African American Studies - Duke University

African American Studies from Duke University is a Campus Bachelor African American degree that prepares you for a Liberal Arts career. African American Studies was born in a context of broader social change. Thus, it ought not be surprising that many of the courses in the Department of African and African American Studies (AAAS) reflect a concern with issues of social justice nor that our intellectual stance is often one of critique. Irrespective of the content students study with us, we want them to understand the dominant intellectual paradigms in their fields and to be able to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses both in general and through the prism of the African American experience broadly conceived, habits of mind that we believe will stand students in good stead no matter where their careers take them. In order to declare a major in AAAS, students should make an appointment with an advisor at the Academic Advising Center. Subject to the approval of the Dean's Office, the student's major will be sent to the Department. If a student has already declared a major in another department and wishes to change or add AAAS as a second major, he/she must go to the Registrar's Office in the Allen Building and complete the necessary paperwork. The DUS for AAAS will assign the student a compatible faculty advisor. Mission Statement The Department of African and African American Studies offers undergraduate degrees that equip students with bodies of knowledge that emerge from studying the culture, history and social reality of African and African-American peoples, and of those of African descent across the diaspora. Mastering knowledge about these diasporic peoples will also produce a broad-based interdisciplinary learning experience in the social sciences and humanities, also tied to an intellectual, social and personal maturation process. The major prepares students for graduate and professional training in law, medicine, psychology, sociology, anthropology, music criticism, journalism, art history, economics, political science, history and public policy, among other disciplines. Graduates in African and African American Studies will be equipped to function at the highest levels of professional life, with skill-sets consisting of critical analysis, mediation, creative and effective outcome design, and a sophisticated understanding of how diversity works in a globalized pluralistic world. Objectives The major in African and African American Studies aims to develop critical intellectual skills, an engagement with issues of social justice, and an awareness of how race, gender, sexuality and class operate in the lives of peoples of the African Diaspora. 1) Critical Intellectual Skills: We aim to have each of our majors leave the department with analytical and critical skills that enable a greater understanding of the lives and conditions of peoples of African descent in the Americas, Africa and beyond. Among these skills is knowledge of existing and emergent interdisciplinary scholarship about peoples of African descent throughout the globe. 2) Engagement with issues of social justice: Given the realities of racism, sexism and class-ism in the experiences of peoples of African descent, graduates of the Department in African and African American Studies are expected to be attuned to and critically reflect upon issues of social justice in African diasporic communities as well as in the larger society. 3) Awareness of the intersections of race, sex and gender and other identity traits: Majors will come away with a greater awareness of the critical ways in which race, gender, class, and sexual preference intersect within communities across the African Diaspora. View more details on Duke University . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related African American courses.