course provides both a historical examination of the written and oral tradition of African Americans in its own right and as a lens through which American culture can be viewed. The course will explore the developing aesthetic concerns of this tradition in different historical periods as, for example, the question of dialect before, during and after the Harlem Renaissance and the later Black Arts movement up through contemporary rap. Students will also consider how many texts by African Americans combine literary and musical forms, particularly spirituals, blues, jazz, hip hop and rap. Critical readings and research project required. Students who have completed EGL 224 may not receive credit for this course. Prerequisite(s): EGL 102 with a grade of C or higher
HIS 280 Caribbean History
This course explores the Caribbean Basin and places it in the historical context of the larger Atlantic World. The course begins with the arrival of Columbus in the Caribbean Islands and the conquest of the region by Spain. Subsequently, the course will explore the development of the sugar industry, the introduction of African slaves, and the arrival of other European powers in the region, including the French, English and Dutch. Additionally, this course will trace the development of Caribbean nations during the 19th century and their subsequent struggles for economic and political survival. The primary focus of the course will be on the larger islands of Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Jamaica, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, with a brief overview of the Lesser Antilles. NOTE: Students cannot earn credit for HIS 280 and HIS 280*D HIS 280*D can be used to fulfill the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice requirement. Prerequisite(s): EGL 101
MLG 307 French and Francophone Fiction and Film
This course will explore the relationship between literary works and their film adaptations in France and all over the French-speaking world. Selections will be read from novels, short stories, and poems, and major literary movements will be discussed. Students will analyze how literary images and themes are translated onto the big screen. Topics include the French heritage novel, the North African Arab/ French experience, the West African and Caribbean Negritude Movements, and French-Canadian literature and film. All readings and films in English translation. Prerequisite(s): EGL 102
POL 374 Politics in Africa
This course addresses modern African politics, including, but not limited to the colonial background and its consequences, ethnicity, the military, ideology, dependency, democracy and political stability. While a thematic approach to African politics is stressed in the course, an underlying current in the course will be the tensions that exist between opposing forces in African politics. Some of these influences include foreign and indigenous influences, anarchy and order, democracy and authoritarianism, socialism and capitalism, political decay, and development. Prerequisite(s): Any 200-level course in Social Science
SOC 253 Black Popular Cultures
This course examines the development of Black popular cultures in the 20th and 21st century in the United States. Through close readings of text, music, and film, students will discuss the historical roots, current manifestations, and diversity within Black cultures. Topics may include but are not limited to the Black church, the Harlem Renaissance, Hip-Hop, the commodification of Black culture, sororities and fraternities, stepping, drag balls/ballroom, and sexual subcultures. NOTE: Students cannot earn credit for SOC 253 and SOC 253*D SOC 253*D can be used to fulfill the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice requirement. Prerequisite(s): EGL 101 and Any Sociology Course
SOC 311 African American Leadership
This course examines African American political leadership in the United States from the antebellum era through the 21st century. Emphasis is placed on the ideas espoused by a wide range of African American leaders, both male and female, and how these ideas shaped formal organizations, economics, politics, and social relations amongst Americans. Drawing from the sociology of leadership, students will learn and discuss what strategies make some leaders effective and successful. Prerequisite(s): SOC 122 and EGL 102