Minor in African and African Diaspora Studies
The Minor in African and African Diaspora Studies is designed for students interested in the contributions, cultures, and experiences of the peoples of African descent on the African continent and across the Diaspora. The goal of the minor program is to emphasize the importance of Africa and people of African descent in world's cultural, economic, and social developments, and to provide a balance between language, humanistic, historical, and contemporary study. Building on MIT's strengths in understanding science and technology, the minor provides students the opportunity to study interactions of people of African descent with contemporary technology sectors such as digital media, artificial intelligence, aerospace, genetics, and climate mitigation efforts. The minor includes study of economic and political systems as they reflect the African continent and areas of the African diaspora, and the histories, languages, and literatures of Africans and peoples of African descent elsewhere.
All of Africa falls within the geographical scope of the minor. Students may concentrate on a particular region or on any of the broad groupings of African cultures, regions or language groups. Equally, students choosing to focus on the African diaspora may concentrate on African American studies or on any group of African-descended populations in the Americas or elsewhere — be it in the US, in the Caribbean, or anywhere else in the Americas and beyond. Students focusing on either principal area (Africa or the African diaspora) must also take at least one subject which deals with the other area or with interactions between them.
The minor consists of six subjects (at least three of which must be MIT subjects), arranged in four areas of study:
- Area I: Language
- Area II: Humanities and the Arts
- Area III: Social Sciences
- Area IV: Historical Studies
Subjects about Africa and the African diaspora, as well as subjects in indigenous African languages, are also available from Harvard University and Wellesley College through cross-registration. Students must receive permission from the minor advisor prior to registering for a class at another institution.
Five of the six subjects taken for the minor may be counted toward the eight-subject HASS Requirement. Of these five, at most one may count toward the distribution component of the HASS Requirement. Of the six subjects required for the minor, at least four cannot be counted toward a major or another minor.
| Area I: Language 1 | ||
| Select one of the following: | 24 | |
| French III and French IV | ||
| Spanish III and Spanish IV | ||
| Portuguese III and Portuguese IV | ||
Two subjects at any level in an indigenous African language, or other non-English official language of the region of study | ||
| Select four subjects from at least two of the following areas 2 | 48 | |
| Area II: Humanities and the Arts | ||
| Select from among the following: | ||
| Global Africa: Creative Cultures | ||
| African Migrations | ||
| World Literatures | ||
| Race and Identity in American Literature | ||
| Introduction to Musics of the World | ||
| Jazz | ||
| Music of Africa | ||
| Jazz Harmony and Arranging | ||
| Jazz Composition | ||
| Composing for Jazz Orchestra | ||
| MIT Senegalese Drum Ensemble | ||
| Writing about Race | ||
| Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies | ||
| Narrative and Identity: Writing and Film by Contemporary Women of Color | ||
| Area III: Social Sciences | ||
| Select from among the following: | ||
| Human Rights at Home and Abroad | ||
| Law, Social Movements, and Public Policy: Comparative and International Experience | ||
| Race, Ethnicity, and American Politics | ||
| Ethnic Conflict in World Politics | ||
| Engineering Democratic Development in Africa | ||
| Violence, Human Rights, and Justice | ||
| Africa and the Politics of Knowledge | ||
| Creole Languages and Caribbean Identities | ||
| The Science of Race, Sex, and Gender | ||
| Psychology of Sex and Gender | ||
| Race, Culture, and Gender in the US and Beyond: A Psychological Perspective | ||
| Area IV: Historical Studies | ||
| Select from among the following: | ||
| A Survey of Modern African History | ||
| The Black Radical Tradition in America | ||
| Race, Crime, and Citizenship in American Law | ||
| Colonialism in South Asia and Africa: Race, Gender, Resistance | ||
| The Ghetto: From Venice to Harlem | ||
| Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies | ||
| African Americans in Science, Technology, and Medicine | ||
| Africa for Engineers | ||
| Women and Gender in the Middle East and North Africa | ||
| Total Units | 72 | |
| 1 | Students are expected to have two intermediate (Levels III and IV) subjects in French, Spanish, or Portuguese or two subjects at any level in an official language of the region of study or in an indigenous African language. In cases where the student is specializing in Anglophone Africa or an English-speaking region of the diaspora and does not undertake study of an indigenous language, or is a native speaker of the official language(s) of a country or region of emphasis, this component would be replaced by literature or other humanities subjects. |
| 2 | For students who are not required to take Area I subjects (see footnote 1 above), all six subjects for the minor must be taken from Areas II, III, and IV, with at least one subject from each area. |
The subject list above is not exhaustive. Additional information can be obtained from the minor advisor, Professor Danielle Wood, Room E14-574N, 617-253-1631, or from the SHASS Dean's Office, Room 4-240, 617-253-3450.
