Program Requirements and Opportunities
Published annually, the Course Catalog sets out the requirements of the academic programs--the majors, minors, and concentrations. Each Bryn Mawr student must declare a major before the end of the sophomore year. Students may also declare a minor or a concentration, but neither is required for the A.B. degree. Students must comply with the requirements published in the Course Catalog at the time when they declare the major, minor and/or concentration.
The Course Catalog also sets out the College requirements. Students must comply with the College requirements published at the time they enter Bryn Mawr College.
For more information, visit the Catalog Homepage to view the current content. To view Catalogs from previous academic years, visit the Catalog Archives page.
The Africana Studies Program is an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and decolonial intellectual; philosophical; and political project that centers the histories, languages, politics, religions/spiritualities and oral & expressive cultures of Black peoples/communities throughout Africa and the African diasporas. Africana studies considers how racial blackness, and the concept of race itself, influences the development of the modern world. We investigate the social, historical, cultural and aesthetic works and practices of populations of African-descent throughout the diaspora.
The Africana Studies program values a range of research and course foci, including forced or choiced migration, decolonization, political economy and globalization, anti-Black racism, institutional power, oppression, heritage, joy, resistance, and liberation. These topics encourage students to appreciate and critique the multiplicity of what Blackness is, while creating visions for all that it can be. We are committed to speaking truth to power and working to redistribute power equitably and justly, ensuring that students have tools to examine their own positionality, navigate systems, and effect change.The interdisciplinary nature of our program affords students the opportunity to experience a vast exploration of the lives, knowledge systems, and cultures of Africa and African descendants throughout the world.
Students are encouraged to begin their work in the Africana Studies Program by taking any one of six gateway courses:
HST B102: Introduction to African Civilizations (Ngalamulume)
AFST B102: Introduction to Africana Studies (López Oro)
AFST B202: Black/Queer/Diaspora (López Oro)
AFST B204: #BlackLivesMatterEverywhere: Theories & Ethnographies on the African Diaspora (López Oro)
AFST B206: Black Latinx Américas: Movements, Politics, and Cultures (López Oro)
AFST B234: Advancing Racial Justice: Engaging with Community Organizations (Bailey)
AFST B300: Black Women’s Studies (López Oro)
The required gateway course provides students with an intellectual experience in multiple disciplines as well as the foundations for subsequent courses in Africana Studies. The course should be completed by the end of the student’s junior year. We also encourage our Minors to also take the following cross-listed courses as part of their academic training in the field of Black Studies:
ARCH B101: Introduction to Egyptian and Near Eastern Archaeology (Bradbury)
ARTD B138: Hip Hop Lineages (Jones)
ENGL B247: Introduction to 20th Century African American Literature (Alston)
ENGL B356: Black Britain (Flower)
ENGL B372: Black Ecofeminism(s): Critical Approaches (Alston)
EDUC B200: Community Learning Collaborative: Practicing Partnership (Wilson)
EDUC B266: Geographies of School and Learning: Urban Education Reconsidered (Wilson)
HIST B243: Atlantic Cultures: Maroon Communities New World (Gallup-Diaz)
Contact Us
Africana Studies
Paul Joseph Lopez Oro
Director of Africana Studies
Assistant Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies
Old Library 213
Phone: 610-526-5544
plopezoro@brynmawr.edu