Major Requirements

Major Requirements

Course Requirements

Core Courses

Students are required to complete four core courses (16-quarter credit hours) in African and Black Diaspora Studies (ABD). The core courses are designed to accomplish these goals:

• to introduce students to the learning goals and outcomes of the Department of African and Black Diaspora Studies;
• to introduce students to the main debates, concerns, and ideas in the distinct areas within African and Black Diaspora Studies;
• to emphasize the Vincentian tenet that questions of human value are central to scholarly inquiry; and
• to strengthen an understanding of the interrelationships and dynamics between Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, the United States, and other spaces of the African Diaspora.

300-Level Courses

For this requirement, students must take four ABD courses (16-quarter credit hours) at the 300 level.

Any ABD 300-level course may apply toward the completion of the major's 300-Level requirement. All other 300-level courses must be approved by the African and Black Diaspora Studies department chair for application toward the 300-Level requirement.

These courses build upon the general foundation of knowledge provided by the core courses. They serve to reinforce and extend student knowledge about a particular area of study relating to Africa and/or the Black Diaspora as well as the Department's core sites of inquiry (culture, gender, history, power, and race).

To ensure that students are exposed to a variety of methodological approaches, students will endeavor to take courses in the social and behavioral sciences (i.e. Anthropology, Geography, History, International Studies, Psychology, Political Science, and Sociology), humanities (i.e. Art and Architectural History, Literature,  Music, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Theatre), and interdisciplinary studies (i.e. American studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, Latin American & Latino studies, Women's and Gender studies, LGBT studies, etc.).

Students who wish to take a 200-level course in partial fulfillment of this requirement must petition the Department of African and Black Diaspora Studies chair for approval (this is not common, and only allowed in exceptional circumstances).

Major Electives

Majors in the Department of African and Black Diaspora Studies will take four ABD courses as major field electives (16-quarter credit hours). These courses can be at the 200-level or 300-level. The Department urges students to consider courses at the 300-level to fulfill this requirement.

Such courses are designed to provide students with an opportunity to take courses related to their interests in African and Black Diaspora Studies and at the same time extend their academic preparation through coursework in allied fields. The selection of electives should be done in consultation with the student’s ABD academic advisor.

Capstone

This senior seminar (four quarter hours) engages students in a synthesis of what they have learned through coursework. The capstone course will involve reading, writing, discussion, as well as the preparation of a substantive piece of work (e.g., a senior thesis, a research paper, etc.).

Open Electives

Open elective credits are also required to meet the minimum graduation requirement of 192 quarter-credit hours.

Content displayed from this DePaul University catalog page.