Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of General Studies in African and African-American Studies

The Department of African & African-American Studies (AAAS) will provide you with a unique center for studying the relationships among and between all people of African descent. In order to fulfill the mission of the AAAS department, you will investigate the connections between US and global histories, culture, and social and economic systems.  Black Studies, or Africana Studies more broadly, is an interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approach to studying the experiences of African people, and African-descended people across the Diaspora.  It grew most directly out of campus demands made by black students, and their allies and supporters, during the mass protest movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's. 

From the outset, the goal of Africana Studies was to transform higher education, chiefly by addressing the lack of faculty and staff diversity; altering traditional curricula limited by Eurocentic paradigms; linking academic teachings and scholarship with social and civic engagement; and raising critical questions about the overall missions of higher education. 

The department area of of emphasis include art and culture, religion and rhetoric, families, gender and sexuality; and political economy.  Through scholarship, teaching, campus and community service, and public programming, the department promotes not only critical thinking and creative problem-solving, but also expands our understanding of citizenship in a rapidly changing, multiracial, global society. 

the Department also draws strength and vitality from three other units: the Kansas African Studies Center, The Langston Hughes Center and the Institute for Haitian Studies. 

Graduation requirements and regulations for every academic program are provided in this catalog. Degree requirements and course descriptions are subject to change. In most cases, you will use the catalog of the year you entered KU (see your advisor for details). Other years’ catalogs»