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Department Office: 3105 James Hall
Phone: 718.951.5597

Full-Time Faculty

Professor(s): Cunningham, Day
Associate Professor(s): Byam, Cumberbatch, Fraser
Assistant Professor(s): Ranjitsingh
Lecturer(s): Gibson

The Africana Studies Department offers a multidisciplinary curriculum devoted to the study of people of African descent in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. The courses focus on the histories, cultures, politics, and societies of Africa and its diaspora. In addition to its core faculty, the department draws on the expertise of affiliated faculty in other departments of the College. The multidisciplinary nature of Africana studies exposes students to interdisciplinary approaches and to the basic content of many of the traditional liberal arts disciplines.

Students have many options. The department offers a bachelor of arts degree in Africana studies and a bachelor of arts degree in adolescence education for social studies teachers. Each minor requires the completion of 15 credits of courses given by the Department of Africana Studies and other Brooklyn College departments. The department's courses satisfy requirements for majors and minors in American studies, Caribbean studies, Children and Youth studies, Global studies, and Women's and Gender studies. The department also offers a study-abroad seminar, which provides an in-depth experience in a selected country of the African diaspora in cooperation with a host institution in that country. Summer seminars have taken place in Barbados, Brazil, Cuba, Ghana, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Our graduates are well equipped for the twenty-first century workplace or for graduate study at universities and professional schools that seek broad intellectual preparation.

Department recommendation

Students should consult a department counselor for help in planning a course of study. Majors are advised to include a methods course among the eighteen credits of advanced electives in another department or program offered for the completion of the major. Majors may satisfy their writing across the curriculum requirement with course or a writing-intensive course in another department.

Departmental Policies

  • The department chairperson or designee may allow substitutions consistent with the educational goals of the program for one or more requirements in any concentration.

    • Africana Studies BA

Courses

Independent work means not less than three additional hours each week of conference, research, independent reading, and writing as assigned by the instructor. The student’s grade is determined in part by the successful completion of this independent work.