This minor draws on current resources of the college, facilitating collaboration with departments and centers across campus, ensuring students an interdisciplinary approach to Africana Studies. In addition to the campus community, Africana Studies is committed to serving in Black communities locally and afar in order to build connections, critical thinking and collaborations. As a field with its inception in the activism at San Francisco State University in 1967, it emphasizes students' engagement in social scholarship and social justice.
Students in the Africana Studies minor will be required to take 18 credits.
Required course:
PHL 311 Interdisciplinary Seminar in Philosophy| The course focuses on the issues surrounding one central topic in the study of Philosophy. Students will take an interdisciplinary and problem-oriented approach to such topics as Genocide, Postmodern Philosophy and Theology, Madness and Happiness. Fulfills requirement: Critical Thinking through Writing. This course may be repeated for credit as topic changes. 3 credits. |
Critical Race Theory
15 credits from the following:
ART 380 Color & Culture| How does color shape our understanding of the world? This is the center question of Color & Culture, a course in which we will investigate the powerful role that color has played throughout human history. With the history of art as a starting point, students will analyze the origins, uses, and interpretations of color from the earliest human cultures to the present, emphasizing the criteria by which color has been valued. These criteria incorporate a wide range of factors - aesthetic, biological, economic, religious and social - that have impacted culture in myriad ways and continue to influence our attitudes toward color. Fulfills requirement: Intercultural Competence. 3 credits. |
| The course is an introduction to major American authors from 1865 to the present. The survey offers an insight into how American literature shapes American identity and is in turn informed by it. We will explore the question of American identity by observing the relationship between the nation and the individual, the evolution of the artist in society, the recognition of multi-ethnic subjectivity, the relationship between urbanism and regionalism, and the diverse and innovative use of language. The course will follow different literary movements in this period from Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, Post-War Poetry, and Postmodernism through poetry, short stories, plays, and novels. Our readings will be informed by historical, social, philosophical, cultural, and thematic perspectives. Fulfills requirement: . 3 credits. |
*
ENG 390 Special Topics| Topic announced at the time of registration. Fulfills requirement: Intercultural Competence. This course may be repeated for credit as topic changes. 3 credits. |
| Examination of African-American literature as a lens through which students may more clearly view the ways that African Americans have contributed to, been influenced by, appropriated and transformed notions of American identity, specifically conceptions of freedom, equality, gender, sexuality, religion, class, and literature. Fulfills requirement: Intercultural Competence. Prerequisite: FYE 112; or by permission of the instructor. 3 credits. |
*
FYE 111 First Year Experience I| This is a seminar-style course that promotes intellectual inquiry and develops competencies essential to meet the rigorous curricular demands of our College. The primary focus is on writing with a secondary focus on critical reading. In addition, a companion component of the course supports students' successful emotional and intellectual transition to college by addressing strategies for time management, classroom preparation, and examination preparation. Students will also be introduced to relevant campus resources. Fulfills requirement: First Year Experience. Students must take the corresponding companion course of
FYE-111C, as evident by matching section numbers. 4 credits. |
| Since the end of the Civil War, Americans have changed their conception of who belongs to "We the People." Moreover, we have also reconsidered the appropriate role of government for citizens and the world. This course provides an introduction to those controversies in the past and present. Fulfills requirement: Intercultural Competence. 3 credits. |
*
IDS 210 Intergroup Dialogue| Topic to be determined at time of course schedule publication. Fulfills requirement: Intercultural Competence. This course may be repeated for credit as topic changes. Prerequisite: At least sophomore standing. By instructor
permission only. 3 credits. |
| One of the central concerns of this course is the ability of music to represent American identity. Of particular interest are the historic contributions of minority peoples, particularly African Americans, who have infused a variety of global music influences in the rich diversity of musical styles in the United States. This course considers the importance of geographic and ethnic origins of a particular musical style as well as the consequences of a market-driven music industry, which historically has privileged some groups over others. Fulfills requirement: Intercultural Competence. 3 credits. |
*
REL 311 Interdisciplinary Seminar in Religion| The course focuses on the issues surrounding one central topic in the study of religion. Students will take an interdisciplinary approach to such topics as God, Postmodern Philosophy and Theology, Existentialism and Religion, Religion and Violence, Religious Fundamentalism, The Problem of Evil. Fulfills requirement: Critical Thinking through Writing. This course may be repeated for credit as topic changes. 3 credits. |
| This course examines how race continues to be a central feature of identity in America. Students will explore how multiple facets of identity - such as class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality - intersect with race and form a complex matrix of inequality that has shaped the United States, in the past as well as the present. Understanding such complex intersections of identity will prepare students to work affectively in diverse domestic and global contexts. Fulfills requirement: Intercultural Competence. 3 credits. |
| Contemporary social problems are examined from a constructionist perspective. Topics selected for study vary according to societal trends, but typically include an examination of social change, poverty, globalization, environmental degradation, deviance, and health. Fulfills requirement: . Prerequisite: SOC 110. 3 credits. |
| The major objective of this course is to help students become aware of the degree to which behavior (including one's own) is culturally determined. As we continue to move toward a global society with increasingly frequent intercultural contacts, we need more than simple factual knowledge about cultural differences; we need a framework for understanding inter-cultural communication and cross-cultural human relations. Through lecture, discussion, simulations, case- studies, role-plays and games, students will learn the inter-cultural communication framework and the skills necessary to make them feel comfortable and communicate effectively with people of any culture and in any situation involving a group of diverse backgrounds. Fulfills requirement: Intercultural Competence. 3 credits. |
*Topic must be one of the following: Africana Studies, Black Popular Culture, Race and Contemporary U.S. Culture, Race, or Black and Womanist Theologies.