African and African American Studies
Division VI Chair: D. Huck
Department Chair: J. Klanderud
Faculty: M. Anibueze, J. Klanderud, L. Luney, and J. Pimienta-Bey
Website: https://www.berea.edu/afr/
Courses: AFR Courses
Course Sequencing Table: African and African American Studies
Curriculum Guide: African and African American Studies
Entrance to the Major Information: Progression for AFR
Major/Minor Requirements: African and African American Studies B.A.; African and African American Studies Minor
The Department of African and African American Studies provides students with a scholarly understanding of the multiple contributions and ongoing struggles of people of African descent. The interdisciplinary approach of African and African American Studies provides students with opportunities to engage in critical thinking across a spectrum of fields, including history, psychology, sociology, political science, economics, environmental and agricultural science, gender studies, migration studies, health, media, technology, art, literature, and other forms of expressive culture. Through the advanced, dedicated study of the major and the supplementary enrichment of the minor, the African and African American Studies Department deepens students’ total experience, offering new ways to read, critique, and take action in the world using the perspectives of Black people throughout the African Diaspora. As a discipline, AFR seeks to produce "Scholar Activists."
The African and African American Studies major teaches students how to:
- identify, critically assess and utilize the material, cultural, scientific, and philosophical interventions of people of African descent throughout historical and contemporary human landscapes;
- analyze and describe the various conditions that impact the individual and collective experience of African and Africa-descended peoples; and
- identify and employ interdisciplinary solutions and imaginative practical actions that powerfully intervene into structures of racial subjugation and ideologies of racial inferiority.
In addition to supporting students' achievement of the Aims of General Education, the African and African American Studies Department seeks to assist students in meeting the following learning goals and associated learning outcomes:*:
African and African American Studies Student Learning Goals & Outcomes
Learning Goal 1: Demonstrate knowledge of the major developments in African and African American people’s experiences.
Learning Outcome 1.1: Describe and analyze the major social, cultural, and political movements of Africans, African Americans, and people of African descent.
Learning Outcome 1.2: Trace the development of African civilizations and examine their contributions to the development of the continent and major world civilizations.
Learning Outcome 1.3: Identify major figures and thought traditions within African and African American Studies and explain their impact on the field and society more broadly.
Learning Outcome 1.4: Describe and analyze the larger experiences of people of African descent in all parts of the world, but especially in the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa.
Learning Goal 2: Critically analyze information using African and African American Studies’ theories, concepts, and analytic methodologies.
Learning Outcome 2.1: Utilize interdisciplinary research methods, including qualitative and quantitative, community-engaged, and applied analytic methods.
Learning Outcome 2.2: Conduct research to explain the impact of structural, ideological, and cultural factors on the lives and the experiences of people of African descent.
Learning Outcome 2.3: Identify, critically assess, and utilize different disciplinary, methodological, and interpretive approaches to the study of African Americans, Africans, and/or persons of African descent.
Learning Goal 3: Effectively communicate knowledge of key concepts in African and African American Studies in oral, written, and other creative forms.
Learning Outcome 3.1: Demonstrate knowledge of research techniques, evaluation of evidence, documentation, organization, style and mechanics of writing as appropriate to the discipline.
Learning Outcome 3.2: Write a well-supported, sophisticated argument demonstrating knowledge of research techniques, documentation, organization, analysis, and the larger mechanics of writing.
Learning Outcome 3.3: Defend a cohesive argument before an audience of peers.
Learning Goal 4: Acquire an appreciation of the interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and global nature of African and African American Studies.
Learning Outcome 4.1: Apply African and African American centered theories, approaches and concepts, and research to various disciplines such as history, sociology, psychology, literature, political science, theology, cultural studies, etc.
Learning Outcome 4.2: Identify transnational and/or global forces that have shaped the experiences and thought traditions of people of African descent.
*Adopted, with modification, from Lehman College’s African and African American Studies Program (http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/african-american-studies/learning-goals.php)