Careers & Outcomes

The major in Black studies, administered by the Frederick Douglass Institute provides an interdisciplinary program of studies that integrates the social sciences and humanities.

  • It will allow students to follow a rigorous and closely monitored concentration designed to facilitate both broad exposures and in-depth mastery of a field which has, in the last twenty years, rapidly established itself as a crucial focus in a broad array of disciplines.
  • The program in Black studies is multi-disciplinary and inter-departmental.
  • It brings together historical, cultural, psychological, economic, and political approaches and perspectives to the study of people of African descent in the Atlantic world, including the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
  • The new concentration, which may be individually tailored to focus on either the humanities or the social sciences—will appeal to students with primary interests in Black studies as wells as students working in more traditional, departmentally-based majors who may concentrate in Black studies as an additional or double major.
  • Many students already majoring in history, English, political science, comparative literature, anthropology or similar disciplines will find a second major in Black studies an attractive option. Students majoring in engineering or the natural sciences may find a double major in Black studies an enriching and humanizing opportunity as well.

For more information in Black studies email us at FDI@mail.rochester.edu.