Director of Africana Studies: Kim F. Hall (Lucyle Hook Professor of English)
Professor of French: Serge Gavronsky
Professor of Anthropology: Lesley Sharp
Assistant Professor of Anthropology: Brian Larkin
Assistant Professor of Dance: Paul Scolieri
Assistant Professor of English: Bashir Abu-Manneh
Assistant Professor of English: Monica Miller
Assistant Professor of French: Kaiama Glover
Assistant Professor of History: Abosede George
Senior Associate of English: Quandra Prettyman
For a complete list of
faculty on leave see:
http://www.barnard.edu/provost/facleavelist.html
The Africana Studies major offers an interdisciplinary, comparative approach to the study of the history, politics, cultures, literatures, and experiences of peoples of African origin in Africa and the African diaspora. In addition to fulfilling the requirements, students focus on a central subject, theme, or set of questions.
In consultation with the program director, each student chooses an adviser from among several departments and works closely with both to define a thematic concentration within the major.
Themes might include Gender and Africa; the Multicultural Caribbean; Media and Social Change; Culture and Politics in the African Diaspora; Prisons and Globalization; Literature, Arts, and National Identity.
A series of required courses spanning the disciplines, the junior colloquium, and the directed research provide a solid foundation for interdisciplinary study. The major offers training in methodology as well as in the use of primary and critical materials, and lays the foundation for the research and writing of a senior thesis.
I. Introductory Courses: Two-semester sequence (preferably to be taken before the junior year):
AFRS BC 3004x Introduction to Africana Studies: Africa Past, Present and Future
AFRS BC 3006y Introduction to Africana Studies: The African Diaspora
II. Language: Each student must demonstrate proficiency in any of the languages of Africa or the diaspora (in addition to English) by completing at least the fourth semester of that language, or its equivalent. This requirement is not in addition to the general foreign language requirement.
III. Harlem: Each student will take a course on Harlem, chosen from among the offerings at Barnard or Columbia.
IV. Electives: Each student will, with the approval of the program director, select five electives which focus on a central subject, theme, or set of questions. Of these five, at least two must be on Africa and at least one must be on the African Diaspora. At least one course must be in the humanities, and one in the social sciences, and these courses can overlap with the courses on Africa and the African Diaspora.
V. One Semester Junior Colloquium in Africana Studies:
AFRS BC 3110 Colloquium: Issues in the Studies of the African Worlds
VI. Senior Thesis: AFRS BC 3998x and AFRS 3999y Senior Seminar, a two-semester program of interdisciplinary research leading to the writing of the senior essay. In some cases, a senior seminar in one of the departments contributing to the program may be substituted for the first semester of the Senior Thesis.
Although the college requires students to declare the minor formally after they have completed course work for the minor, the Africana Studies program strongly encourages students to meet with the Africana Studies Director (or the minor advisor) to plan a course of study and fill out an "intent to minor" form.
The Africana minor consists of six courses to be distributed as follows:
1. AFRS BC 3004x Introduction to Africana Studies: Africa Past, Present and Future
2. AFRS BC 3006y Introduction to Africana Studies: The African Diaspora
3. One course on Harlem to be chosen from electives offered at Barnard / Columbia
4-6. Three electives chosen by students in consultation with the Director / minor advisor. One of these electives must be a colloquium in Africana Studies or an acceptable seminar.
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