Graduate School Bulletin

Spring 2023

Requirements

The M.A. degree requires a total of 30 graduate course credits with an overall minimum GPA of 3.0. Eighteen (18) of these credits will be in the Africana Studies Graduate Core Curriculum. Twelve (12) of thirty (30) credits may be part of an elective mix of AFS graduate courses and AFS approved graduate courses taken outside the Africana Studies Department in academic areas approved by AFS. Included within the twelve (12) credits are a research thesis project (6 credits). Students may arrange at their own initiative an opportunity to earn six (6) credits in a study abroad program conducted in Africa and/or the Caribbean-Latin America with Stony Brook’s International Academic Programs Office (IAP) which regularly commits to travel-study programs particularly in Africa both in the summer months and during the university’s winter session in efforts to widen the range of approaches to international understanding. Importantly as well, a small number of the courses offered by the M.A. Program in Africana Studies can be taken by students in the M.A.T.(Master’s of Arts in Teaching) Program in Social Studies Education to fulfill the requirements of that program.

The Department of Aficana Studies (AFS) has a tradition of interdisciplinary teaching and research, as reflected in the themes, and the theoretical and historical perspectives of the master’s degree courses.   The foundation courses are required of all students pursuing the M.A. degree. The two-semester sequence introduces students to the theoretical and methodological issues of the African Diaspora. A required research seminar introduces students to the historiography of the African Diaspora.

The Graduate Certificate requires a total of 15 graduate course credits found in the Africana Studies core curriculum. Students must maintain an overall minimum GPA of 3.0. Students applying to pursue the GC should also have a 3.0 during their undergraduate years. Six(6) of the credits for the GC are in foundational courses listed as 500/501 and 502. The remaining 9 credits may be selected from a mix of seminar classes approved by an AFS Department graduate advisor. The application process can be started online by clicking "Admissions" on the main SBU web page and following the appropriate instructions.

Requirements for the M.A in Africana Studies

  1. Foundations in Africana Studies, I, II   
         AFS 500; AFS 501 (6 credits)
  2. Research Methods in Africana Studies  
         AFS 502 (3 credits)
  3. 3 courses (9 credits) from the following courses:
        AFH 520, AFH 524, AFH 528, AFS 530, AFS 433, AFS 536, AFS 540, AFS 550, AFS 555, AFS 570
  4. Additional 12 credits chosen in consultation with the student’s advisor:
        include a thesis research project, AFS/AFH 599 (6 credits);
        electives chosen in consultation with advisor and oral exam (6 credits);
        or study abroad research (6 credits)