The Department of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers students an opportunity to study black history, culture, and society in ideal interdisciplinary models. It challenges students to critically examine facts and issues that are historically and contemporaneously relevant to the African American experience.
Approved by the Board of Regents in 1970, the Department of African American Studies is an outgrowth of student and grassroots protests for relevance in higher education that occurred during the 1960s in Madison and on college campuses throughout the country. Today, the department offers a wide variety of courses leading to an undergraduate degree and certificate, and at the graduate level, a Master of Arts degree. It is one of this country’s most successful departments of African American Studies.
MAJOR
The major in African American Studies requires a minimum of 30 credits. 15 credits must be numbered 300 and above. Students must take 2 courses from each of the four areas listed below: 1) Literature; 2) History and Society; 3) Arts and Culture; 4) Seminars and Advanced Courses; and Electives to achieve a total of 30 credits.
1. Literature
1) Two (2) courses selected from the following:
| Introduction to Black Women Writers | ||
| Introduction to African American Dramatic Literature | ||
| Masterpieces of African American Literature | ||
| African-American Autobiography | ||
| The Harlem Renaissance | ||
| The Black Arts Movement | ||
| 19th Century Afro-American Literature | ||
| Major Authors |
2 History And Society
2.) Two (2) courses selected from the following:
| Introduction to Contemporary Afro-American Society | ||
| Introduction to Afro-American History | ||
| Race and American Politics from the New Deal to the New Right | ||
| Afro-American History Since 1900 | ||
| Afro-American History to 1900 | ||
| Black Women in America: Reconstruction to the Present | ||
| Race and Gender in Post-World War II U.S. Society | ||
| Slavery, Civil War, and Reconstruction, 1848-1877 |
3) Arts And Culture
3.) Two (2) courses selected from the following:
| Hip-Hop and Contemporary American Society | ||
| Black Music and American Cultural History | ||
| Introduction to African Art and Architecture | ||
| Introduction to Afro-American Art | ||
| Artistic/Cultural Images of Black Women | ||
| Blacks, Film, and Society | ||
| Cultural Cross Currents: West African Dance/Music in the Americas | ||
| Art and Visual Culture: Women of the African Diaspora and Africa | ||
| African and American Cultural Drama | ||
4.) Seminars And Advanced Courses
4.) Two (2) courses selected from the following:
| African American Women’s Activism (19th & 20th Centuries) | ||
| Gender, Race and the Civil Rights Movement | ||
| History of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States | ||
| Colloquium in Afro-American History | ||
| Interdisciplinary Studies in the Arts | ||
| Selected Topics in Afro-American History | ||
| Selected Topics in Afro-American Literature | ||
| Selected Topics in Afro-American Society | ||
| Selected Topics on Afro-American Artists | ||
| Selected Topics in Afro-American Culture | ||
| Critical and Theoretical Perspectives in Black Women’s Writings | ||
| Modern/Contemporary Art of Nigeria and the African Diaspora | ||
| Visual Culture, Gender and Critical Race Theory |
5. Electives
5) Two (2) courses selected from the following:
| Introduction to Comparative US Ethnic and American Indian Studies | ||
| They: Race in American Literature | ||
| Introduction to Black Women’s Studies | ||
| Selected Topics in African American Culture | ||
| African and African-American Linkages: An Introduction | ||
| Undergraduate Studies in Afro-American History | ||
| Gender, Race and Class: Women in U.S. History | ||
| Black Feminisms | ||
| The Caribbean and its Diasporas | ||
| Mutual Perceptions of Racial Minorities | ||
| Soul Music and the African American Freedom Movement | ||
| Interdisciplinary Studies in the Arts | ||
| African American Political Theory | ||
| African American Families | ||
| Race, American Medicine and Public Health | ||
| History of African American Education |
Residence & Quality of Work in the Major
2.000 GPA in all AFROAMER and major courses
2.000 GPA on at least 15 credits of upper-level work in the major, in residence2
15 credits in AFROAMER, taken on the UW–Madison campus