Africana Studies

The Africana Studies (AFRS) Associate in Arts Degree provides students a holistic and transdisciplinary education with a focus on the historical and contemporary experiences of persons of African descent in the United States and globally. AFRS is committed to critical theorizations of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality and interrogating interlocking systems of oppression in order to unsettle and disrupt them. AFRS curriculum confronts unethical educational approaches, recovers and analyzes lost and distorted histories, and expands and imparts knowledge through critical and theoretical inquiry, scholarly research, creative production, and policy analysis. Africana Studies cultivates activist-scholars by providing students opportunities to bridge academic study with community engagement. Students will analyze issues about the African and African diasporic communities while developing a critical and intersectional understanding of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and power in American society and globally. Graduates develop a liberatory vision for social change and acquire skills in community-centered leadership, media literacy, critical and creative thinking, and an ability to advance social justice for African and African diasporic communities. The major prepares students for transfer and career pathways that serve Africana populations in areas/fields such as education and research, community advocacy and organizing, city planning, health and human services, conflict resolution, marketing and communications, law and policy, fine and performing arts, multicultural affairs, and more. This degree requires a total of 18 units, in addition to other graduation requirements.