2021-2022 Catalog

Major Requirements

The Black Studies major consists of a minimum of 40 units, or ten 4-unit courses.

There are two core required courses for the major, BLST 101 and BLST 490.

There are three Interdisciplinary clusters: expressive forms, historical perspectives, and politics and theory. Students are expected to complete six of these, with a minimum of two in each of the three interdisciplinary clusters.

Students must take two additional electives in consultation with the faculty advisor and selected from a list of approved electives or any of the interdisciplinary clusters.

Of the ten required courses, no more than two courses can be at the 100-level, and at least three must be at the 300-level.

No more than two courses taken outside the college (including but not limited to study abroad) may count toward the major. These may only fulfill the elective requirement. Prior approval by the adviser and chair is required.

COURSEWORK

Core Courses

BLST 101Introduction to Black Studies

4 units

BLST 490Black Studies Senior Seminar

4 units

Interdisciplinary Electives

There are three Interdisciplinary clusters: expressive forms, historical perspectives, and politics and theory. Students are expected to complete six courses (24 units) across these interdisciplinary clusters, with a minimum of two courses (8 units) in each of the three interdisciplinary clusters.

 

Expressive Forms

BLST 302/RELS 302Spirit Possession

4 units

CTSJ 280Rastafari

4 units

CTSJ 330Ballroom. Renaissance. Pose. Werk.

4 units

ENGL 142Joyful Noise! On Black Literature and Musicality

4 units

ENGL 377Afrofuturism

4 units

MUSC 104/BLST 104Music of Africa and the Middle East

4 units

MUSC 105/BLST 105Topics in American Music

4 units

MUSC 111/BLST 111Topics in Jazz History

4 units

RELS 245/BLST 245African American Religious Traditions

4 units

WRD 245/BLST 201Black Protest Rhetorics

4 units

Students may also apply CTSJ 295 to the expressive forms cluster if they have enrolled in the "Black Popular Culture // The Black Digital Age" section of the course.

Students may also apply THEA 201 to the expressive forms cluster if they have enrolled in "The Black Arts Movement" section of the course.

Historical Perspectives

BLST 242/AMST 242The Great Migration

4 units

BLST 256/AMST 256Race Women: African American Women's Protest Culture

4 units

BLST 268/AMST 268Style Politics: Beauty and Fashion in Black Women's History

4 units

BLST 376/AMST 376Slavery, Freedom, and American Memory

4 units

HIST 207/BLST 207African American History

4 units

HIST 21319th Century Black Activism for Abolition and Equality

4 units

HIST 309Slavery in the Antebellum South

4 units

HIST 312/BLST 312Race, Rights, and Revolution in the Atlantic World

4 units

Politics and Theory

BLST 352Black Political Thought

4 units

CTSJ 386Blackness and Anti-Blackness

4 units

DWA 233/BLST 233African Political Thought

4 units

DWA 234/BLST 234Southern African Politics

4 units

PHIL 321Philosophy of James Baldwin

4 units

POLS 258/BLST 258Theoretical Accounts of Racism

4 units

POLS 301/UEP 301Urban Policy and Politics

4 units

POLS 347Race and Law

4 units

Students may apply CTSJ 295 to the politics and theory cluster if they have enrolled in the "Blackness, Gender, & Sexuality" section of the course.

Students may also apply CTSJ 395 to the politics and theory cluster if they have enrolled in the "Chattel Slavery and Its Afterlives" section of the course.

Additional Electives

Students must take two additional electives chosen from the list of approved electives below, or any of the interdisciplinary clusters.

CTSJ 255Women of Color Feminisms

4 units

DWA 335Junior Seminar: Theories of Revolution from Africa and the African Diaspora

4 units

EDUC 215/BLST 215Educating African America

4 units

EDUC 320/BLST 320Critical Race Theory in Education

4 units

ENGL 341Race, Law, and Literature

4 units

HIST 277/BLST 277Women and Community Health

4 units

POLS 206Race and American Politics

4 units

RELS 244Islamophobia

4 units