Arab American Studies (AAST) Certificate
The Arab American Studies (AAST) Certificate is an interdisciplinary undergraduate and post-baccalaureate certificate that prepares students for working and living in our diverse metropolitan region and world by concentrating on the historical and current experiences of Arab and Muslim Americans and the relevance of those experiences for understanding race and ethnicity in the U.S. and globally. The interdisciplinary approach of the certificate provides students with analytical frameworks for understanding how social, cultural, legal, and political factors influence the lives of Arab American individuals, families, and communities. The program of study examines a broad spectrum of diversity to understand the ways that immigration, racism and discrimination, gender and sexuality, class, ethnicity, culture, and religion intersect with one another in people’s lives.
For more information, contact AAST Coordinator Sally Howell.
Information on the AAST Certificate
The AAST Certificate is designed to allow students to take advantage of existing courses in Arab American history and cognates related to Arab American Studies (in Anthropology, Health, Literature, and other disciplines) in order to focus on the study of Arab American history and culture. The AAST Certificate is designed to complement and combine with other existing certificate and minor programs (such as Arabic, Middle East Studies, Urban Studies, and Global Culture) and/or to provide a coherent combination of courses for CASL’s new Individual Program of Study Major.
12 credit hours required.
Required course: (3 credit hours from):
AAST 3150 Introduction to Arab American Studies OR
AAST 3151 Public Culture Work in Arab Detroit
Additional Courses (9 credit hours required):
Choose from: AAST 3150, 3634, 3676, 473, 4677, 4678; ANTH 312, 373; HHS 480
NOTES REGARDING AAST CERTIFICATE PROGRAM:
- A minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA is required for admission to the program.
- A maximum of 3 credit hours of transfer coursework may be counted toward the minimum 12 credit hours required for the program by Petition to the Program Director.
- None of the courses applied to the certificate may be taken pass/fail.
- A minimum 3.0 GPA in the UM-Dearborn courses counting toward the AAST certificate is required at the time of graduation and/or awarding of the certificate.
Students completing the Arab American Studies Certificate will acquire knowledge concerning the following:
- Demonstrate a command of the broad range of diversity (gender, class, religion, race, length of time in the U.S., national origins, etc.) found within Arab American communities.
- Demonstrate a command of how the Arab American experience is shaped by local, national, and global conditions and relations.
- Demonstrate familiarity with Arab American aesthetic, social, religious, and political movements.
- Demonstrate familiarity with several different disciplinary approaches to the study of American race and ethnicity.
