Africana Studies

Expand your worldview by exploring African, African-American and Caribbean cultures, traditions and experiences.

Africana Studies Minor

Study the traditions and experiences of people of African descent all over the world in our Africana studies minor.

History, philosophy, political science, economics, anthropology, sociology, literature, music and theatre come together to help you understand and analyze key aspects of Black life in Africa, the Caribbean and the United States.

Inside Africana Studies

In our culturally diverse society, it’s essential to become familiar with African, African-American, and Caribbean cultures, traditions and values.

Faculty from a range of academic disciplines teach in our Africana studies minor. From a history professor, you’ll learn how the Civil Rights movement actually began in the 1860s. Alongside a music professor, you’ll take a closer look at the development of jazz. With a philosophy professor, you’ll compare Plato’s Republic to HBO’s The Wire.

This minor pairs well with any of our majors, but may be of particular interest to philosophy, history, sociology, political science and theatre students.

No matter what your background is, Africana Studies will expand your worldview and enhance your understanding of your own heritage in interaction with other cultures.

Explore Your Studies

Program Resources

AFRC 101

Introduction to Africana Studies

The course explores the emergence of three related fields of inquiry — African Studies, African American Studies and African Diaspora Studies — and is divided into three modules that correspond to each of these fields. Often regrouped within “Africana Studies,” scholars in these fields pursue a broad range of questions such as the relationship between blackness and modernity, the politics of post-coloniality, and the construction of diasporic identity. This course engages the key debates in Africana studies through exploring the contributions of various disciplines to the development of the field, with a strong emphasis on anthropological knowledge. CC: Diversity. 4 SH.

AFRC 260

The Choreopoem

Inspired by the original choreopoem by Ntozake Shange, this course introduces the choreopoem form, investigating the concept of the living text as it applies to collaboration across multiple disciplines. Using literary analysis, creative writing and theatre, students research the choreopoem form, write one as a class and publicly perform it, reflecting on the tension of intention versus impact in performance spaces. Same as WRIT-260 and THEA-260. Sophomore or higher standing required. 4 SH. CC: Interdisciplinary, Diversity Intensive.

When you enroll at Susquehanna, you’ll be paired with an advisor and application tool to guide you in your course planning and scheduling. The following is an excerpt from the complete course catalog. Enrolled students follow the requirements of the course catalog for the academic year in which they declare each major and/or minor and consult with their advisor(s).

Learning Goals

Demonstrate the ability to analyze the cultural, historical, political, and social aspects of the African Diaspora.
Possess the critical vocabulary and concepts with which to describe and interpret the lived experience of people of the African Diaspora.
Demonstrate an understanding of the interdisciplinary character of the field.

Double-Counting Restriction for Interdisciplinary Minors

Only 4 semester hours of this minor may be double-counted toward the student’s major.

Minor in Africana Studies

This is an interdisciplinary minor. The Africana Studies minor completes, with a grade of C- or better, AFRC-101 Introduction to Africana Studies and at least 16 semester hours in the following courses or other courses approved by the program coordinator. Students consult with a minor advisor to select courses and are expected to take a balance of upper- and lower-level courses. At least three of these courses must be at the 200-level or higher.

AFRC-101 Introduction to Africana Studies

AFRC-260 The Choreopoem

ENGL-245 Studies in Comparative Literatures of the Americas (Multicultural/Non-Western)

ENGL-250 World Literature (when offered as African Literature)

HIST-115 African-American History

HIST-171 African Civilization

HIST-172 Early Modern Africa

HIST-180 Latin American Colonization and Resistance

HIST-181 Revolution and Identity in Latin America

HIST-314 The Long Civil Rights Movement

HIST-390 Topics in History (when offered as Violence, Terror and Race)

MUSC-102 A Study of Jazz

PHIL-150 Race, Class and Ethics

PHIL-212/WGST-200 Feminist Philosophy

PHIL-214 Black Existentialism

PHIL-255 Plato’s Republic and HBO’s “The Wire”

PHIL-305 Topics in Philosophy (when offered as Philosophy of Race or Race and Reality)

POLI-320 African Politics

POLI-324 Issues in Comparative Politics (when offered as Comparative Democratization)

PSYC-350 Psychology, Culture, and Ethnicity

SOCI-202 Black Feminism I

SOCI-210 Caribbean Culture and Society

SOCI-316 Social Justice

SOCI-413/ANTH-413 Critical Race Theory

THEA-254 Race and Identity on the American Stage

WRIT 196 Black, Brown, and Boisterous: Reading and Writing for Nondominant Lenses

Students are also encouraged to fulfill their Global Opportunities requirement by spending time immersed in cultures of the African continent and diaspora, for example GO Short or Long programs in South Africa, the Caribbean or New Orleans.