Major Requirements

Our Black studies program can be classified as either social sciences (SS) or humanities (H), depending on the balance of the rest of the courses taken by the student.

For more information about the major requirements, please contact the director of undergraduate studies.

A minimum of 10 courses (40 credits) is required, including the following:

  • One introductory course—BLST 110: Introduction to Black Studies
  • Five divisional courses—Students must choose five BLST courses from either the humanities or social sciences. These courses will determine which of the College’s divisional requirements the BLST major will satisfy. No more than two of these courses can be at the 100-level.
  • Three elective courses—Students must choose three additional BLST courses as electives. No more than one course can be at the 100-level.
  • One advanced seminar—BLST 380: Advanced Seminar in Black Studies

Additional guidelines:

  • No more than six courses can be in a single discipline.
  • Two of the above courses must satisfy the Upper-Level Writing Requirement.

Elective and Divisional Courses

Listed under their home departments, examples of courses that can be applied to the Black Studies major include:

Black Studies

  • BLST 110: Introduction to Black Studies (McHarris)
  • BLST 205: Black Visual Culture (Ellapen)
  • BLST 216: Zambaje: Afro-Indigenous Relations in Latin America (Frierson)
  • BLST 219: 50 Years of Hip-Hop: Reppin’ Black Genders Across the World (McCune)
  • BLST 224/242: Black Geographies: Race, Space, and Abolition (McHarris)
  • BLST 226: Black Paris (Kemedjio)
  • BLST 227/427: Singin’ a Black Girl’s Song: Black Women’s Sonic Cultures (Ealey)
  • BLST 231: Black Drama: Performance and Contemporary Issues (Ealey)
  • BLST 233: Policing America: Race, Class, and Criminalization (McHarris)
  • BLST 237: The Politics of Black Recognition in Latin America (Frierson)
  • BLST 247: Biographies of Emancipation in the Black World (Kemedjio)
  • BLST 252: Other/Worldly: A Black Ecology of Outer Space (Dunning)
  • BLST 257: Traveling While Black (Frierson)
  • BLST 258: Flights to Freedom: Maroons, Marronage, and the Making of the Americas (Frierson)
  • BLST 301/501: Photographing Black Lives (Ellapen)
  • BLST 345/545: Black Sexual Worlds (McCune)
  • BLST 380: Black Feminist Theory and Criticism (Ealey)

American Studies

  • BLST 200: Ideas of America (Michael)

Anthropology

  • BLST 200: Cultural Politics of Prison Towns (Doughty, Dubler)
  • BLST 207: The Social Construction of Whiteness (Mariner)
  • BLST 230: War Genocide and Justice (Doughty)
  • BLST 237: The Black Body: Intersecting Intimacies (Mariner)

Art and Art History

  • BLST 220: Race and Gender in Popular Film (Willis)
  • BLST 270: Black Feminist Criticism and Theory (Willis)

English

  • BLST 101: African Literatures of Migration (Omelsky)
  • BLST 156: Introduction to African American Literature (Tucker)
  • BLST 206: Black Adaptations (Omelsky)
  • BLST 214: Reimagining the Human: Global Black Speculative Fiction (Omelsky)
  • BLST 229: Slavery and the African American Novel (Tucker)
  • BLST 230: African American Autobiography (Tucker)
  • BLST 230: Representing Race: Literature, Art, Media (Michael)
  • BLST 230: Black Intellectuals: From Abolitionism to Critical Race Theory (Michael)
  • BLST 231: African American Drama (Tucker)
  • BLST 261: Black Film Collectives (Omelsky)
  • BLST 266: Internet Aesthetics: Viral Forms from the Global South (Omelsky)
  • BLST 266: African Digital Cultures (Omelsky)
  • BLST 269: 20th Century African Fiction (Omelsky)
  • BLST 272: The Harlem Renaissance (Tucker)
  • BLST 276: Bright Lights, African Cities (Omelsky)
  • BLST 269: Contemporary African Film and Fiction (Omelsky)
  • BLST 306: Caribbean Gothic (Omelsky)

History

  • BLST 150: Colonial Latin American History (Ball)
  • BLST 150: Colonial Latin American History (Sierra Silva)
  • HIST 151 : Modern Latin America (Sierra Silva)
  • HIST 248/W: African Diaspora to Latin America, 1804 to present (Sierra Silva)
  • HIST 251/W: African Diaspora to Latin America, 1441-1804 (Sierra Silva)
  • HIST 350W/450: Captives: Past, Present and Future (Sierra Silva)
  • BLST 353: Racial Democracies: Brazil vs. Mexico (Ball)
  • HIST 386W/486: The Other Atlantic: Chronicle, Ethnohistory and Memory (Sierra Silva)
  • HIST 387W/487: Black Mexico (Sierra Silva)
  • BLST 260: Africa's Sleeping Giant - Nigeria since The Islamic Revolution of 1804 (Inikori)
  • BLST 252: Economies and Societies in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1492 (Inikori)
  • BLST 375W: The Atlantic Slave Trade and Africa, 1650-1850 (Inikori);
  • BLST 106: The Making of Modern Africa (Mandala)
  • HIST 200: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid in South Africa (Mandala)
  • HIST 210: Africa Welcomes China (Mandala)
  • HIST 228: North Africa and the Middle East Since 1838 (Mandala)
  • HIST 244: China in Africa:Socialist and Capitalist Stories (Mandala)
  • BLST 335: The Political Economy of Food in Africa (Mandala)

Modern Languages and Cultures

  • BLST 212-1: Humanitarianism and Its Discontents (Kemedjio)
  • BLST 237-1: Representing African Americans in the African Imagination (Kemedjio)
  • BLST 244-1: Mutilated Bodies, Mutilated Discourse (Kemedjio)                                        
  • BLST 275: Hip Hop Japan (Bridges)
  • BLST 291-1: Caribbean Literature and Its Theory (Kemedjio)

Music

  • BLST 222-1: Music, Ethnography and HIV/AIDS (Kyker)
  • BLST 210-1: Ngoma: Drum, Dance, S Africa (Kyker)
  • ENS 217-1: Advanced Mbira Ensemble (Kyker)
    African Popular Culture (Kyker)
  • MUY 590: Acoustic Africa (ESM) (Kyker)
  • MUY 590: Music of the Black Atlantic (ESM) (Kyker)
  • BLST 123: Music of Black Americans (Hunter)
  • BLST 147: Gospel Music in America (Hunter)
  • BLST 140: Religion and Black Popular Music (Hunter)

Political Science

  • BLST 212: Race and the Law (Moon)
  • BLST 242: Race, History, and City Politics (Gamm)
  • BLST 296: Black Politics (Moon)
  • BLST 282: Freedom and Domination in Black Political Philosophy (Moon)

Religion and Classics

  • BLST 125: Religion, Race, and Ethnicity in America (Rubel)
  • BLST 146: Womanist Religious Rhetoric (Marshall)
  • BLST 152: The Black Church and The Underground Railroad Experience (Marshall)
  • BLST 170: Religion and Hip Hop (Marshall)
  • BLST 183: Incarceration Nation (Dubler)
  • BLST 185: Black Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric (Marshall)
  • BLST 200: Cultural Politics of Prison Towns (Doughty, Dubler)