Black Studies

  • AADS

    What is Black Studies?

    The Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Black Studies prepares students for careers in a broad range of professions requiring cultural literacy, emotional intelligence, and evidence-based advocacy. Graduates with degrees in Black Studies have found rewarding careers in schools and universities; as counselors in family services and juvenile justice agencies; as diversity consultants; as entrepreneurs; as community organizers, diplomats and ambassadors in the foreign service,; as cultural and content specialists in non-governmental organizations; and numerous specialized positions in the private sector. The interdisciplinary degree program fosters an understanding of the global experiences of African, African American, and African-descended peoples with a range of intellectual tools and practical strategies for engaging race, gender, class, and culture. Students will gain an appreciation for the diverse character of humanity through the lens of the Black experience, explore the complex historical and cultural relations between Africans on the continent and African-descended peoples in the Diaspora, and engage in a comparative study of contemporary issues. In consultation with an advisor, students will discuss a specialized degree program that complements core areas of cultural production, social and structural analysis, historical investigation, and community engagement with hands-on experiential and applied learning.  Students will apply course concepts in study abroad and/or virtual exchange, internships and/or co-op programs, or entrepreneurship and/or community engagement projects.

    Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences

    Learn more about Black Studies

    Admission Requirements

    None.

    This program does not have specific admission requirements. Only admission to Kennesaw State University is required to declare this major.

    Related Minors or Certificates Available

    • African and African Diaspora Studies Minor

    Sample Classes

    • This course offers an introduction to Black Political Thought. It analyzes traditions and trajectories of Black intellectual discourse during the 20th Century. Emphasis is placed on foundational texts in the field of Black Studies, yet students will engage with a range of works representing the diversity of Black thought in the 20th Century. This course examines the goals, viewpoints, and strategies of various intellectuals, social movements, and other political voices from the African Diaspora.

    • This course examines technology as a factor in historical change, emphasizing the role of tools, machines, and systems in revolutions, culture, politics, and economics in Africa and the African diaspora. Students engage historiographical debates and readings on the relationship between race and technology in the recent and distant past. More broadly, students develop a critical understanding of the role of race inquiry in technological knowledge through biographies, case studies, and primary source documents.

    • This course is a comparative study of literature by Black women writers from the U.S., the Caribbean, Africa, and/or any region in the African diaspora. Readings for the course may include poetry, short fictions, novels, drama, biography, and autobiography. Topics include narrative strategies, modes of representation, and textual depictions of the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class, nationality, and/or generation.

    • This course explores how to transform grassroots social movements into sustainable institutions with organizational, political, and policy objectives. The aim of the course is to bring marginalized perspectives to the challenges facing activists and policymakers. In this course, students foster more awareness on how interdisciplinary strategies and grassroots collaborations can bring about sustainable social change.

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