The African American Studies Department at Wesleyan offers a dynamic interdisciplinary approach to the study of people of African descent in the Black Atlantic world, especially in the United States and in the Caribbean. The major and minor enable undergraduates to bring the methodologies, theories, and insights of diverse disciplines to bear on their studies of the history, literature, politics, culture, and art of peoples of African descent. Courses, which range from seminars to larger discussion classes, are informed by theoretical and empirical approaches and explore topics such as conceptualizations of race, issues of race and identity, as well as the social structures, cultural traditions, and political realities of Africans in the Diaspora.
Students usually declare their major in African American Studies in the second semester of their sophomore year. Students are admitted to the major if they have earned a grade of B- or better in AFAM 101, or at the discretion of the Chair, if they have taken other courses in the Department.