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This archived information is dated to the 2008-09 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin.

Coterminal Bachelor's and Master of Arts in African Studies

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Undergraduate Programs in African Studies

The one-year master's program in African Studies is designed for students who have experience working, living, or studying in Africa and little prior course work on the region.

Undergraduates at Stanford may apply for admission to the coterminal master's program in African Studies. Coterminal degree applications will only be accepted from students in their fourth year, meaning that the program must be completed in the fifth year. An exception can only be made for students who completed an honors thesis in their third year. For University coterminal degree program rules and application forms, see http://registrar.stanford.edu/shared/publications.htm#Coterm. Requirements for the master's degree are summarized below.

The annual deadline for all applications, including coterminal and master's, is January 6. All applicants must submit an online application, including a 500-word statement of purpose, resume, 15-20 page double-spaced academic writing sample, three letters of recommendation, official transcripts, and Graduate Record Examination scores. TOEFL scores are required of applicants for whom English is not their first language or who did not attend an undergraduate institution where English is the language of instruction. To apply online and for information on graduate admissions, see http://gradadmissions.stanford.edu.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

University requirements for the master's degree are described in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin. A description of the M.A. program is also available from the Center or at http://ica.stanford.edu/afr/ma.

The program requires completion of a minimum of 45 graduate units. Upon entering, each student is assigned a faculty adviser who works with the student to develop a customized program of study.

To receive the M.A. degree in African Studies, students must complete:

  1. Core Courses (15 units): students must complete the core African Studies M.A. course, AFRICAST 301, Dynamics of Change in Africa, in Autumn Quarter. Students elect two additional graduate courses taught by African Studies academic council members and drawn from a list of approved courses. Students must also complete AFRICAST 302, Research Workshop, in Spring Quarter, in which they present and discuss their research and research interests.
  2. Cognate Courses (10 units): a minimum of 10 units of graduate-level credit in two cognate courses from the following thematic clusters not chosen as the student's concentration field: culture and society; health, well-being, and the environment; and political economy and security.
  3. Concentration Field (12-15 units): students choose one area of specialization (culture and society; health, well-being, and the environment; or political economy and security), and a group of three related elective courses for graduate credit from the cognate course listings or elsewhere in the Stanford curriculum in consultation with the student's adviser and with the approval of the CAS director. With approval, introductory courses may be substituted in fields such as advanced undergraduate biology for those interested in epidemic diseases or public health. The academic adviser, in agreement with faculty in the chosen field, guarantees that each set of courses forms part of a coherent program.
  4. Language Requirement: students take one year of training in an African language, usually at least 3 units per quarter, resulting in intermediate-level proficiency as measured by American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) or comparable language acquisition standards. Students who have advanced proficiency in an African language must fulfill this requirement by taking another European language spoken in Africa such as French or Portuguese, by taking another African language to the intermediate-level, or by taking a year-long sequence in Arabic. Students with competency in one or more African languages and one or more other languages widely spoken in Africa, may substitute a program of methodological training including, for example, a sequence of courses in statistics or GIS survey techniques.
  5. Seminar Requirement: students enroll each quarter in AFRICAST 300, Contemporary Issues in African Studies, 1 unit, in which guest scholars present lectures on African themes and topics.
  6. Thesis Option: students may elect to write a master's thesis; they may register for up to 10 units of thesis research under the guidance of an Academic Council member. Thesis units may be counted toward the electives within the concentration field unit requirements.
  7. Grade Requirements: courses to be counted toward the degree, except for AFRICAST 300, must be taken for a letter grade and receive a grade of 'B' or higher.

The following courses may be used to fulfill optional course requirements:

AFRICAAM 101. African American Lecture Series: Race and Faith

AFRICAAM 105. Introduction to African and African American Studies

AFRICAAM 144. African Women Writers

ANTHRO 139. Ethnography of Africa

CLASSHIS 105. History and Culture of Ancient Egypt

ECON 106. World Food Economy

ECON 118. Development Economics

ECON 214. Development Economics I

EDUC 202. Introduction to Comparative and International Education

EDUC 273. Gender and Higher Education: National and International Perspectives

EDUC 306A. Education and Economic Development

ENGLISH 171A. English in the World

FRENLIT 133. Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean

FRENLIT 248. Literature, History, and Representation

HISTORY 106A. Global Human Geography: Asia and Africa

HISTORY 145B. Africa in the 20th Century

HISTORY 299X. Design and Methodology for International Field Research

HISTORY 305. Graduate Workshop in Teaching

HISTORY 345B. African Encounters with Colonialism

HISTORY 346. The Dynamics of Change in Africa

HISTORY 448A/B. African Societies and Colonial States

HUMBIO 129. Critical Issues in International Women's Health

HUMBIO 153. Parasites and Pestilence: Infectious Public Health Challenges

HUMBIO 156. Global HIV/AIDS

INTNLREL 161A. Global Human Geography: Asia and Africa

MED 243. Biomedical and Social Science Responses to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic

POLISCI 136R. Introduction to Global Justice

POLISCI 141. The Global Politics of Human Rights

POLISCI 215. Explaining Ethnic Violence

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