Bulletin

African Area Studies

College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Dean: Joseph Julian

African Area Studies Program
HSS 384
415-388-7496
Co-Director: Jacques Hymans
Co-Director: Aguibou Yansane

Faculty
Professors—Bettelheim, Hoffman, Hymans, Nobles, Katz, Kirkeberg, Treichel, T'Shaka, Yansane

Associate Professors—Richards, J., Steier

Lecturers—Bernstein, Gearring, Malonga-Casquelourd

Program
African Area Studies Minor


Program Scope
This aggregate of courses should lead students to appreciate the richness of Africa and its unity in diversity. It should help students to understand the issues facing African communities, societies, and nation-states in the past as well as the present. Students will closely examine African accomplishments, mores, traditions, cultures, and civilizations. Students should finish the minor with a greater degree of understanding of, and tolerance for, cultural differences and ethnic pluralism as well as the problems inherent in the process of social change in Africa.

Students who select this minor are presented with different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Each course provides alternate ways to describe and analyze what was, and what is, important to individual Africans; to African communities, societies, and nation-states; to the African continent as a whole; and/or to the whole of Africa as part of the Third World. Common to all the perspectives is the examination of the process of change/development/modernization. It is hoped that students will be provided the tools to enable them to build their own frames of reference, syntheses of concepts, data, and theories, as well as to enrich their social attitudes and cultural values concerning Africa.

Career Outlook
Students will be encouraged to take advantage of the African Area Studies Minor to apply their knowledge, understanding, and interest in things African to their career goals (teaching, journalism, business, and international endeavors in the public sector, non-governmental agencies, and multilateral institutions).

AFRICAN AREA STUDIES MINOR

Students interested in this minor should see one of the African Area Studies faculty to choose the courses most appropriate to them. (NOTE: No more than six units may be taken on a CR/NC basis; no more than nine units may be transferred from other campuses.) All students completing the minor are required to demonstrate intermediate level competency in a relevant language other than English. For specific information on how to meet the requirement students should consult with the coordinator of the minor program.

The African Area Studies Minor consists of a core curriculum of three courses which contain material and perspectives which reach across the normal disciplinary divisions of the university, plus fifteen units of upper division courses taken from the following list, on advisement.

Courses for this program are listed in alphabetical sequence (see Course Disciplines listing in the "Announcement of Courses" section).

Core Curriculum								Units
One course selected from each of the following areas:
Classical Africa							 3
	BLS 305		Ancient Egypt
	CLAR 500	Ancient Egyptian Civilization
Africa: Tradition and Transition					 3
	BLS 302		Black Diaspora
	HIST 610	History of Africa
Modern Africa								 3
	BLS 301		Africa in Global Perspective
	HIST 611	Modern Africa
	HUM 515		Styles of African Cultural Expression
Electives
Units selected on advisement with at least one course from each group 
and no duplication of courses that were taken as part of the core 
curriculum								15

Behavioral and Social Sciences
	ANTH 315	Regional Ethnography: East and South Africa
	ANTH 315	Regional Ethnography: Peoples and Culture of 
			West Africa
	GEOG 570	Regional Studies: Africa
	HIST 600	Ancient Egypt
	HIST 610	History of Africa
	HIST 611	Modern Africa
	IR 321		African Foreign Policy

Ethnic Studies
	BLS 300		From Africa to America
	BLS 301		Africa in Global Perspective
	BLS 302		Black Diaspora
	BLS 305		Ancient Egypt
	BLS 411		African—African-American Literature

Humanities and Arts
	ART 503		African Art History
	CLAR 500	Ancient Egyptian Civilization (to 2000 B.C.)
	CLAR 501	Ancient Egyptian Civilization (after 2000 B.C.)
	CLAR 502	Ancient Egyptian Language and Literature
	DANC/BLS 617	Black Dance Experience
	HUM 515		Styles of African Cultural Expression
		Total for minor						24
Language Requirement
All students completing this area studies minor are required to demonstrate intermediate level competency in a language (other than English), relevant to the area. This requirement may be met by completing the university entrance requirement of two years of high school language study, one year of successful college level language study, or by demonstration of equivalent competency.


Bulletin 1994-96 Table of Contents, SFSU Home Page

last modified May 5, 1995