Course Description
This course begins professionalization in African American Studies, with a concentration on research in the field with an emphasis on academic writing. This practicum will require production of such work as a research paper or poster for a conference, a musical performance, a professional presentation, or other form of research.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will produce a professional piece of research, such as an article, poster, artistic work, or musical composition aimed at publication or presentation.
Athena Title
Research Practicum
Non-Traditional Format
Working with a mentoring professor, the student will produce a piece of original research, with a stress on academic writing, in the field of African American Studies, in the format in which he or she will engage as a professional. Work with the mentoring professor will help students to develop research protocols and develop research practices.
Undergraduate Prerequisite
AFAM(HIST) 2000 or AFAM 2000H
Graduate Prerequisite
AFAM 8500
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- Development of excellence in research for advanced undergraduates and graduate students.
- Development of excellence in research for emerging professionals with concentration in African diaspora subject areas.
- Development of the capacity to synthesize learning in a variety of modes for presentation of research findings to a professorial or public audience. The course will prepare students for professional engagement with audiences in their guilds, professional societies, or communities. They will write intensively, engaging research in the field and practicing professional presentation to learn how to shape research so as to communicate effectively to the target audience.
- Working with a mentor and supervising professor, students will develop research skills (e.g., how to use the library databases and work with a research librarian; how to assess information and sources); improve academic writing in an interdisciplinary African American Studies area (African American Studies and literature, sociology, music, religion, and other areas); and, professionalize writing.
- Students, working with a professor, will develop the appropriate interdisciplinary framework for their research, including learning the language of an inter-discipline and what journals and other venues publish these topics in their field. Students will read and write to learn, learning to synthesize material and to identify and engage with intellectual interlocutors. Students will create a professional presentation, paper, or composition to offer to a professional or public audience, such as a conference, workshop, exhibition, etc. Research may be quantitative or qualitative, depending on the research area.
- Working with a mentor, each student will work across disciplines to integrate learning for presentation. This will necessitate engagement with a variety of intellectual interlocutors who may view an issue or problem differently. The research outcomes are: to write intensively to develop voice and to learn to analyze information, to communicate one's insights and research results to a variety of audiences; and to develop flexibility, which involves risking in relation to established knowledge and solutions.
- Students will work with a professor/mentor to identify the appropriate content for the academic project. This work should be innovative and creative, requiring risks in working across disciplines to synthesize information or to demonstrate where synthesis cannot exist.
Topical Outline
- Students will develop academic writing or other forms of composition for publication, presentation, or performance, as well as intensify research capacities.
- Students will complete a research project that demonstrates their emerging professionalism.
- Students will submit and present academic work in African American Studies.
