# African American Studies (A.A. Degree)

Laney College · 2026-2027 Catalog · Department: African American Studies

Source: https://lan.curriqunet.com/catalog/iq/44166/44231/44167/44247/44248

The African American Studies program prepares students with the comprehensive knowledge base, critical skills and social consciousness necessary to function as effective leaders in an increasingly globalized and diverse society. Our program is grounded in the decolonization and liberation projects of African Americans and their allies in the civil rights, gender, and sexual liberation movements of the 1960s that continue through the present in new forms that address new conditions. The aim of African American Studies is to support students in developing a critical consciousness and an understanding of social, political, cultural, and economic forces that have shaped the histories and current day realities of African Americans. Our studies are centered in the principles of social justice and self-determination of oppressed communities. This program utilizes the knowledges, epistemologies, and critical thinking produced by racially and sexually oppressed subjects, and we endeavor to examine the entangled intersectionality of racialized sexuality, gender, and class in complex socio-historical processes.

**Career Opportunities**

Health care, social work, mental health, law, historical societies, education, non-profit organizations, community organizing.

**Program Learning Outcomes**

Upon completion of this program a student will be able to:

1.  Research: Evaluate the development of the field of African American Studies, and utilize research methodologies and scholarship within the field to produce research papers.
2.  Analysis: Effectively employ social science methodologies in the analysis of issues related to African American Studies.
3.  Identify and describe the general history of African American people in the U.S. and the Diaspora (i.e., West Africa, Middle passage, North American slavery, Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow Era, and Civil Rights Movement).

| Course | Title | Units |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Core Courses (12 units):** | | 12 |
| AFRAM 1 | Introduction to African American Studies | 3 |
| AFRAM 5 | The African American Family in the United States | 3 |
| AFRAM 30 | African American History: Africa to 1865 | 3 |
| AFRAM 31 | African American History: 1865-1945 | 3 |
| **Electives (6 units):** | | 6 |
| AFRAM 2 | Black Economics | 3 |
| AFRAM 8 | African American Politics | 3 |
| AFRAM 11 | Perceptions of the African American Male in America | 3 |
| AFRAM 12 | Psychology of African Americans | 3 |
| AFRAM 14A | Social Psychology of African American Male/Female Relationships | 3 |
| AFRAM 16 | The Prison Industrial Complex: African American Incarceration | 3 |
| AFRAM 23 | Perceptions of African American Women | 3 |
| AFRAM 26 | African American Culture: Black Music, Art, and Literature | 3 |
| AFRAM 29 | African American Experience Through Films | 3 |
| AFRAM 32 | African American History: 1945 to the Present | 3 |
| AFRAM 38 | Environmental Racism and Justice | 3 |
| AFRAM 45 | Religion and the African American Church in America | 3 |
| AFRAM 35 | Women of Color | 3 |
| or ASAME 35 | Women of Color | 3 |
| or M/LAT 35 | Women of Color | 3 |
| or NATAM 35 | Women of Color | 3 |
| **Total Major Units:** | | 18 |
| **General Education Requirements:** | | 21 |
| **Electives to meet 60 units** | |  |
| **Total Units:** | | 60 |