2026-2027 Academic Year

Fall 2026

AFST 200 Approaches to Africana Studies
This course will investigate the importance of conceptual analysis and the development of concepts in the theoretical and textual research of Africana Studies. Thus, the course will focus on various interpretive frameworks and approaches to organizing and understanding Africana Studies, including but not limited to the African model, Afrocentricity, diaspora model, critical race theory, post-modernism, and post colonialism. Prerequisite: 100.

AFST 330 African American Women Writers
Cross-listed with WGSS 331-01.

WGSS 331 African American Women Writers
Cross-listed with AFST 330-01.

AFST 400 Writing in Africana Studies
This course will build on experiences in the methods course. Students in this course continue research toward and writing of a senior thesis. The emphasis is on writing skills and course material; assignments link those skills to work in Africana Studies. Seniors in the major will work independently with the director of Africana Studies and a second faculty reader (representing a discipline closer to the senior's interest) to produce a lengthy paper or special project which focuses on an issue relevant to the student's concentration. Under the direction of the director of Africana Studies, students will meet collectively two or three times during the semester with the directors (and, if possible, other Africana Studies core and contributing faculty) to share bibliographies, research data, early drafts, and the like. This group will also meet at the end of the semester to discuss and evaluate final papers and projects. Prerequisites: 100 and 200; four 200/300-level AFST approved courses (2 Africa, 2 Diaspora); three 300-level (in area of concentration).

Spring 2027

AFST 220 Afro-Caribb Foodways & Culture
Part of the Grenada Mini-Mosaic. Throughout the semester, students in this course will critically examine the origins, transcultural dynamics, evolutionary artistry, and economic dimensions of Afro-Caribbean cuisine and culinary knowledge. This inquiry will include analyses of the effects of the Columbian Exchange and the Atlantic Slave Trade in introducing new foods and crops that have become integral not only to African kitchens but also to those within the African Diaspora. In this way, our historical examinations aim to identify the foods that function as cultural connectors between Afro- Caribbean communities and their African heritage. We will also investigate the role of Afro- Caribbean cuisine in restaurant culture, religious practices, oral traditions, literary expressions, cultural festivals, tourism, and national identity politics. Discussions will also encompass themes of authenticity, cultural memory, colonialism, and culinary preservation as reflected in Afro- Caribbean cookbooks, blogs, and archival resources. Mosaic students will do projects centered on Grenada.

AFST 500 Independent Study
Part of the Grenada Mosaic. Open only to mosaic participants.