Department of African American and Diaspora Studies

Division of Fine Arts and Humanities

Administration Building 215 - (504) 520-7581 - https://www.xula.edu/department/department-of-african-american-diaspora-studies.html

The African American and Diaspora Studies department at Xavier University will provide our students with a comprehensive understanding of the African America Diasporic experience in a global world allowing our students the learn and understand the development of social, political and economic structures of several countries. Through an interdisciplinary approach the major will explore diverse perspectives focused on:

1. New Social Justice Movements: this area involves understanding the impetus, organization, and policy implications of advocacy of activism like Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ, Black Queer, and Trans movements, Environmental Racism movements that aim to dismantle systemic oppression.
2. Black Health Disparities: this area involves integrating the study of public health and the medical profession with a humanistic understanding of the Black experience as it intersects with health outcomes.
3. Decolonial Studies: this area integrates history, linguistics, fine arts, and the social sciences in an interdisciplinary understanding of the legacies of the colonialism/neocolonialism, capitalism, slavery, and the interconnected circuits of power on Black experience and marginality globally.
4. Transatlantic Blackness: this area emphasizes intra-racial, intra-ethnic, and intra-national explorations of Blackness, allowing students to examine what distinguishes Black experiences globally and to advance their understanding of the legacies of oppression that have resulted in internalized forms of anti-Blackness but also in transnational forms of resistance.

Upon completion, students who major in the African American and Diaspora Studies (AADS) program may enter into careers in a number of fields, including traditional areas, such as business, education, health care, law, journalism, social work, and politics. Because the African Diaspora has so deeply influenced the making of the world today, it is an ideal field for students wishing to work in public and private organizations that investigate issues of far-reaching significance and consequences in the United States and beyond.

Major in African American and Diaspora Studies - The major in African American and Diaspora Studies program at Xavier University is a 42- credit hour interdisciplinary program. Our program is organized to provide the opportunity and flexibility of our students to design a program of study that targets the student’s intellectual interests and career ambitions. Students completing the AADS curriculum acquire the ability to analyze complex issues, events, and ideas by mastering analytical thinking, writing, and communication skills. Successfully, graduating AADS majors are well prepared to pursue careers in law, medicine, journalism, business, international relations, government, public history, politics, publishing, research and teaching.  An undergraduate degree in AADS is also excellent preparation for masters or Ph.D. programs in history, area studies, gender studies, or any humanities or social science discipline.

Minor in African American and Diaspora Studies - The Minor in African American and Diaspora Studies consists of 18 hours. For the minor, students are required to complete 12 hours of specified courses and 6 hours of courses in a specified concentration. The concentration may be taken from English, history, philosophy, psychology, music, or other disciplinary course offerings centered on African American and Diaspora Studies.

Programs

• African American and Diaspora Studies

• African American and Diaspora Studies Minor