Africana Studies Learning Goals

Students in Africana Studies at RIC are expected to be able:

1. To recall historical chronology that gave rise to the field of Africana Studies.
2. To identify the important contributors to the field, and explain the relevance of the field for both the academy and society.
3. To recite major events, dates, and persons in the chronology of the global black experience.
4. To demonstrate familiarity with the history and impact of resistance against racism, colonialism, enslavement, poverty, and injustice.
5. To discuss sociological and psychological theories with reference to the global black experiences.
6. To cite the principle contributions of the major literary, musical, and artistic figures in the black experience.
7. To show how the experiences of blacks have been an integral part of American and world history.
8. To demonstrate college-level skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, researching, and reasoning.

In short, Africana students should be able to negotiate the transdisciplinary relationship among the anthropological, historical, psychological, religious, sociological, aesthetic/literary, linguistic, economic, political, medical, scientific, and technological areas of black life.