May 09, 2024  
General Catalog 2023-2024 
    
General Catalog 2023-2024 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Africana Studies


About the Program

Dr. Meta Schettler, Program Coordinator
Science I Building, Room 182
Office: 559.278.2832
Direct: 559.278.4593
FAX: 559.278.7268
Email: mschettl@csufresno.edu
socialsciences.fresnostate.edu/afrs/

The Africana Studies program (AFRS) at California State University, Fresno offers an interdisciplinary curriculum that illuminates the connectedness of the human experience and provides culturally-appropriate knowledge and skills. This helps students understand the experiences of African peoples all over the world and other ethnic groups in the United States.

The program offers interdisciplinary courses leading to the Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies as well as multiple certificates and a minor in Africana Studies. Students with a B.A. in Africana Studies can pursue a master’s or doctoral degree in the humanities, social sciences, or health sciences. Students can also seek other professional degrees in such areas as business, human resources, teacher education, and law. The program teaches appreciation for the heritage of African peoples and their contributions to the shaping of the fabric of American life and history.

Africana Studies emphasizes the study of the history and culture of African Americans as they relate to the experiences of Africans on the continent and other peoples of African descent in the Diaspora. The major in Africana Studies provides an epistemological basis for understanding issues that pertain to the experiences of African peoples and other minority ethnic groups in American society. The curriculum promotes an awareness of the African heritage of African Americans and others throughout the Americas. Opportunities are provided for students to engage in study abroad and service-learning in Africa and the Caribbean to stimulate intellectual interest in, and linkage to, contemporary Africa and the African Diaspora while enhancing global understanding of the varied social realities of the human experience.

Interesting Classes You Might Take

  • Black Popular Culture
  • Critical Thinking About Race
  • Black Protest
  • Hip Hop Culture
  • The African American Community

What You Can Learn

  • Appreciation for the heritage of African peoples and their contributions to the shaping of the fabric of American life and history
  • Historical and contemporary experiences of African Americans
  • Describe and actively engage with anti-racist and anti-colonial issues and the practices and movements in BIPOC communities to build a just and equitable society

Certificate in Racial Understanding
A program of study designed to prepare students and practicing professionals to develop knowledge and skills necessary to understand racial difference and underlying racism and manage conflict resulting from it. The certificate seeks to promote racial awareness and racial harmony, diversity competency, and cultural understanding in our multiracial and multicultural society.

Certificate in Africana Historical Experience
A certificate designed for concentrated study of the African American experience in the United States for students interested in developing their knowledge and analysis of African American history, race relations, literature, activism, and resistance to racial hegemony. The certificate seeks to foster multicultural competency for future teachers and to offer greater knowledge, skills, and understanding of Africana Studies as a discipline and field in academia.

Career Opportunities

Africana Studies uses an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective to illuminate the connectedness of the human experience and provide culturally-appropriate knowledge and skills necessary to understand the experiences of African peoples all over the world and African Americans in the United States.

We seek to build bridges across similar “Ethnic or Interdisciplinary” programs at Fresno State (e.g., Armenian Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian-American Studies, Chicano and Latin American Studies, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Jewish Studies) as well as other traditional academic disciplines (e.g., Anthropology, History, Social Work, Economics, Political Science, Geography, Sociology, Theatre Arts, etc.) that provide knowledge and skills needed to understand the institutional arrangements and cultural constructions as they affect the contemporary American experience of race and ethnicity.

What You Can Earn

  • High School Teacher, $63,500
  • Social Worker, $77,470
  • Psychologist, $95,000

Source: estimations calculated at salary.com as of March 2023

Programs

    CertificatesBachelorMinor