Department of Africana Studies

962 One Park Place South
404-413-5135
aas.gsu.edu

Jonathan Gayles, Chair
Lisa Shannon, Undergraduate Director

African-American Studies offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of African people nationally and globally. The field recognizes that the lived experience of African and African descendant peoples worldwide are impacted by a myriad of factors including cultural diversity, emerging technologies, and political economy. As an interdisciplinary field of concentration, it offers, enhances, and critiques knowledge presented in the traditional disciplines and professions, scholarly and artistic accounts of the realities of the lives of African-Americans, and perspectives on social change. The Department of African American Studies provides students with the intellectual origins, concepts, research, and models of the discipline; the knowledge and skills necessary for the study of group cultures; and a curriculum that contributes to the goals of African-American Studies and a culturally diverse education. Civic engagement, service learning, and a social justice orientation are fundamental aspects to the African-American Studies curriculum. Faculty and courses are drawn from the department itself and from other departments/schools/institutes in the university.

Academic Advisement for Undergraduate Students

Academic advisement for undergraduate students is provided through the University Advisement Center (freshman through junior status/fewer than 90 hours) and the college’s Office of Academic Assistance (senior status/90 or more hours). See Office of Academic Assistance for additional information.

Graduation with Distinction in the Major

This department offers undergraduate students with the opportunity to earn the designation of graduation with distinction in the major. In order to achieve distinction in the major, students must earn a GPA of 3.5 or higher within the AAS major and an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Programs

Bachelor’s

African-American Studies, B.A.

Minor

African-American Studies Minor

Courses

African-American Studies