Career - what can you do with an Africana studies degree?

A major or minor in Africana studies from BGSU provides the foundation and tools needed not only to guide personal and professional aspirations but to ensure success in an increasingly cross-cultural and interdependent world.

Careers in law and education, government and policy studies, international relations, and diplomatic service are common paths after taking Africana studies. In addition, students can seek employment with non-profit organizations and public agencies.

The Africana studies program as a minor gives students who major in art, communication, business, literature, history, advertising, education, sociology and political science an additional area of specialization and a global perspective.

Africana studies prepares students for graduate or professional training in languages, law, philosophy, social sciences, ethnic and women's studies, literature, communications, business, diplomatic services, library and archival services. 

Students are well equipped for graduate studies in the arts and humanities, and those with a double major further increase their options.

Curriculum

The BGSU Africana studies program offers a major and minor designed to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to a student’s chosen area of inquiry. 

Academic advisors and faculty are available to help students choose their best course of study to explore areas of interest and ensure academic progress. 

Drawing on diverse fields represented in colleges, schools, and departments across the BGSU campus, the flexible curriculum strengthens students' liberal arts backgrounds. Africana studies prepares students to interact with a world of racial and cultural diversity.

Africana studies provides a focused lens for studying the historical, cultural, political, literary, and artistic aspects of people of African descent worldwide. The arts and humanities focus of this major and minor will help prepare students to effectively negotiate in a world that increasingly requires crossing racial, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries in research and careers in the public and private sectors.

Students gain comprehensive knowledge of Africana peoples through classroom instruction, archival research, and study abroad experience.

Study Abroad

Being immersed in an entirely new cultural setting in Africa, even for a limited time, provides students with opportunities to discover new strengths and abilities and solve new problems. 

BGSU Africana studies students return from study abroad trips with new ideas and perspectives about themselves and their culture. 

The Music and Art of Ghana  

The class will spend one to two weeks at a cultural arts institute near the nation's capital, Accra, with the remainder of the time in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti peoples, and farther north in the Dagomba region. Students will participate in music and dance lessons, with opportunities during the day to study other arts, such as batik making, kente weaving, adinkra cloth-making, and wood carving. The class will also attend local events such as funerals, rituals, and social dance clubs.

French Programs in Burkina Faso

For the two-week Spring program, students visit Burkina Faso after attending a January to March French program in France. The three-week Summer program, worth six credit hours, is designed only for students who have spent at least one semester in a French-speaking country. Students attend morning classes taught by Burkinabe professors of the University of Ouagadougou and have scheduled excursions most afternoons and weekends.