Requirement 1

Core courses (6 units)

· Graduate Seminar in Global Black Studies: Approaches, Theories, and Methods (L90 AFAS 5500). Offered in the fall either every year or every other year depending on demand, this course offers an in-depth analysis and review of major themes in the interdisciplinary fields of Black Studies, African Diaspora Studies, Africana Studies, and the broader study of race. The course aims to bring together classic, canonical texts of the Black radical intellectual tradition with cutting-edge work published in the past decade on blackness and race in the humanities and social sciences from the African continent and across the diaspora. Topics will include history, archives, memory, literature, visual culture, Black feminisms, Black queer studies, performance, and Black decolonial thought. Methods explored will include historiography and archival methods, ethnography, qualitative data collection and analysis, and close reading, as well as creative and artistic methods. See attached sample syllabus and core readings list.

· Research Writing in Global Black Studies (L90 AFAS 5510). The purpose of the writing seminar is to build writing community through feedback and accountability with the supervising AFAS faculty member and colleagues. The seminar will focus on best practices for scholarly production, revision, crafting scholarly voice, and professional development, including the writing of cover letters, CVs, and grants. Students should use the seminar to complete a research prospectus, journal article, grant application, or portfolio.

 

Requirement 2

Three electives (9 units) from the following list of existent courses (with more to be developed):

· AFAS 505, Topics on Africa

· AFAS 5060, Sexual Health and the City

· AFAS 509, Senegal: History, Politics, and Culture

· AFAS 5103, Black Decolonial Thought

· AFAS 5110, The Black South Atlantic

· AFAS 515B, Historical Preservation, Community & Memory

· AFAS 5231, James Baldwin Now

· AFAS 5235, Blackness in Brazil

· AFAS 5401, Intersectionality

· AFAS 545, Writing Black Lives: The Theory and Literary History of African American Autobiography

· AFAS 5601, Historical Racial Violence: Legacies & Reckonings

· AFAS 5610, Construction and Experience of Black Adolescence

· AFAS 563, Mapping the World of Black Criminality

· AFAS 5644, Look Here, Karen: The Politics of Black Digital Resistance to White Femininity

· AFAS 5651, Black Women Writers

· AFAS 5890, Catholicism and Slavery

 

Of the electives, at least one must be based in AFAS. Two electives that focus on blackness, the African diaspora, and/or the African continent may be completed in the student’s home Ph.D. program or another department pending approval from the AFAS DGS or Chair. If a student would like to pursue a mentored teaching experience in a AFAS undergraduate course, it should be in accordance with a Department faculty member who will serve as the lead instructor. Exceptions may be made for students who have reached candidacy and would like to teach their own course, pending approval by the AFAS curriculum committee and supervised by the AFAS Director of Undergraduate Studies.

 

Requirement 3

Each year in the program, students are responsible for completing the End-of-Year Report and scheduling one annual meeting with the AFAS DGS to review the report to ensure they are in good standing with the requirements of the certificate program, in addition to seeking approval for any coursework outside of AFAS that may count toward the GCGBS.

 

Additional Opportunities

In addition to the requirements, to enhance certificate students’ intellectual development and professional network in the field of Global Black Studies, graduate students will also be provided opportunities to (1) procure an AFAS faculty member to serve on the qualification and dissertation committees; (2) participate in the intellectual life of AFAS (attending talks, symposia, presenting their own work); and (3) complete a mentored teaching experience in an undergraduate course offered by an AFAS faculty, pending approval from their home department and availability of AFAS courses in need of Assistants in Instruction (AIs).