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This bibliography lists 600 theses and dissertations on African American topics completed at the University of California, Berkeley. The earliest thesis, by Emmet Gerald Alexander, State Education of the Negro in the South, was completed in 1907 in the Department of Education, while the most recent date from the calendar year 2001. The African experience in the Americas is the connecting thread which links these works completed in thirty three disciplines over the past eight decades. This experience is construed in its widest sense; included therefore are studies of Blacks in the Caribbean and in Central and Latin America as well as in North America. Theses not indubitably on this subject as revealed by their titles have been examined; we have retained only titles either entirely or substantially devoted to this subject.
Theses and dissertations are undertaken in partial fulfillment of a graduate academic degree and constitute a significant segment of the academic literature of all fields. They record original research, point the direction for future areas of study, and review previous research on the subject. They are usually unpublished typescripts, duplicated as necessary on microfilm or by other photocopy processes. The term "dissertation" refers only to papers submitted toward the doctoral degree. "Thesis" is more comprehensive and may apply to both masters' and doctoral papers. In this publication "thesis" will refer to both types of work, except when it is necessary to differentiate between the two. Doctoral dissertations are widely recorded and generally accessible. Masters' theses are not subject to similar bibliographic control, and may be much more difficult to identify and to acquire. This bibliography contains information to assist you in locating African American theses in the libraries of the University of California, Berkeley.
Archival copies of Berkeley theses are housed in the Circulation Stacks of the Main (Doe)Library, and are restricted to Library Use only; they may be recognized by call numbers which commence with 308t. In some cases multiple copies of theses exist; non-archival copies frequently do circulate. Often branch libraries hold copies, and sometimes preservation microfilm exists as well. Some branch libraries have thesis collections in their subject fields, although some collections are neither extensive nor current. Some theses are in storage, and must be recalled from the Northern Regional Loan Facility at the Richmond Field Station which normally takes one working day from the date requested. Storage numbers are provided for many of these theses.
In addition to theses completed at this university, a fine collection of more than 2000 African American dissertations on microfilm completed at colleges and universities around the country is available in the Newspaper and Microcopy Room, 133 Main Library. These dissertations cover the Black experience in the United States and the Caribbean from the earliest days to the l980s. They are all listed in the catalogs; in addition the bibliographies by Earle H. West noted below have been annotated with Berkeley call numbers if we possess copies of theses listed in those sources.
Phyllis B. Bischof
Librarian for African and African American Collections
UC Berkeley Libraries