Program Overview

A Graduate Certificate in African Diaspora Studies in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will introduce students to the current scholarship on the African Diaspora as well as a basic grounding in the historical, political, literary, and cultural responses of African peoples to their diasporic conditions.  A successful recipient of a Graduate Certificate in African Diaspora Studies from UMass Amherst would be expected to have acquired the following knowledge: 

• Grounding in the complex political and historical development of Pan-Africanism and the African Diaspora in the Americas;
• Conceptual strategies and critical apparati for engaging with a variety of discourses on the African Diaspora;
• Working knowledge of the issues, themes, and concepts informing the current scholarship in African Diaspora Studies, especially a critical engagement with issues such as refugee status, exile, migration, immigration, trans-nationalism, and expatriation;
• Critical knowledge of the scholarship in at least one aspect of African Diaspora Studies.

Applying for the Certificate in African Diaspora Studies:  The Certificate welcomes applications from persons who meet the following criteria:

• Have gained admission into a graduate degree-granting department at UMassAmherst.
• Have earned a bachelor’s or graduate degree from an accredited university and have made application for and gained admission to UMass as a non-degree student through the Graduate Admissions Office.

To Apply:  Send an email Tricia Loveland tlovelan@afroam.umass.edu to set up an appointment with one of the co-directors. Visit the website for details and forms: http://www.umass.edu/afroam/graduate/GraduateCertificateDiaspora.html

Requirements: 
Five graduate courses distributed as follows:

• AfroAm 692Q: African Diaspora Studies: Introduction to Concepts and Historiography
• Four electives selected among the current offerings by the UMass Amherst and Five Colleges African Diaspora Faculty or alternate courses with the approval of one of the certificate co-directors.