Africana Studies 2009-2010
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Overview
Africana Studies offers an interdepartmental major and a minor involving the study of the history, culture, intellectual heritage, and social development of people of African descent, focusing on the continent of Africa as well as places in the diaspora such as the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe. The program features a variety of approaches to intellectual, creative, and practical interests, and draws upon the arts, humanities, and social and behavioral sciences.
THE PROGRAM
At Union, the Africana Studies program includes more than 50 courses in Anthropology, Art History, English, History, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Modern Languages and Literatures, Music, Sociology, and Women’s Studies. Courses in additional fields are offered on a year-by-year basis.
Recent international programs with an Africana focus have included terms abroad in Barbados and Brazil and mini-terms abroad in Jamaica, Brazil, and South Africa.
THE PURPOSE
Interdisciplinary research and teaching programs in Africana Studies prepare students for professional careers in human services, education, law, business, community development, journalism, and more generally for roles in the public sector or roles that involve intercultural or intergroup relations as well as international affairs. Students of Africana Studies also find themselves well prepared for graduate study in the humanities and social and behavioral sciences. In examining the role that cultural heritage, gender, race, and class have played historically and continue to play in structuring human life, Africana Studies courses help students understand and deal with the diversity that has always characterized our society and workplaces.
THE FACULTY
Director: Professor Olsen (Music)
Advisors: Professors Aslakson (History), Fay (Anthropology), Hill-Butler (Sociology), Lynes (English), Meade (History), Morales-Cox (Art History), Peterson (History), Romero (English), Wainaina (English)