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 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. This course may be
repeated for credit as topic changes. Fulfills requirement: Oral Communication. This course may be repeated for credit as topic changes. 3 credits. |
15 credits from the following:
ART 380 Color and 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: Humanistic Perspectives,Human Diversity. 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: Humanistic Perspectives. 3 credits. |
*
ENG 390 Special Topics| Topic announced at the time of registration. Fulfills requirement: Humanistic Perspectives. 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: Humanistic Perspectives,Human Diversity. Prerequisite: FYE 112, or by instructor permission. This
course satisfies a formative course requirement in the
College Honors Program. Enrollment is open to all students. 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.
Students must take the corresponding companion
course of FYE-111C, as evident by matching section
numbers. Fulfills requirement: First Year Experience. Students must take the corresponding companion course of
FYE-111C, as evident by matching section numbers. 3 credits. |
| Since 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 reviews these controversies
in the past and present, including how they are
reflected in news, politics, public history, and
cinema. Fulfills requirement: Civic Engagement Fulfills requirement: Civic Engagement. 3 credits. |
*
IDS 210 Intergroup Dialogue| Topic to be determined at time of course schedule
publication. Fulfills requirement: . 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, to 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: Human Diversity. Prerequisite: MSC 101 or 115 or permission of the
instructor. 3 credits. |
*
REL 311 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. This course may be repeated for credit as
topic changes. Fulfills requirement: Humanistic Perspectives,Oral Communication. 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: Human Diversity. 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. 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: . 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.