Why Major in AADS?

AADS is committed to offering its majors an academically challenging curriculum based on the strong foundation of a liberal arts education. The AADS Major prepares students for leadership, teaching, and community engagement, and it is an excellent foundation for graduate and professional study.

Why Major in African American
& African Diaspora Studies?

The AADS Program at UNCG includes course offerings from eleven different departments and programs, including Art, Anthropology, Dance, English, History, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, Sociology, and Women’s & Gender Studies, in addition to its own AADS classes. The innovative curriculum offers courses that provide critical study on contemporary issues, such as hip hop culture, race studies, and pop culture.

AADS majors gain extensive insight into the diversity of Black cultures and history and thorough exposure to a wide range of perspectives on race and ethnicity, areas of knowledge which are unquestionably important elements in today’s world. Majors graduate with a solid understanding of the experiences and contributions of peoples of African descent in the Americas and in the Indian Ocean World. AADS majors are prepared for leadership and employment in a range of fields.

African American Studies can fit into almost any plan for future graduate study. The majority of law, medical, and graduate school degree programs do not restrict their prospective students to a particular undergraduate degree, although some may require or recommend a specific list of undergraduate courses as prerequisites to admission. In fact, almost half of today’s medical students are non-science majors, and law schools rarely require any specific undergraduate courses.

AADS majors should seek early advising from the AADS director of undergraduate studies and embark on the pursuit of relevant courses to their career and graduate and professional school interests. Learn more about graduate and law school options by visiting the AADS Career Preparation page. Majors should also visit Career Services to prepare for career placement.

The AADS Program has great courses, award-winning teachers, an inclusive community of students, and is an excellent knowledge and skills-based foundation for a satisfying career, whether you choose law, medical, or graduate school or head directly into the working world. Check out what some of our recent alums are doing now!

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Learning Goals

To provide engagement with African American and African diasporic identities that acknowledges race, gender, sexuality, class, religion and region as intersecting categories.

Engage with issues of social justice as they impact upon people of African descent.

Develop critical intellectual skills in defining various aspects of cultural and historic expression within the African diasporic experience.

Explain the effects of racism, sexism, colonization, and class disparities on Africana people and the ways they have responded to these issues.

To develop a global perspective of the making of African Diasporas and to analyze the cultural diversity of Africana people.

Program History

African American and African Diaspora Studies at UNCG (AADS) has grown from two classes in 1982 into a comprehensive interdisciplinary curriculum which now offers a major, minor, and Disciplinary Honors.

Since 1982, AADS has been central to UNCG’s goal to provide its increasingly diverse student population with an opportunity to study the cultures, histories, and experiences of people of African descent throughout the world. Our program reflects Greensboro’s history of Black sociopolitical movements and a global history of life across the African diaspora.

Our professors are from various disciplinary backgrounds, including art history, sociology, English, Performance Studies, history and anthropology. In collaboration with UNCG departments, AADS provides students with authentic interdisciplinary academic experiences, which provide them with a strong foundation for graduate and professional studies in a variety of fields. Our graduates attend medical, law, and graduate schools and pursue careers in education, politics, management, healthcare, writing, performance, and law, among others.

We also strongly encourage our students to pursue Disciplinary Honors, Study Abroad, and internships. Many of our students engage in various leadership positions, including as AADS Ambassadors, AADS Club members, and community volunteers. AADS students work one-on-one with our faculty as they develop their academic and professional profiles.

We provide unique opportunities for UNCG students, faculty, staff, and community members to learn about how people of African descent have shaped our world. We invite you to attend our annual conference (CACE), our Conversations with the Community, and our diverse programming offered throughout the year.

Naming Space: The AADS Story
Click to learn more about our history

1982-83	Black Studies offered as a “student-designed” minor
1986	First offering of Black Studies courses: BKS 100: Blacks in America and BKS 110: Blacks in American Society: Social, Economic and Political Perspectives
1990-91	Black Studies introduced three experimental courses: BKS 200: Afro-American Art History, BKS 210: Afro-American Literature and Liberation, and BKS 220: Portrayal of Afro-Americans in Art and Film
1991-92	Additions made to core curriculum in African American Studies: BKS 200 approved as a core program course and BKS 493 as an Honors course
1992-93	Black Studies renamed African American Studies
Fall 2002	Began to offer bachelor’s degree in African American Studies
Fall 2014	African American Studies renamed African American and African Diaspora Studies