African and African Diaspora Studies
New M.A. Program (Effective Fall 2009)
Master of Arts in African
and African Diaspora Studies
The M.A. degree in African
and African Diaspora Studies provides interdisciplinary, graduate level
education that draws on AADS core faculty, as well as on faculty from a variety
of Departments in the College of Arts and Sciences (English, Cultural Geography,
Modern Languages, Political Science and International Relations,
Sociology/Anthropology, History) and other Colleges within the university. This M.A. program aims to develop
scholars with specific analytical skills and research methodologies in an ever
growing interdisciplinary field of inquiry that has been on the cutting edge of
scholarly research. This degree
will lead to professional positions in a range of fields as it simultaneously
prepares students for further study at the doctoral level. The Program should
attract those who are interested in subjects as diverse as—non
exhaustively—national and transnational policy analysis, cultural
studies, international relations with and within continental Africa, African
and African diaspora gender constructs and sexualities, African and African
diaspora literatures, the history and contemporary experiences of descendants
of Africans in the United States, pre-national, national, transnational, and post-national
processes such as pre-colonial African history, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade,
the movement of “returnees” to what is today’s Liberia, Ghana and Ethiopia,
European colonization of Africa, the Caribbean contributions to the “black
movement” in the United States, Panafricanism, the Caribbean presence in
colonial Africa, the Caribbean migration to the U.K. in the mid-20th century, Caribbean popular culture and cultural politics, the processes of
creolization in the Caribbean and beyond, the struggle of Afro-Latinos for the
recognition of their collective rights in different national contexts, the
migration of Eastern Africans to Australia, the current migration of Central
Africans to South Africa, the Asian diasporas in Eastern and Southern Africa,
the migration of Western Africans to France, Spain, Italy, and Germany, and the
escape of Sudanese “ethnic Africans” from Darfur to Chad.
All students who enroll in
this M.A. Program will be exposed to the diversity of approaches,
conceptualizations and interventions in the many debates that characterize the
field, developed by a diversity of scholars based in different locations around
the world.
Graduation Requirements
Candidates must obtain a
grade of “B” or higher in all courses and achieve a cumulative point average of
at least 3.0 (based on a 4.0 scale) and present a satisfactory research paper,
research proposal or thesis.
The Thesis Option
In the case in which a
student elects the thesis option, he or she will have to compose a thesis
committee (three members) with at least two AADS graduate faculty members. The thesis committee chairperson or thesis
advisor must be chosen from the list of AADS graduate faculty. The thesis committee will guide the
student through successful completion of the thesis and will approve, after a
public oral defense, its final draft as acceptable before it is sent to the
University Graduate School.
Thesis research is usually
performed during the first summer of enrollment in the program. The thesis will
have75 pages or more and will be written following one of the scholarly
citation styles admitted in the disciplines. The selection of the citation style must be made with the
thesis advisor.
The Research Paper/Proposal Option
If a student elects the
research paper or research proposal option, he or she must compose a research
paper/proposal committee (three members) with at least two AADS graduate
faculty members. The student will
work closely with the chairperson of the research paper/proposal committee, who
must be chosen from the list of AADS graduate faculty. The submission of the final draft
subsequently to the other members of the committee will logically follow the
completion of the required course, "Advanced Seminar in African and
African Diaspora Studies," which will typically be taken during the
student’s second summer of enrollment (if he or she is a full time student who
began the M.A. program in a fall semester). The FIU faculty eligible to serve
on a thesis or research paper/proposal committee are the faculty members who
have achieved graduate faculty standing as established by the University
Graduate School. Other non-FIU faculty not identified in that list may be
considered to serve on a committee based on research, identified interest, and
publications after approval from AADS Graduate Director and upon approval of
the Dean of the University Graduate School.
Required Credits
9 credits core
courses
3 semesters of AADS
graduate
1 credit colloquium
Thesis Option
6 credits of thesis research
(AFA 6971 Thesis Research in African and
African Diaspora Studies)
18 credits of elective
courses selected from the lists below.
Research paper/Proposal Option
3 credits of research
paper/proposal writing (AFA 6911
Research Paper/Proposal Writing in African and African Diaspora Studies)
21 credits of elective
courses selected from the lists below.
The three credits of research
paper/proposal writing will typically be taken with the
approval of the chairperson
of the student’s committee in the spring semester directly preceding the summer
during which the student will take the Advanced Seminar in African and African
Diaspora Studies.
Total:
36 credit hours
3 Core courses
AFA 5005 African and
African Diaspora Studies Theory
This
course is offered every fall semester. It is typically taken during a student’s first semester enrollment.
AFA 6851 Advanced Seminar
in African and African Diaspora Studies
This
course is offered every summer, and is typically taken at the very end of a
student’s enrollment, prior to graduation.
One research methods
course from the list below
All
students must take at least one research method course. They will choose this course according
to their disciplinary preference as it relates to their specific research
interest. Such a course should
help students conceptualize better various aspects of their research
papers/proposals or theses. Students may elect to take more than one research methods course. With
approval of the graduate director, the additional research methods course will
count as an elective.
Students who are more
inclined to use a literary studies/linguistic approach will take one of the
below:
ENG 5009 Literary
Criticism and Scholarship
LIN 5760 Research
Methods in Language Variation
SPW 5806 Methods of
Literary Research
Students
who prefer to adopt a social sciences quantitative approach will take one of
the below:
POS
5706 Research
SYA
6305 Research
Methods I
Students
who prefer to adopt a social sciences qualitative approach will take:
ANG 6497 Qualitative
Research Methods
Students
who prefer to adopt a Psychological approach will take:
DEP 5796 Methods of
Developmental Research
Students
who prefer to adopt the research method characteristic of History will take:
HIS
6059 Historical
Methods
Students
who prefer to adopt the approach of International Relations will take:
INR 5615 Research
Design in International Relations
3 (1 credit) semesters of
graduate colloquium
AFA 6920 African and
African Studies Diaspora Graduate Colloquium (1 credit/semester)
Students
must register for one credit for three consecutive semesters and attend all
symposia, conferences, colloquia, and lectures sponsored by the program and
write response papers on each event to be submitted to the AADS faculty member
in charge of the colloquium. A
syllabus will be given to all enrolled students at the beginning of each
semester.
Language Requirement
Students
will be asked to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English
according to the nature of their thesis or research paper/proposal and
professional interests. Credit hours earned in meeting language requirement
will not count towards the 36 credit hours required for the degree.
List of Electives I The Humanities
Students must choose
between 6 and 12 credits from the list below
With
approval of the Graduate Director, students may also select other courses not
listed below after submitting the appropriate syllabus.
AFA 5932 Special
Topics in African and African Diaspora Studies
AFA 5107 Teaching
the African American Experience
AFA 5341 Health
Issues in the African World
AFA 5600 National
and Transnational Policy Analysis: The African Diaspora
AFH
5905 Readings
in African History
AFH
5935 Topics
in African History
FRE 5508 La
Francophonie
HAI 5235 Haitian
Creole Seminar
LAH 5465 Peoples,
Culture and Politics of Haiti
LAS 6025 Seminar:
The Humanities in Cuba
LIN
6602 Language Contact
LIT 5359 African
Diaspora Women Writers
LIT 5358 Black
Literature and Literacy/Cultural Theory
MUH 5025 History of
Popular Music in the United States
MUH
5067 Music
of the Caribbean
REL
5122 African
American Religion
REL
5372 African
Spirituality
REL
5384 Rasta,
Vodou, Santeria
REL 5488 Theology
and Liberation Movements
SPN
5536 Afro-Cuban
Culture
SPN 5537 Special
Topics in Afro-Hispanic Culture
SPW
5346 Poetry
of Jorge Guillen
SPW 5776 Black
Literature in Latin America
SPW 6368 19th
Century Spanish-Caribbean Narrative
WOH 5236 The Transatlantic
Slave Trade and the Making of the African Diaspora, 1441-1807
WOH 5237 The African
Diaspora Since the End Of the Slave Trade
List II: The Social Sciences
ANT/ANG
6xxx Sex, Race, and Power in Colonial Times
ANG 6473 Diasporas,
Migration, and Globalization
ANG 5397 Advanced
African Diaspora Cultures
ANG 5396 Representations
of Africa and Africans in Films
ANT 6319 The African
Diaspora: Anthropological
Perspectives
CPO 6350 Seminar
in Brazilian Politics
CPO 6376 Seminar
in Central American Politics
CPO
6206 Seminar
in African Politics
CYP 6766 The
Psychology of Crosscultural Sensitization in a Multicultural Context
ECS
5406 Latin
American Economies
ECS 6436 The
Economics of Caribbean Migration
ECS
7435 Economics
of the Caribbean
INR 5087 Ethnicity
and the Politics of Development
INR 5255 Seminar
in African Development
INR 6936 Seminar
in Inter-American Politics
SYD 6705 Comparative
Analysis of Ethnicity and Race
SYP 6739 Seminar: Ethnic Minority Aging in U.S.