Contact
Karin Shapiro
Director of Graduate Studies
African & African American Studies
Box 90252
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0252
(919) 684-2830
Email: aaas-dgs@duke.edu
Website: https://aaas.duke.edu/graduate-certificate
Program Description
The Department of African & African American Studies (AAAS) offers a certificate in African and African American studies. Students enrolled in doctoral and master’s programs are eligible and may work concurrently with their departments to satisfy the requirements for a certificate in African and African American studies. The curricular format is a trifold course of study that includes coursework, teaching, and research. The award of a graduate certificate is carried on the student’s official transcript upon completion of the program. Students enrolled in the graduate program are eligible to apply for AAAS-sponsored teaching assistantships for undergraduate courses.
Graduate study leading to the certificate in African and African American studies encourages research and scholarship in all dimensions of the African and African American thought and experience. The graduate program is designed to provide access for students and scholars to a broad range of information and research from the humanities and social sciences, and the arts and professions, while taking advantage of the university’s distinctive resources in each of these areas of study. Graduate students enrolled in the program are encouraged to participate in all African and African American studies events, and to audit the lecture series and symposia.
For further information regarding application and enrollment in the graduate certificate Program in African and African American Studies, contact the department’s director of graduate studies or visit https://aaas.duke.edu/graduate-certificate.
Requirements for PhD Students
- Must take the gateway graduate seminar.
- Must take three additional graduate-level courses, two of which must be taught by AAAS core faculty. The third course must originate in, or be cross-listed with African and African American studies.
- Must either complete a teaching assistantship (or instructorship) in an AAAS-related undergraduate course under the sponsorship/supervision of an AAAS core or secondary faculty member; or take a fifth course, approved by the director of graduate studies, and submit a course proposal with syllabus for a related African and African American studies undergraduate course. In this case, the proposal and syllabus must be submitted prior to the dissertation defense and approved by an AAAS core faculty member.
- Write a dissertation in an African and African American studies area with core or secondary faculty represented on the dissertation committee.
Requirements for Master’s Students
- Must take the gateway graduate seminar.
- Must take two additional graduate-level courses taught by core or secondary faculty.
- Must complete an independent study (MALS students may complete Liberal Studies 890) developed in association with an AAAS core or secondary faculty member.
A final thesis/project (MALS students may complete Liberal Studies 850), approved in advance by the AAAS director of graduate studies, that addresses an aspect of the program’s scholarly mission. An AAAS faculty member must serve as a final reader of the thesis/project, or as an examiner in its final review.