Africana & African Studies: 2009-2010
Africana Studies
Africana studies is a developing synthetic field that brings a global frame of reference and a variety of disciplinary perspectives to the study of Africa and the African Diaspora. Drawing on anthropology, economics, history, linguistics and literature, music, philosophy, political science and sociology, the field reflects processes of emancipation, decolonization and development—against a background of international economic change—in Africa itself and in societies worldwide with populations of African origin.
Africana Requirements
Africana studies is a bi-college program, offered as a minor at Bryn Mawr or as an area of concentration at Haverford. Requirements for the program: (1) Independent College Programs 101a, “Introduction to African and Africana Studies”/History 102a "Introduction to Africana Civilizations"; (2) five more courses from the list reproduced in the college catalogs, or from a list of new courses periodically approved; (3) at least one of these courses must deal with the African Diaspora; (4) a senior thesis or seminar length essay in an area of Africana studies. Students are urged to include in their program courses beyond the introductory level that deal with continental Africa and the African Diaspora. Successful completion of the Africana studies minor/concentration is noted on student transcripts at graduation.
Students majoring in a department that requires a thesis satisfy the requirement by writing on a topic approved by his or her department and by the coordinator[s] of the Africana studies program. If the major department does not require a thesis, an equivalent written exercise that is a seminar-length essay is required. The essay may be written within the framework of a particular course or as an independent study project. The topic must be approved by the instructor in question and by the coordinator[s] of the Africana studies program.
In addition to meeting these common requirements, students concentrating in Africana studies at Haverford College must also satisfy a distribution requirement. Of the six courses they take, at least two, but no more than three, must be taken in their home department; the remaining three to four courses must be taken in at least two other departments. Independent College Programs 101a, "Introduction to African and Africana Studies"/History 102a "Introduction to Africana Civilizations", provides a foundation and a frame of reference for advanced work. Students are advised to enter the Africana studies program by taking this course as early as possible and to complete it by the end of the junior year.
Africana Coordinators
At Haverford:
Assistant Professor of Political Science Susanna Wing
At Bryn Mawr College:
Associate Professor of History Kalala Ngalamulume
African Studies
Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges, along with the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College, are members of the African Studies Consortium. The four institutions have established an Undergraduate Center for African Studies, headquartered at the University of Pennsylvania. The center is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education. Consortium resources allow students on the four campuses to pursue a wide variety of interests in African studies.
African Studies Requirements
Independent College Programs 101a, Introduction to African and Africana Studies/History 102a Introduction to Africana Civilizations, is the foundation course for African studies as well as for the Africana studies program at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges. The course is suitable for first-year students, utilizes on-site resources of the four campuses, and enrolls undergraduates from all four institutions. This course is co-taught each year by two instructors from different disciplines.
A full African studies program includes the introductory foundation course; study of an African language or languages; study abroad at an African university; and advanced course work on Africa at any of the four institutions.
African languages are regularly offered at the University of Pennsylvania (Yoruba, Hausa, Amharic, Wolof, Swahili) and Bryn Mawr College (Introductory Swahili).
Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges regularly sponsor public talks about African issues, featuring visiting African scholars from several disciplines.
African Studies Coordinators
At Haverford:
Assistant Professor of Political Science Susanna Wing
At Bryn Mawr College:
Associate Professor of History Kalala Ngalamulume
Courses
Courses at Haverford College
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ANTHROPOLOGY
205 Social Anthropology
247b Anthropology and Literature: Ethnography of Black South African Writing 1888-1988
249b Colonialism, Law, and Human Rights in Africa
327 Ritual, Performance and Symbolic PracticeBIOLOGY
124 Perspectives in Biology - Tropical Infectious Diseases
129 Perspectives in Biology - Vexations of VaccinesENGLISH
270b Portraits in Black
275a Thinking Globally, Writing Locally: Anglophone Caribbean Literature
276b Literature and Politics of South African Apartheid
281g Fictions of Empire
361b Topics in African-American LiteratureFRENCH
250 Introduction aux littératures francophones (Cross-listed in Comparative Literature)
255g Cinema Francais/Francophone et Colonialisme (Cross-listed in Comparative Literature)
312 Advanced Topics: “Sembène Ousmane: écrivain et cinéaste sénégalais” (Cross-listed in Comparative Literature)INDEPENDENT COLLEGE PROGRAMS
101a Introduction to African and Africana StudiesHISTORY
243a African American Political and Social Thought: Black Modernism, 1895-1945
343a Black Paris: Art and Ideology in a Modernist Diaspora, 1925-1975MUSIC
227a Jazz and the Politics of CulturePHILOSOPHY
232a African-American Philosophy
233 Philosophy and RacePOLITICAL SCIENCE
123b American Politics: Difference and Discrimination
230 The Politics of Genocide: Deterring, Overcoming, Terminating
235a African Politics
247b Political Economies in Developing CountriesRELIGION
132b Varieties of African American Religious Experience
137 Black Religion and Liberation Theology
155 Themes in the Anthropology of Religion
169 Black Religion and Liberation Thought: An Introduction
214 Prophetic Imaginations in the American Tradition
231a Religious Themes in African-American Literature
242b Topics in African American Religious History
245b Slavery, Catechism, and Plantation Missions in Antebellum America
330a Seminar: Religious History of African American Women
332 Seminar: Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Black Religion
347b Souls of Black Folk: Du Bois and the Problem of ReligionSOCIOLOGY
235b Class, Race, and EducationSPANISH
340b The Moor in Spanish Literature - Courses at Bryn Mawr College
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ANTHROPOLOGY
223 Anthropology of Dance
228 East African Social/Political/Cultural Development
253 Childhood in the African ExperienceCLASSICAL AND NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY
101 Introduction to Egyptian and Near Eastern Archaeology
230 Archeology and History of Ancient EgyptECONOMICS
314 Economics of Poverty and DiscriminationEDUCATION
200 Critical Issues in Education
210 Language/Power/Advocacy in Education
266 Schools in American CitiesENGLISH
207 Big Books of American Literature: Representing the Intersections of Nation, Class, Race, Gender
217 Latina/o Literature and Culture
218 Law and Literature
234 Postcolonial Literature in English
246 Pan-African Women Writers
262 African-American Literature
255 Counter-Cinema
279 Modern African Fiction
331 Queer Theory/Queer Literature
343 Translating America
369 Women Poets: Rich, Brooks, Plath
379 The African Griotte
392 National BodiesFRENCH
207 Missionnaires et Cannibales
320 La France et ses OrientsGENERAL STUDIES
103 Introduction to Swahili Language and Culture I
105 Introduction to Swahili Language and Culture IIGROWTH AND STRUCTURE OF CITIES
237 Urbanization in AfricaHISTORY
102 Introduction to Africana Civilizations
200 European Expansion and Competition
202 American History: Civil War to Present
235 Africa Since 1800
237 Urbanization in Africa
245 Recent U.S. History
265 American Colonial Encounters
323 Topics in African History
357 Topics in British Empire: Early Modern PiratesPOLITICAL SCIENCE
243 African/Caribbean Perspectives in World PoliticsSOCIOLOGY
102 The New African Diaspora
215 Challenges and Dilemmas of Diversity
217 The Family in Social Context
225 Women in Society
314 Immigrant Experiences
350 Movements for Social Justice in the USSPANISH
215 La Literatura Afro-HispanicaWRITING PROGRAM
255b Rhetoric of Slavery, Visions and Revisions