In addition to the areas of major study offered by individual
departments, a variety of special programs are available. While no one
of these is a major, it is possible, to develop
a major. All of them are designed to provide a
coherent grouping of courses drawn from various disciplines and focused
around a specific theme. Through such programs, a student can
integrate or enrich an academic program through developing an independent major.
Under usual circumstances, students are advised to follow the formal educational programs offered by departments. In rare instances, for students with special interests that cannot be satisfied in a regular major, double major, or a combined major and minor, the Educational Policy Committee will approve an interdisciplinary Independent Major. Students who wish to apply for an Independent Major must normally have achieved a minimum 3.5 grade point average. The student must plan, with the aid of a faculty advisor, a program of twelve (12) courses, ten (10) of which must be upper-division courses. These will extend over no more than three departments and will be selected in accordance with a clearly defined unifying principle. This program should be equal in depth and coherence to a typical departmental major and should include a plan for a final project or paper that demonstrates the intellectual coherence of the Independent Major and for ongoing assessment of the program by the student and the advisor. Each proposed major should be submitted to the Dean's Office before March 1 of the student's sophomore year. The Dean will then present it to the Educational Policy Committee for approval. An Independent Major will ordinarily be the student's only major.
For more information, or to begin your application for an independent major in African and African Diaspora Studies, please contact the African and African Diaspora Studies Program staff.
