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What can you do with a major in African American Studies?

African American Studies majors, like Temple Owls, are everywhere! However, most people are not yet familiar with the content of African American Studies. Therefore, you may hear the title question often. Do not be offended. It is a natural question when you consider that as a discipline (1) African American Studies is relatively new, (2) is one that many people assume to be simply history, and (3) is one that some people think is a humanities while others think it is a social science.

For the record, AAS at Temple is multidisciplinary in that the courses focus on the sum total of African people's experiences from historical to artistic, from political to psychological. The faculty is diverse, representing almost every area of the social sciences and humanities.  The Department aims to prepare its students to take roles of effective agency, participation, and leadership in the intellectual, research, and social activist domains of professional and community life. Our majors are everywhere!

WHAT OUR STUDENTS HAVE DONE WITH THE AAS MAJOR:

Several Temple AAS majors went to work with museums; they were appreciated for their awareness of and sensitivity to the importance of art and artifacts to people's history, culture, and psyches.

Several AAS majors went to work with community centers and organizations that focus on community development. One Temple AAS major became recreations planner for a major metropolitan city. AAS majors are appreciated for their familiarity with and interest in helping communities to organize to achieve certain quality-of-life conditions.

Several AAS majors are social workers, and are appreciated for their knowledge of historical and sociological issues relevant to Black families, children, men, and women. They are valued for their sensitivity to the fact that people of different cultures may be different without being deficient; and that one must seek to understand the culture as one develops paradigms for intervention.

Several AAS majors became police officers, using their exposure to the history and culture of African peoples to peaceably defuse many potentially volatile situations; willing to establish rapport with members of the community on the basis of their knowledge of a cultural heritage that is often unknown to the community; Occasionally, they are able to give out reading lists instead of warrants and tickets.

Many AAS majors go on to graduate or professional school, combining their interest in issues relevant to African-Americans with graduate careers.

Medicine
Several Temple AAS alumni are now physicians. They used their AAS majors to learn some of the traditional health care practices that continue to influence many African Americans; to familiarize themselves with historical, social, economic and cultural habits that affect community health conditions; to learn about factors that have affected community trust of and responsiveness to health care and other institutions; to learn strategies of engagement that might be more effective in affecting community health.
(See "Preparation for the Study of Dentistry, Medicine....) in The Bulletin under College of Liberal Arts).

Law
Several Temple AAS graduates are attorneys, having used their AAS majors to learn some of the legal and social issues historically confronting African American communities; to learn how social and cultural structures within society can and do influence individual's social behavior and social choices; to see how various social factors influence systems' responses to individuals and individuals' responses to systems.
(See "Courses of Special Interest to Pre-Law Students" in The Bulletin under College of Liberal Arts).

Education
Some Temple AAS majors are teachers, having used their majors to learn about the history of educational issues among African-Americans; to learn how institutional culture and individual culture often clash and thus prevent effective learning; to learn current research on the teaching and educational practices that are most effective with African American children; to learn strategies for effective engagement of families and communities in learning.
(The College of Education offers a joint degree in Education with your AAS major. Read all about it under the College of Education in the Undergraduate Bulletin).