The African American studies program would like to make three changes.  The first is a change in name to the Africana Studies Program to better reflect the actual course offerings and the disciplinary orientation of the program (This request has been forwarded to the board through the provost's office).  The second is the introduction of a formal Africana Studies Major and the third is an adjustment of the minor to align it with the proposed new major. 

The reasons for renaming the program are as follows: Since its inception the program has offered courses in African American Studies and African Studies on a regular basis. In the past year we have added a course in the Caribbean and intend, over time, to enhance offerings in this area.  Our courses do not tend to examine Black communities strictly within national boundaries, but also look for the connections between Black communities across the world. This, plus the fact that our proposed major takes a diasporal approach makes it appropriate that we rename ourselves an Africana Studies program rather that an African American Studies program

There are eight main reasons for the creation of a major.

• 1) After a period of nineteen years on campus the program is now well established and has been successful in offering a reasonable number of well enrolled classes (see appendix 1). Students in these courses have increasingly asked about the possibility of majoring in the area. During the period 2000-2005 our minors and special majors have increased from an average of 2 per year to around 7. This year we graduate our largest class of minors numbering 5. While these numbers are low they have been increasing and we expect them to go up due to the visibility of having a standing major. In the past the creation of an individualized major was an impediment to students choosing to do African American Studies. Lastly we have just hired two new tenure track faculty and have just completed one more search in collaboration with music. Their courses are also likely to draw new students to the program.
• 2) With the addition of one new full time position the program now has the minimum number of faculty we feel are necessary for offering a coherent major.
• 3) At the time of formation of the program Africana/African American Studies as a discipline was very young, barely twenty years old. The discipline has since developed and with this the undergraduate major has become common place. Of 32 colleges that Gettysburg has traditionally compared itself with, the biggest difference between the Africana studies unit on our campus and others has been the lack of a standing major. Of those 32 institutions, 22 offered courses in Africana studies. These included an overwhelming majority of those in the group that we might refer to as our reach institutions. Seventeen of the colleges offered stand alone majors in the area (please see Appendix 2).
• 4) The discipline itself has come of age and in the last five years Cal-Berkley, Harvard, Michigan State, UMASS-Amherst, and Yale, have joined Temple in offering either a standalone or a Joint Ph.D. in collaboration with other social science or humanities departments. In addition a much larger group of schools are now offering Masters Programs in the discipline.
• 5) In Spring 2004 the African American studies program went through its external review in which the review team examined the proposed major and encouraged the program to establish it as part of the process of improvement and consolidation.
• 6) Given the college's location and its connection to the Civil War, the establishment of a major which in time would have courses that dealt with African Americans and the Civil war era is overdue. In time this particular aspect could develop into a unique nationally recognized program.
• 7) Lastly a new major in Africana studies would support the College's curricular commitment to issues of diversity and inter disciplinary approaches in the new curriculum.

Our proposed major will consist of nine courses, with a core of six taught wholly within Africana Studies, while the other three will be selected from a list of Africana Studies courses as well as cross listed and affiliated courses.

Proposed  Major

Required Courses

1. Introduction to AAS  (AAS 130) gateway course
2. Introduction to African Studies  (AAS 230)
3. Mapping Caribbean Identities  (AAS 236)
4. Gender and Change in Africa and Afro-Latin America (WS 231) or Black Feminist Thought (AAS 330) -To be proposed

Capstone Experience

5. Senior Capstone Course (AAS 331) Africana Intellectual History.
6. Experiential learning  (AAS 470) or - Individualized Study / /Study Abroad  / Internship (AAS 450-460)

Total: 6 Courses

Electives within the Major- please see list of courses taught for eligible courses.

Students will take three more courses (beyond the six required above) of which one must be a 300 level, and one 200 or above.  Two of these courses must be AAS courses or cross-listed.  The last one may be an affiliated course.  Through advising students will be encouraged to take three disciplinary related courses or three topic/geographic area courses.  Students will be encouraged to synthesize the material from their elected course in the form of a paper that will be part of their Experiential learning component of the major.

Total Nine Courses

Africana Studies Minor

To earn a minor a student will have to take six courses.

1. Introduction to AAS  (AAS 130) gateway course
2. Introduction to African Studies  (AAS 230) or Mapping Caribbean Identities  (AAS 236)
3. Gender and Change in Africa and Afro-Latin America (WS 231) or Black Feminist Thought (AAS 330 - To be Proposed)
4. Senior Capstone Course (AAS 331) Africana Intellectual History.
5. Two AAS or Cross listed course at the 200 level or above

Rationale for structure of major.

The following considerations were taken into account in constructing the major.

• 1) There was a need to create the major around a core set of courses that contained interdisciplinary approaches. All courses with an AAS prefix by design must be interdisciplinary. APPC uses this as a criterion for approving new offerings.
• 2) In conforming with our diasporic approach to the discipline major geographic areas in which people of Africa descent resided had to be covered. This is accomplished via the first three courses.
• 3) In covering different Black communities it was felt that it was important to begin with a local focus. Hence the designation of AAS 130 as the gateway course into the major. Last summer a workshop consisting of Jennifer Bloomquist, Frank Chiteji, Scott Hancock and Shawn Alexander met over a two week period to redesign the course; select common readings and make it an appropriate gateway course.
• 4) Since much of the discipline deals with the responses of people's of African descent to controlling and or oppressive structures, it was felt that it was important to include a gender component in the core courses covered.
• 5) Given its history Africana studies has always had an important experiential component. This would be covered in the major by the inclusion of independent studies with an experiential component in the area, Study Abroad or by internship.
• 6) There was a need to integrate the various approaches learnt in the discipline. This would be accomplished via the first three courses (AAS 130, AAS 230, AAS 236) and one of the Capstone courses AAS 331.
• 7) Lastly the need to give students flexibility and to allow for double majoring resulted in the creation of a lean major of only nine courses.

List of Courses Taught