Florida International University

Program Information

Degree Offered

M.A. - African & African Diaspora Studies; Combined MA in African & African Diaspora Studies (AADS) and PhD in International Relations; Combined MA in African and African Diaspora Studies(AADS) and PhD in Global and Sociocultural Studies, African & African Diaspora Studies Graduate Certificate

Format: Campus

Program Description:

The M.A. degree in African & African Diaspora Studies provides interdisciplinary, graduate level education that draws on AADS core faculty, as well as on faculty from a variety of Departments in the College of Arts and Sciences (English, Cultural Geography, Modern Languages, Political Science and International Relations, Sociology/Anthropology, History) and other Colleges within the university. This M.A. program aims to develop scholars with specific analytical skills and research methodologies in an ever growing interdisciplinary field of inquiry that has been on the cutting edge of scholarly research. This degree will lead to professional positions in a range of fields as it simultaneously prepares students for further study at the doctoral level. The Program should attract those who are interested in subjects as diverse as—non exhaustively—national and transnational policy analysis, cultural studies, international relations with and within continental Africa, African and African diaspora gender constructs and sexualities, African and African diaspora literatures, the history and contemporary experiences of descendants of Africans in the United States, pre-national, national, transnational, and post-national processes such as pre-colonial African history, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the movement of “returnees” to what is today’s Liberia, Ghana and Ethiopia, European colonization of Africa, the Caribbean contributions to the “black movement” in the United States, Panafricanism, the Caribbean presence in colonial Africa, the Caribbean migration to the U.K. in the mid-20th century, Caribbean popular culture and cultural politics, the processes of creolization in the Caribbean and beyond, the struggle of Afro-Latinos for the recognition of their collective rights in different national contexts, the migration of Eastern Africans to Australia, the current migration of Central Africans to South Africa, the Asian diasporas in Eastern and Southern Africa, the migration of Western Africans to France, Spain, Italy, and Germany, and the escape of Sudanese “ethnic Africans” from Darfur to Chad.

All students who enroll in this M.A. Program will be exposed to the diversity of approaches, conceptualizations and interventions in the many debates that characterize the field, developed by a diversity of scholars based in different locations around the world.

he African & African Diaspora Studies (AADS) Graduate Certificate seeks to provide graduate-level multidisciplinary instruction in the diverse fields of African and African Diaspora Studies. Specifically, the Certificate seeks to provide students with an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the global, economic, cultural, and historical experiences of people of African descent, both in Africa and in the Diaspora.

The Certificate complements students’ work in their major fields of study. Thanks to the diversity of areas of research interests of the core and affiliate AADS faculty, students may choose courses that will allow them to focus more specifically on either U.S. born African Americans, Continental Africans, or communities of the African diaspora internationally. Students may also choose courses that will bring them to learn about all three or any other combination of these areas.

Tuition & Financial Aid

Financial Aid Offered: No

Classification: Doctoral/Research Universities - Extensive

Institution Sector: Public

Locale: Large Suburb

Size & Settings: 20,000 and above