Program Requirements
- Total Units Required: 31
- Grade Requirement: The minimum grade required for coursework to count toward the major is a C– or better.
Required Courses (10 Credits)
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| AFAS 1002 | Foundations in African & African-American Studies | 1 |
| AFAS 2550 | Introduction to Africana Studies | 3 |
| AFAS 4018 | Approaches, Debates and Practices in Black Studies | 3 |
| AFAS 4501 | Senior Seminar | 3 |
| Total Units | 10 | |
Elective Courses (21 Credits)
Students must complete a minimum of 21 elective credits in African & African American Studies (AFAS) as follows:
Focus Area Requirements
Students must complete at least one course in each of the four AFAS Focus Areas:
- Language, Aesthetics, and Expressive Cultures (3 credits)
- Social and Historical Formations (3 credits)
- Gender, Sexuality, and the Body (3 credits)
- Engaging Africa and Non-U.S. Diaspora Currents (3 credits)
Additional Elective Credits
Students must complete an additional 9 credits from any combination of the above focus areas.
Upper-Level Courses
At least 18 elective credits must be at the 3000 level or above, including a minimum of 6 credits at the 4000 level.
Lower-Level Courses
Up to 3 elective credits may be taken at the 1000 or 2000 level, although lower-level electives are not required for the major.
Independent Study
No more than 3 credits of independent study can count toward the major; this includes internships, research assistantships, undergraduate teaching assistant positions, and directed research.
Foreign Language Requirement
Students are required to complete at least one semester of a foreign language. Wolof and Swahili are strongly encouraged and are preapproved for the major due to their relevance to African and African Diaspora Studies. Other languages may fulfill this requirement with the approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies or the student's AFAS advisor to ensure alignment with the student's academic focus in AFAS.
AFAS Focus Area Course Lists
Language, Aesthetics, and Expressive Cultures
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| AFAS 1107 | Freshman Seminar: Self & Identity in African American Literature | 3 |
| AFAS 1108 | Introduction to African Literature | 3 |
| AFAS 1240 | Beats, Rhymes & Life: A Cultural History of Hip-Hop | 3 |
| AFAS 2045 | The Writer as Witness: Mourning and Memory in the African Novel | 3 |
| AFAS 2090 | African Studies: Mapping Urban Languages and Resistance in Africa | 3 |
| AFAS 2153 | Topics in African American Studies: Afro-Latin America On Camera | 3 |
| AFAS 2450 | Bones, Burials and Black Worlds: Mortuary Archaeology and Critical Heritage Studies of African and African American Funerary Practices | 3 |
| AFAS 3003 | From Shaft to Django: The History of Blaxploitation Film | 3 |
| AFAS 3040 | A History of African-American Theater | 3 |
| AFAS 3254 | African Americans and Children's Literature | 3 |
| AFAS 3380 | (Re)writing Slavery | 3 |
| AFAS 3451 | Topics in African-American Literature: (when offered as "Black American Writers in the Age of Lynching & Resistance") | 3 |
| AFAS 3460 | African American Literature: African American Writers Since the Harlem Renaissance | 3 |
| AFAS 3550 | Undoing Empire: Introduction to Postcolonial Writing and Art | 3 |
| AFAS 3651 | Black Women Writers | 3 |
| AFAS 4041 | Beginning Graduate-Level Swahili | 3 |
| AFAS 4042 | Beginning Graduate-Level Swahili II | 3 |
| AFAS 4043 | Intermediate Graduate-Level Swahili III | 3 |
| AFAS 4044 | Intermediate Graduate Level Swahili IV | 3 |
| AFAS 4210 | Topics in African American Literature: Stars of the Canon | 3 |
| AFAS 4215 | Mediated Blackness: A Black Studies Approach to Digital Methods | 3 |
| AFAS 4270 | What is Africanfuturism? 21st Century African Speculative Fiction | 3 |
| AFAS 4610 | Advanced Swahili (when offered as "Readings in Swahili Literature") | 3 |
Social and Historical Formations
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| AFAS 1100 | First-Year Seminar: Gender, Sexuality and Power in 19th and 20th Centuries | 3 |
| AFAS 1103 | First-Year Seminar: Monumental Anti-Racism | 3 |
| AFAS 1104 | First Year Seminar: Contextualizing Contemporary Africa | 3 |
| AFAS 1111 | First-Year Seminar: Travel Noire: Consumption and the Gaze in the Black Travel Movement | 3 |
| AFAS 1130 | Introduction to Race | 3 |
| AFAS 2140 | Juvenile Justice in the Black Experience | 3 |
| AFAS 2151 | St. Louis Black History, Culture and Civic Engagement | 3 |
| AFAS 2160 | Free the Land: Black Lives and Environmental (In)justice | 3 |
| AFAS 3070 | Topics On Africa: African Urban Futures | 3 |
| AFAS 3120 | African Immigration to the United States of America | 3 |
| AFAS 3130 | African Civilization: 1800 to the Present | 3 |
| AFAS 3160 | African Civilization to 1800 | 3 |
| AFAS 3260 | Zambaje: Afroindigenous Relations in Latin America | 3 |
| AFAS 3312 | Playing Through Black History: The Ethics of Public History Pedagogy | 3 |
| AFAS 3410 | Mapping the World of Black Criminality | 3 |
| AFAS 3655 | Black Conservatives and Their Discontent: African Americans and Conservatism in America | 3 |
| AFAS 3880 | Terror and Violence in the Black Atlantic | 3 |
| AFAS 4104 | Black Decolonial Thought: Conceptualizing Epistemic Violence From Frantz Fanon to Achille Mbembe | 3 |
| AFAS 4160 | Engineering Authority: Design, Architecture, and Power in Africa | 3 |
| AFAS 4213 | Sufism and Islamic Brotherhoods in Africa | 3 |
| AFAS 4215 | Mediated Blackness: A Black Studies Approach to Digital Methods | 3 |
| AFAS 4250 | Construction and Experience of Black Adolescence | 3 |
| AFAS 4465 | Black Life and the Law | 3 |
| AFAS 4601 | Historical Racial Violence: Legacies & Reckonings | 3 |
| AFAS 4890 | Catholicism and Slavery | 3 |
Gender, Sexuality, and the Body
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| AFAS 2070 | Topics in African American Studies: Native Sons and Daughters Gender & Sexuality of African American | 3 |
| AFAS 2232 | Gender and Sexuality in the African Diaspora | 3 |
| AFAS 3255 | Black Masculinities | 3 |
| AFAS 3644 | Look Here, Karen: The Politics of Black Digital Resistance to White Femininity | 3 |
| AFAS 3651 | Black Women Writers | 3 |
| AFAS 4040 | Gender, Sexuality, and Change in Africa | 3 |
Engaging Africa and Non-U.S. Diaspora Currents
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| AFAS 1104 | First Year Seminar: Contextualizing Contemporary Africa | 3 |
| AFAS 1105 | First-Year Seminar: Imagining and Creating Africa: Youth, Culture, and Change | 3 |
| AFAS 1108 | Introduction to African Literature | 3 |
| AFAS 2045 | The Writer as Witness: Mourning and Memory in the African Novel | 3 |
| AFAS 2060 | Blackness and the Politics of Recognition in Latin America | 3 |
| AFAS 2090 | African Studies: Mapping Urban Languages and Resistance in Africa | 3 |
| AFAS 2153 | Topics in African American Studies: Afro-Latin America On Camera | 3 |
| AFAS 3062 | Islam, Culture and Society in West Africa | 3 |
| AFAS 3070 | Topics On Africa: African Urban Futures | 3 |
| AFAS 3113 | Culture, Politics, and Society in Francophone Africa | 3 |
| AFAS 3120 | African Immigration to the United States of America | 3 |
| AFAS 3130 | African Civilization: 1800 to the Present | 3 |
| AFAS 3160 | African Civilization to 1800 | 3 |
| AFAS 3385 | Emerging Africa: Language, Identity, and Social Change | 3 |
| AFAS 3390 | Senegal: History, Politics and Culture | 3 |
| AFAS 3550 | Undoing Empire: Introduction to Postcolonial Writing and Art | 3 |
| AFAS 4040 | Gender, Sexuality, and Change in Africa | 3 |
| AFAS 4041 | Beginning Graduate-Level Swahili | 3 |
| AFAS 4042 | Beginning Graduate-Level Swahili II | 3 |
| AFAS 4043 | Intermediate Graduate-Level Swahili III | 3 |
| AFAS 4044 | Intermediate Graduate Level Swahili IV | 3 |
| AFAS 4104 | Black Decolonial Thought: Conceptualizing Epistemic Violence From Frantz Fanon to Achille Mbembe | 3 |
| AFAS 4110 | The Black South Atlantic | 3 |
| AFAS 4160 | Engineering Authority: Design, Architecture, and Power in Africa | 3 |
| AFAS 4213 | Sufism and Islamic Brotherhoods in Africa | 3 |
| AFAS 4270 | What is Africanfuturism? 21st Century African Speculative Fiction | 3 |
| AFAS 4290 | Advanced African History Seminar | 3 |
| AFAS 4610 | Advanced Swahili (when offered as "Readings in Swahili Literature") | 3 |
Experiential Learning: Beyond the Classroom
Independent Study
Independent work provides students with the opportunity to pursue in-depth, guided academic and experiential work under the supervision of an AFAS faculty member. Independent study credit may include traditional one-on-one independent research with a faculty mentor, internships with approved community partners, or service as an undergraduate teaching assistant.
Co-Curricular Opportunities for Majors
AFAS regularly sponsors events designed to foster a vibrant social and intellectual community such as keynote speakers, panels, field trips, plays, the Annual African Film Festival, and exhibits that focus on contemporary or perennial topics of interest in all areas of the Black experience.
Study Abroad and Transfer Credit
Students may apply a maximum of 6 credits to their major that are earned through study abroad and/or transfer credits.
Senior Honors (Latin Honors Thesis)
If a student maintains an overall grade point average of at least 3.65 by the second semester of their junior year, they may be eligible to complete a Latin honors thesis with a core faculty member in the program in African & African American Studies and typically two readers. Completed application forms for Latin honors should be submitted to the Director of Undergraduate Studies as early as possible, preferably by the end of the spring semester of the junior year.
Contact Info
| Website: | https://afas.wustl.edu/ |