Bachelor of Art in African and African American Studies

The Department of African and African American Studies (AFR) provides students with a scholarly understanding of the cultures, thought, politics, social life, material structures, and ongoing struggles that define the Black experience. The interdisciplinary approach of African and African American Studies allows students to engage critical thinking across a spectrum of fields, including history, psychology, environmental and agricultural science, gender studies, peace, and social justice studies, transnational migration, political science, economics, health, media and technology, art, literature, music, theatre, and other forms of expressive culture.

Through the advanced, dedicated study of the major and the supplementary, scholarly enrichment of the minor, the African and African American Studies Department deepens students’ total experience. We offer new ways to read, critique, and take action in the world using the perspectives and world view of Black people throughout the African Diaspora.

Our curriculum is designed to teach students to clarify and critically utilize the theoretical, material, and cultural interventions of African descent people. AFR not only teaches students how to analyze the conditions that have impacted the Black experience, but we also allow students to innovate practical, active responses to structures and ideologies of racial subjugation.

AFR majors have the opportunity to assist in faculty-led research projects and conduct their own research using a variety of student grants. Independent research and outstanding capstone projects are honoured at the end of each year.

AFR students are also granted internships that match a wide range of intellectual and career interests – from history to political science to the arts. AFR students also gain educational enrichment, professional development, and networking opportunities through conferences, learning excursions, study abroad, and other interactive experiences.

Berea College offers a high-quality education to academically promising students with limited economic resources. It awards every student a Tuition Promise Scholarship so that no Berea student ever pays tuition. Berea is the first interracial and coeducational college in the South and consistently ranks among the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges.

Berea’s educational experience provides students with the knowledge and skills to navigate the world successfully. The College provides a challenging yet supportive learning environment. Whether in the classroom, attending a Convocation, interning, studying abroad, or linking work with academic goals, the educational experience is truly like no other. Students have experiential learning opportunities in and out of the classroom.

The Berea experience nurtures intellectual, physical, aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual potentials and with those the power to make meaningful commitments and translate them into action.