The Department draws from its departmental mission to establish visionary and aspirational goals, broken down into measurable objectives. The particular Learning Objectives/Outcomes of the Department are divided into three conceptual areas of Attitude, Knowledge, and Skills.
ATTITUDE
- Value for critical thinking
- Valuing of diverse perspectives
- An appreciation for scholarship and the importance of ideas for personal and community advancement
- Value for diversity as a positive attribute of humanity
- Value for the interconnections between scholarship and effective social action
- Value for lifelong learning
KNOWLEDGE
- Understanding of diversity within the Black community (in terms of gender, class, sexual orientation, national origin, etc.)
- General grasp of the historical context of contemporary Pan-African challenges.
- Understanding of shared experience and contemporary interconnections among people of African descent throughout the world.
- Basic knowledge of African history, cultures and politics, including (ancient African kingdoms, colonialism, independence movements, contemporary period)
- Basic knowledge of African-American history, culture and politics, including (slavery, Civil Rights, Black Power, Electoral Politics contemporary period)
- Basic knowledge of African/African-American cultural expressions, including literature, music, film, art, etc.
- Understanding of African/African-American activist traditions and its ramifications for national and global equity and justice
- Basic Understanding of the intellectual tradition and seminal thinkers associated with the Black experience
SKILLS
- Ability to critically engage in analyses from a Black perspective
- Ability to engage in scholarly research, including the gathering of appropriate sources and employment of suitable methodologies
- Skilled presentation of research findings through written and oral means.
- Ability to historicize and compare contemporary conditions in the Pan African world
- Ability to examine intersectional oppressions simultaneously (race, gender, class, etc.)
- Ability to relate formal instruction in PAS to practical arenas of endeavor, e.g., career, activism, entrepreneurial, and others