Degree Requirements for African American Studies
General Requirements for the Major or Minor
General university degree requirements stipulate that 1) at least four units of the major or three units of the minor be taken in residence at Puget Sound; 2) students earn at least a cumulative GPA of 2.0 in courses taken for the major or the minor; and 3) all courses taken for a major or minor must be taken for graded credit. Any exceptions to these stipulations are indicated in the major and minor degree requirements listed below.
Requirements for the Major in African-American Studies (BA)
A major in African American Studies consists of 9 units:
- AFAM 101
- AFAM 398
- AFAM 399
- Four elective units, including two depth and two breadth courses, selected and approved through advising from the courses listed below. At least three of the four must be taken at the upper-division level (courses numbered 300 or higher).
- Capstone sequence: AFAM 401 and 402
Requirements for the Minor in African-American Studies
A minor in African American Studies consists of 5 units:
- AFAM 101.
- Three elective units meeting the following conditions: (i) at least two must be taken outside the student's major; (ii) at least one must be a depth course from the list below; (iii) at least one must be a breadth course from the list below; and (iv) at least one must be an upper-division course (i.e., numbered 300 or higher).
- Capstone: AFAM 401.
Notes for the major and minor
- Students may apply up to two approved courses of study abroad credit toward their African American Studies major or minor.
- Majors and minors may satisfy no more than two university core requirements from African American Studies offerings.
- When a course both supports their African American Studies major and fulfills a major or minor requirement in another field, a student may count no more than two units from that major or minor toward their African American Studies major.
- Students majoring or minoring in African American Studies must earn a grade of C- or higher in all courses which are taken in fulfillment of a major or minor requirement.
- The African American Studies program reserves the option of determining, on an individual basis, a time limit on the applicability of courses to the major or minor.
Depth Electives
Depth courses provide students with specialized knowledge in African American experiences, opportunities for sustained and deep thinking about a topic in African American Studies, and specifically highlight how African American Studies acquires, organizes, and defines knowledge. Students will acquire new methodological or theoretical tools to understand and situate African American experiences and their import. A course will meet the depth criteria if: (1) course topics are central to African American experiences; (2) these topics are considered across the course; and (3) the course introduces methodological or theoretical tools rooted in African American Studies. Courses that currently count toward the depth elective are:
AFAM 205 Survey of Race and Culture in Ethnic Literature
AFAM 215 On the Real: Black Popular Culture is Art
AFAM 305 Black Fictions and Feminisms
AFAM 310 African Diaspora Experience
AFAM 346 African Americans and American Law
AFAM 355 African American Women in American History
AFAM 360 The Art and Politics of the Civil Rights Era
AFAM/COMM 370 Communication and Diversity
AFAM 375 The Harlem Renaissance
AFAM 380 Special Topics in Race & Ethnicity
AFAM 400 The 1619 Project
AFAM 495 Independent Study (Variable credit up to 1.00 unit.)
CLJ/REL 307 Prisons, Gender and Education
COMM 347 Public Discourse
CONN 335 Race and Multiculturalism in the American Context
CONN 390 Black Business Leadership: Past and Present
ENGL 332 Genre: Poetry Applicable when the course emphasizes African American literature.
ENGL 335 Genre: Drama Applicable when the course emphasizes African American literature.
ENGL 338 Genre: Popular Literature Applicable when the course emphasizes African American literature.
ENGL 339 Genre: Print Media Applicable when the course emphasizes African American literature.
ENGL 363 African American Literature
ENGL 381 Major Authors Applicable when the course emphasizes African American literature.
HIST 254 African American Voices: A Survey of African American History
HIST 291 Modern Africa
HIST 293 Early Africa to 1807
MUS 221 Jazz History
PG 304 Race and American Politics
PG 346 Race in the American Political Imagination
PHIL 389 Race and Philosophy
Breadth Electives
Breadth courses multiply points of application of specialized knowledge and expertise which students gain from African American Studies, allowing them access to different methodological and theoretical modes of treating topics and interrogating course material across disciplines, and varied platforms for building their capacity for critical and recursive intellectual engagement. A course will meet the breadth criteria if the syllabus or conversation with the instructor indicates that (1) topics show a distinct relationship to African American studies; (2) topics allow application of methods and theories from AFAM studies; and (3) the course expands lenses and extends contexts on topics instructive to African American experiences. Courses that currently count toward the breadth elective are:
AFAM/REL 265 What is Justice?
AFAM/ENVR 301 Environmental Racism
AFAM 304 Capital and Captivity: African Americans and the U.S. Economy
AFAM/LTS 320 Race, Power, and Privilege
ARTH 302 The Art of Mexico and Mesoamerica
COMM 321 Film Criticism
COMM 322 Television Culture
COMM 373 Critical Cultural Theory
CONN 325 The Experience of Prejudice
ECON 218 American Economic History
ECON 241 Regional and Urban Economics
ENGL 362 Native American Literature
ENGL 364 Asian American Literature
ENGL 365 Gender and Sexualities
ENGL 366 Critical Whiteness Studies
FREN 391 African Women Writers
GQS 201 Introduction to Gender, Queer, and Feminist Studies
HIST 280 Colonial Latin America
HIST 281 Modern Latin America
HIST 360 Frontiers of Native America
HIST 381 Film and History: Latin America
HIST 382 Comparative Revolution in Twentieth Century Latin America
HIST 383 Borderlands: La Frontera: The U.S.-Mexico Border
HIST 384 Transnational Latin America
HIST 391 Nelson Mandela and 20th Century South Africa
HIST 392 Gender in Colonial Africa
HIST 393 Missions and Christianity in Africa
LAS 100 Introduction to Latin American Studies
LAS 387 Art and Revolution in Latin America
LTS 200 Latina/o America: A Critical Introduction to Latina/o Studies
LTS 300 Latina/o Literatures
MUS 222 Music of the World's Peoples
MUS 322 Dance in World Cultures
PG 311 Politics of Detention: Criminal Justice, Immigration, and the War on Terror
PG 315 Law and Society
PG 316 Civil Liberties
PG 344 American Political Thought
PSYC 225 Social Psychology
PSYC 265 Cross-Cultural Psychology
PSYC 373 Perceiving Self and Other
REL 302 Ethics and the Other
SOAN 213 City and Society
SOAN 230 Indigenous Peoples: Alternative Political Economies
SOAN 301 Power and Inequality
SOAN 305 Heritage Languages and Language Policies
SOAN 350 Border Crossings: Transnational Migration and Diaspora Studies
SPAN 212 Introduction to Latin American Cultures
SPAN 301 Literature of the Americas
SPAN 306 Latin American Film
SPAN 311 Migration Narratives
SPAN 402 Seminar in Nineteenth-Century Latin America
SPAN 405 Seminar in Twentieth and/or Twenty-First Century Latin America only if significant African American Studies content
THTR 250 World Theatre I: African Diaspora
Notes
The following first-year seminars have relevance but cannot count toward the major or minor:
SSI1 121 Multiracial Identities
SSI1/SSI2 115 Imaging Blackness