The minor in African American Studies provides an interdisciplinary investigation of the experiences, conditions, origins, accomplishments, and contributions of people of African ancestry in the United States. Students may deepen their appreciation and understanding of African Americans by studying their earlier history in Africa, their transition to the New World, and their diasporic experiences in other parts of the world.
The African American Studies program is comprised of more than 20 courses offered through nearly 10 departments and programs within the USA College of Arts and Sciences. The minor in African American Studies takes advantage of those characteristics of the African American experience that make it uniquely valuable for serious academic study and teaching, for it exposes students to the diversity and unity of the African American experience as well as to the similarities and differences among the cultures of Africa.
See the amazing work that Dr. Kern Jackson, director of the African American Studies Program, has been up to surrounding his co-writing and co-producing of the award-winning Africatown documentary Descendant, now streaming on Netflix!
https://www.southalabama.edu/departments/publicrelations/pressreleases/101922africatown.html
https://nmaahc.si.edu/events/through-african-american-lens-descendant
https://the1a.org/segments/the-documentary-descendant-unearths-americas-sunken-past/
Spring 2023 African American Studies Courses
- English 477: Folklore & Ways of Listening to English (Dr. Kern Jackson)
- Gender Studies 290: Special Topics: #BlackLivesMatter (Dr. Betty Trout-Kelly)
- History 362: History of African Since 1500 (Dr. Dieudonné Dagan Gnammankou, Visiting Fulbright Scholar, 2022-23)
- History 435: Civil War and Reconstruction (Dr. Henry McKiven)
- Interdisciplinary Studies 320: Cultural Competency (Dr. April Tashay Berry)
- Philosophy/Criminal Justice 331: Constitutional Law (Dr. Chris Galanos, Dr. John Gordon Roach)
- Psychology 270: The Psychology of Black Experience (Dr. Demetrius R. Smith)
- Sociology 220: Marriage & the Family (Dr. Susan Yvette DeLoach)