Although African American Studies does not offer graduate degrees, graduate students are able to make African American Studies a concentration in their M.A. and Ph.D. degree programs. African American Studies is an interdisciplinary field with theories, methods, and approaches particular to it. The African American experience represents an important global dimension of American culture. Students wishing to conduct research on African American subjects with a specific interest in gaining expertise in African American Studies practices, theories, and methods. This focus of the graduate concentration in African American Studies introduces students to methods, theories, and approaches to the study of African American life that are widely agreed upon as most efficacious and ethical. Students are encouraged to explore African American social and economic life, cultural developments, engagement with the wider world, and its people and institutions in all their complexity.