Academics
GW’s interdisciplinary Africana Studies Program offers both a BA in Africana Studies and a Minor in Africana Studies. Grounded by the intellectual paradigm of the global Black Radical Tradition (BRT), the program’s key areas of study are Black epistemologies and ontologies. These exciting and interdisciplinary explorations of Black ways of knowing and material experiences span the cultural, political, and historical interconnections across the African Diaspora.
Africana’s core courses include Introduction to Africana Studies and the Black Radical Tradition, which is an in-depth exploration of the major paradigms and research approaches of Africana studies. Students are expected to complete Diaspora electives in the geographical areas that include Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific and Indian Ocean worlds. Students fulfill major concentration electives in the categories of Black epistemologies and ontologies by choosing from an expansive list of courses offered by faculty affiliates who are housed in various departments across GWU.
The Program also includes a Culminating Experience/Capstone requirement in which students will demonstrate mastery of the key themes of Africana Studies. This can occur through a research paper, internship, independent study, study abroad, or a research project done in another course that engages with the concepts and curricular goals of the Africana Studies major. This Capstone requirement is buttressed by GW’s setting in the historically rich and internationally vibrant city of Washington, D.C., helps students connect the classroom to the wider community. They can visit and intern with world-class museums, institutions, archives, and international nonprofit organizations such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of African Art, the Anacostia Community Museum, the African American Civil War Museum, the Library of Congress.
Programs
