Africana Studies Major (BA)

Africana Studies Department | College of Liberal Arts

Program Declaration

At time of admission to the University or by completion of an Undergraduate Program Add/Change form .

Degree Requirements

If this is the student’s only or primary major, the degree requirements below must be completed for graduation. See graduation requirements for more information.

University Requirements

College of Liberal Arts Requirements for Bachelor of Arts

Major Requirements

Complete 30 credits of from ten courses including one introductory course and nine electives. Students within the major must choose an area of specialization in history, humanities, or social sciences.

Pass/Fail: No more than one course taken pass/fail may be applied toward the major.
Residency: At least six courses for the major must be completed at UMass Boston.

Course Requirements

Introductory Course (3 Credits)

AFRSTY 111 - African-American History II 3 Credit(s)

Electives (27 Credits)

Take nine electives from courses offered through Africana Studies and approved courses from other departments.

Students in the major must specialize in the area of humanities, history, or social science. At least five of the electives taken must be in the student’s area of specialization and at least one course must be taken in the other two areas.

At least three courses must be at the 300-level or higher.

No more than three courses from other departments may be applied toward this requirement.

Specialization Areas

History Specialization

Students in the history area must take, as one of their ten major courses, one of the following methods courses:

HIST 481 - Research & Methods: Senior Research Methods in History 3 Credit(s)

Social Science Specialization

Students in the social science area must take, as two of their ten major courses, a theory course and a methods course in one of the social sciences. Courses on the following list are approved for this requirement; students wishing to use other courses to meet the requirement should first seek the approval of the department chairperson.

Methods courses

SOCIOL 202 - Methods of Sociological Research 3 Credit(s)

Theory courses

ECON 201 - Microeconomic Theory 3 Credit(s)
SOCIOL 201 - Sociological Theory 3 Credit(s)

Classification of Courses

Courses are classified as follows (please note that the same course may belong to more than one area):

Note:

AFRSTY 480 - Topics in Africana Studies , AFRSTY 489 - Senior Capstone Seminar , and AFRSTY 498 - Africana Studies Honors Seminar I may be used as applicable in any of the three areas of specialization.