African American Studies Track
Basic Requirements: 14 half-courses

1. Required courses:
1. AAAS 10: Introduction to African American Studies (not restricted to concentrators). Students should take this course by the end of their sophomore year. (Students who transfer into the concentration after their sophomore year will be permitted to substitute for AAAS 10 a course in African and African American Studies they have already taken, but only if they can demonstrate to the Director of Undergraduate Studies that they have established a basic familiarity with the materials covered in AAAS 10.)
2. AAAS 118.
3. AAAS 131.
4. Two half-courses, one in African American humanities and one in African American social sciences. (These courses need not be given in the department.)
5. Six half-courses for the concentration. These may include relevant courses from the Core. In picking these six half-courses students should declare a focus. Some students will declare a disciplinary focus or a more general focus in humanities or social sciences; others, an area focus in African American or Afro-Caribbean cultures; others, a thematic methodological or comparative focus (e.g., comparative ethnic studies, comparative literary analysis, urban studies). These are not the only possibilities, but students should be prepared to make a coherent case for the course of electives they propose.
2. Tutorials:
1. AAAS 97a (one term), required. Letter-graded.
2. AAAS 97b (one term). Letter-graded.
   
   97a & b are topical seminars whose contents change each year. They aim to introduce students to important materials and methods in the study of literature and culture, on the one hand, and of history and society on the other. Tutorial 97a includes concentrators from both tracks and covers an Africa/African diaspora topic.
   
   
3. AAAS 98 (one term), required. Letter-graded. An individual tutorial to be taken in the junior year.

Note: Students can take AAAS 10, 97a, and 97b in succeeding terms starting in their freshman or sophomore year, and then proceed to do individual tutorials in the junior year. Nevertheless, the tutorial program is designed to allow great flexibility: students who declare late may take AAAS 97b concurrently with AAAS 10, for example; AAAS 97a and 97b are not a "sequence" and need not be taken in any particular order; and concentrators may be permitted to substitute for AAAS 10, if they declare late.



3. Other information: No courses used for the concentration may be taken Pass/Fail.
4. Teaching: Concentrators may be eligible to obtain certification to teach in middle or secondary schools in Massachusetts and states with which Massachusetts has reciprocity. See information about the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program (UTEP).

Requirements for Honors Eligibility: 16 half-courses

1. Required courses:
   a-e. Same as Basic Requirements.
2. Tutorials:
   a-c. Same as Basic Requirements.
   d. Senior year: One year of AAAS 99 required. Senior Thesis Workshop. Letter-graded.
3. Thesis: Required.
4. Other information: No courses used for concentration may be taken Pass/Fail.

Requirements for Joint Concentrations: 8 half-courses and thesis

1. Required courses:
   a-d. Same as Basic Requirements.
2. Tutorials:
   a-c. Same as Basic Requirements.
   d. Senior year: AAAS 99, full year, required if African American Studies is the primary field; letter-graded. If African American Studies is not the primary field, the student should register for the thesis tutorial in the primary field.
3. Thesis: Required. Thesis must be related to both fields. Both departments will participate in the grading of the thesis and oral examination, if an oral examination is required by the other department.
4. Other information: No courses used for concentration may be taken Pass/Fail