Bachelor of Arts - Africana Studies

The Department of Africana Studies at San Francisco State University was the first Black Studies department established on a four-year college campus in the United States. The birth of Black Studies at San Francisco State in 1968 was inspired by student-led opposition to the then Western intellectual hegemony and racist scholarship that characterized the limitations found in traditional approaches to college education. In 2005, the Black Studies Department at SF State changed its name to the Africana Studies Department. Every student should know about the unparalleled and unmatched contributions that African and African American people have made to human civilization. These contributions include the formulation of the first system of government for a territorial state, the creation of the foundations of science, mathematics, and advanced technology, the first written script, the foundations of philosophy and psychology, the building of the great pyramids, and such modern inventions as the first electric light filament, the cotton gin, the first gas mask, the double effect evaporator, and the first design of a three-stage rocket capable of interstellar flight. In the Africana Studies program, students are able to learn about, critique, and be inspired by the accomplishments of African people and peoples who shaped and are shaping the moral conscience, artistic genius, scientific and technical achievements, and political activism of their time. Students majoring in Africana Studies are required to complete a program consisting of core courses and electives with emphases in the areas of the humanities and behavioral and social sciences. The core courses (30 units) provide students with an appreciation of the historical development and intellectual foundation of the discipline as well as the critical knowledge base, intellectual skills, and methodological techniques essential to the field of Africana Studies. The courses offered in the emphases (9 units each) allow the student to gain a deeper intellectual grasp of the field within one of two important emphases. The two emphases are the Africana Humanities emphasis and the Africana Behavioral and Social Sciences emphasis.