2023-24 Edition

African American Studies, Minor

African American Studies is an interdisciplinary program which offers undergraduate students an opportunity to study those societies and cultures established by the people of the African diaspora. The Department’s curriculum encourages students to investigate the African American experience from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and theoretical approaches. Among the topics explored in the course offerings are the process of colonization and the forced migration of African people, the positionality of African people in the racialized symbolic and social orders of the western hemisphere, the rhetoric produced by and about African people, and the cultural and aesthetic values associated with “blackness” and “Africanness.”

Requirements for the Minor in African American Studies
A. Complete the following African American Studies introductory series:
AFAM 40A African American Studies I
AFAM 40B African American Studies II
AFAM 40C African American Studies III
B. Select three courses, with one from three of the following five rubrics:
Humanities (AFAM 110–119)
Gender/Sexuality (AFAM 120–129)
History (AFAM 130–139)
Fine Arts (AFAM 140–149)
Social Sciences (AFAM 150–159)
C. Select one additional upper-division elective from AFAM 110–159, 163.

Residence Requirement for the Minor: Four upper-division courses required for the minor must be completed successfully at UCI. Two of the four may be taken through the UC Education Abroad Program, provided course content is approved in advance by the appropriate department chair.