Interdepartmental Undergraduate Program
African and African American Studies, a cross-disciplinary program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, offers students the opportunity to explore the African Americans’ experience and African American contributions to American culture. Students in the program analyze and learn about African American experiences through the study of history, literature, art, religion, and society. They gain knowledge and develop skills and sensitivities to help them function effectively in today’s diverse society.
African and African American Studies at Iowa State University is an expanding program. Most of the courses in the program satisfy general education requirements in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the human relations requirement for teachers, and the university’s diversity requirement. Students can minor or even design their own Interdisciplinary Studies major with an emphasis in African American Studies. Relevant courses are offered through other departments.
Graduate Study
Several courses can be applied to a graduate program as electives.
A minor in African and African American Studies requires six courses in the program with a minimum of 18 credits, including AF AM 201 Introduction to African American Studies and AF AM 460 Seminar in African American Culture . The remaining credits must come from at least two departments, with at least two courses taken at the junior level or above. The minor must include at least 9 credits that are not used to meet any other department, college, or university requirement. Independent study and internship opportunities are available for credit, but do not count in the minimum requirements for the minor.
Courses
Courses primarily for undergraduates:
(3-0) Cr. 3. F.S.
An interdisciplinary introduction to the study of African American culture. Includes history, the social sciences, literature, religion, and the arts, as well as conceptual frameworks for investigation and analysis of the African American experience.
Meets U.S. Diversity Requirement
(Cross-listed with HIST). Cr. 3.
Prereq: Sophomore classification
Survey of the history of African societies, cultures and civilizations from earliest times to 1880. Evolution of states across the continent; social, economic, political, and cultural developments; nature and consequences of African interactions and relationship with Europeans.
(Cross-listed with HIST). (3-0) Cr. 3.
Prereq: 3 credits of 200-level HIST at Iowa State, and sophomore classification.
Development of Africa from imposition of colonial rule to independence, including processes of European domination, African reaction and resistance, emergence of nationalism, and dismantling of colonialism.
Meets International Perspectives Requirement.
(Cross-listed with ANTHR). (3-0) Cr. 3.
Prereq: 201 or 306 recommended.
Survey of diverse African culture areas across the continent and globally; local level description and analysis of individuals as members of African communities; regional, national and global scales of identification.
Meets International Perspectives Requirement.
(Cross-listed with SOC). (3-0) Cr. 3. F.S.SS.
Prereq: SOC 134
Analysis of ethnic and race relations, particularly in America; emphasis on the sociology and psychology of race and ethnic relations.
Meets U.S. Diversity Requirement
(Cross-listed with RELIG). (3-0) Cr. 3. F.
Prereq: Prior course work in Religious Studies or African American Studies recommended.
A focused study of the religious histories and cultures of West Africans and their descendants in the Americas. Topics include West African traditions, Christianity, Islam, and indigenous Afro-Caribbean religions, with attention to their gendered, theological, and cultural dimensions.
Meets U.S. Diversity Requirement
(Cross-listed with C J). Cr. 3.
Prereq: C J 240 or AF AM 201
Empirical and theoretical readings on the intersection of race, ethnicity, crime, and the criminal justice system in contemporary society. Topics include, but are not limited to racial and ethnic relations in society, media, violence, policing, and disparity and discrimination in crime and punishment. Criminological theories of racial and ethnic antagonism.
Meets U.S. Diversity Requirement
(Cross-listed with ENGL). (3-0) Cr. 3. Repeatable, maximum of 6 credits.
Prereq: ENGL 250
Literature by African Americans, which may include study of individual authors, movements, themes, genres.
Meets U.S. Diversity Requirement
(Cross-listed with WGS). (3-0) Cr. 3. S.
Prereq: 3 credits in WGS or AF AM
Economic, social, political and cultural roles of Women of Color in the U.S. Includes literary, philosophical, and artistic expressions. Myths and realities explored.
Meets U.S. Diversity Requirement
(Cross-listed with HIST). (3-0) Cr. 3. S.
Prereq: Sophomore classification
Examines African roots of black culture and the African American experience in the United States from the colonial period through the Civil War. Topics include Atlantic Slave Trade, slavery and American identity, abolition, the emergence of Black Nationalism, and black participation in the Civil War.
Meets U.S. Diversity Requirement
(Cross-listed with HIST). (3-0) Cr. 3. S.
Prereq: Sophomore classification
Explores African American political thought and political action from Reconstruction to the present. Topics include rise of Jim Crow segregation, urban migration, Garvey movement, Harlem Renaissance, Depression and world wars, Pan-Africanism, civil rights, Black Power, and black feminism.
Meets U.S. Diversity Requirement
(3-0) Cr. 3. S.
Intensive study of a selected topic in African-American Studies in one or more disciplines. Selected readings of various authors, movements, eras, or genres. Primary and secondary source materials.
Meets U.S. Diversity Requirement
(Cross-listed with HIST, US LS). (3-0) Cr. 3.
Prereq: Sophomore classification
Comparative history of the civil rights and ethnic power movements (African American, Chicano, American Indian, Puerto Rican, among others) in the U.S. from World War II to the present. Topics include institutional foundations, leadership, gender and racial dynamics, and the convergences and divergences of these differing ethnic struggles for rights.
Meets U.S. Diversity Requirement
Cr. 1-3. Repeatable, maximum of 3 times.