Department of African and Afro-American Studies

Last updated: August 15, 2017 at 10:32 a.m.

Objectives

The department welcomes all members of the student body who have an interest in Africa and/or African America. The major is arranged through consultation with the departmental adviser or another professor. Majors may ask for guidance in the selection of elective courses with related content or approach within their chosen disciplines.

Learning Goals

The African and Afro-American Studies Department is multidisciplinary with some of its faculty holding joint appointments in other departments. The department brings together scholars and scholarship from various disciplines to explore the cultures, histories and societies of African and African descended people. The department’s offerings range across the traditional fields of anthropology, economics, history, literature, music, politics. The field of African and Afro-American Studies is not only multidisciplinary, but also interdisciplinary, comparative and cross-cultural. The disciplines are integrated by certain themes that underscore the uniqueness of the department.

First, the AAAS subject matter focuses on African peoples and their cultures and those peoples of the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa who are descendants of Africans. Second, the AAAS department’s courses offer a non-western comparative, and a non-racial approach to the interpretations and understandings of the experiences of African peoples of the wider world social, economic, and political systems. Third, the AAAS courses broadens the scope and range of traditional disciplines and offer general education courses in which the knowledge of the presence, roles, and cultural contributions and experiences of African peoples and their descendants have been omitted or neglected.

The AAAS variety of course offerings affirms the intellectual importance of research and scholarship of the contribution of peoples of African descent globally. In sharing the University’s commitment to academic excellence, the AAAS department provides students with the requisite tools to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate events and phenomena that structure the experiences and possibilities of Africans in the continent of Africa and its diaspora.

Knowledge:
Students completing a major in African and Afro-American studies will come away with a strong understanding of:

1) History of the diversity of African peoples worldwide and their struggles for social, political, and economic empowerment.

2) Contributions of Africans in Africa and the diaspora in the development of the cultural, social, political and global interdependence.

3) How to think critically about arguments based on analysis and evaluation of evidence.

4) Major questions, concepts, theories, ethical and research methodologies used in interdisciplinary comparative, and cross-cultural studies.

Skills:
A major in African and Afro-American Studies emphasizes core skills in data collection, critical thinking and communication. AAAS majors will be trained and prepared to:

1) Conduct scholarly, professional and original research applying interdisciplinary, comparative and cross-cultural research methodologies

2) Synthesize, as well as articulate orally and in writing, a coherent narrative about the history, religions, cultures, and societies in the continent of Africa and the Africa diaspora.

3) Situate texts, documents, traditions, ideas, artistic productions and relevant data in their contexts.

4) Evaluate information critically with particular attention to examining and analyzing new areas of research in Africa and the African diaspora.

Social Justice:
The African and Afro-American Studies curriculum provides students with knowledge and perspectives necessary to participate as informed citizens in the global community. AAAS courses incorporate a multifaceted approach to social justices. These courses strive to simultaneously promote human development and the common good through addressing challenges related to both individual and distribute justice. This approach allows for the empowerment of individuals and groups as well as active confrontation of injustice and inequality in society, both as they impact clientele and in their systemic contexts. The social justice courses include discussions of four critical principles that guide their work: equity, access, participation, and harmony.

1) From this perspective, equity is the fair distribution of resources, rights and responsibilities to all members of society.

2) Access is key to a socially just world. It includes notions of fairness for both the individual and the common good based on the ability of all people to access the resources, services, power, information, and understanding crucial to realizing a standard of living that allows for self-determination and human development.

3) Participation is also crucial to a socially just world. This principle describes the right of every person in society to partake in and be consulted on decisions that impact their lives as well as the lives of other people in their contexts and systems.

4) The final element of social justice is harmony. This is a principle of social adjustment wherein the actions revolving around the self-interests of any individual or group ultimately produces results that afford the best possible outcomes for the community as a whole.

The AAAS curriculum fosters an open climate for a consideration of a full range of discussion of issues that affect injustice, economic inequities, social, political, and religious oppression in Africa and the African diaspora. The courses address issues that deal with international political economy, poverty alleviation, oppression, exploitation, and economic and political empowerment of the marginalized throughout the world.

Upon graduating:
A Brandeis student with a major in African and Afro-American studies will be prepared to:

1) Pursue graduate study and a scholarly career in African and Afro-American studies or in any of the disciplines represented in the department.

2) Pursue professional training in a variety of careers including healthcare, social work, government, international organizations, business, journalism, law, education, entertainment, and non-profit organizations in and outside the United States of America.

Faculty

Carina Ray, Chair
Africa and the Black Atlantic world. Race and sexuality. Comparative colonialisms and nationalisms. Migration and maritime histories. Relationships between race, ethnicity, and political power.

Aliyyah Abdur-Rahman, Undergraduate Advising Head
American and African American Literature and Culture. Critical Race Theory. Gender and Sexuality Studies. Multiethnic Feminisms.

Wangui Muigai
History of science, medicine, and technology. African American intellectual history. Intersections of race and science.

Wellington Nyangoni
Africa: economic development. Comparative Third World political economy.

Faith Smith, Study Abroad Liaison
Literature and popular culture of the Caribbean. African-American literature. African Diaspora.

Chad Williams (on leave academic year 2017-2018)
African American military and political environments of the World War I era.

Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)
Greg Childs (History)
Abigail Cooper (History)
Richard Gaskins (American Studies)
Anita Hill (Heller School)
Daniel Kryder (Politics)
Janet McIntosh (Anthropology)
Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson (Heller School)
Derron Wallace (Sociology)

Requirements for the Minor

Five semester courses are required, including the following:

A. AAAS 5a (Introduction to African and Afro-American Studies).

B. One of the following: AAAS 70a (Introduction to Afro-American History), AAAS 79b (Afro-American Literature of the Twentieth Century), AAAS 115a (Introduction to African History), or AAAS 133b (The Literature of the Caribbean).

C. The remaining three courses will be selected from among the department's offerings.

D. No grade below a C- will be given credit toward the minor. No course taken pass/fail may count toward the minor requirements.

Students are required to declare the minor in AAAS no later than the beginning of their senior year. Each student will be assigned a departmental adviser by the undergraduate advising head.

Requirements for the Major

A. Required of all candidates: nine semester courses from among the AAAS and cross-listed courses below. One of the nine courses must be AAAS 5a (Introduction to African and Afro-American Studies).

B. At least one course must be taken in each of the following areas: history, arts and social sciences (see lists in letter C below).

C. At least four courses within one field of specialization listed below.

1. History: AAAS 18b, AAAS 70a, AAAS 115a, AAAS 135a, AAAS 146b, AAAS 155b, AAAS 156a, AAAS 160b, AAAS 162a, AAAS 168b, AMST 40a, HIST 71a, HIST 71b, HIST 153b, HIST 157b, HIST 162a, HIST 172b, HIST 175b.

2. Arts: AAAS 79b, AAAS 102a, AAAS 132b, AAAS 133b, AAAS 134b, AAAS 148b, AAAS 155b, AAAS 164b, AAAS 165a, AAAS/FA 74b, AAAS/WGS 136a, COML 168a, ENG 57b, ENG 80a, ENG 87a, ENG 107a, ENG 127b, ENG 138b, ENG 170a, ENG 197b, HIST 162A.

3. Social Sciences: AAAS 60a, AAAS 80a, AAAS 82a, AAAS 114b, AAAS 117a, AAAS 123a, AAAS 125b, AAAS 126b, AAAS 131a, AAAS 135a, AAAS 158a, AAAS 163b, AAAS 164b, AAAS 165a, AAAS 175a, AAAS 177a, AAAS/ENG 141b, ANTH 113b, ANTH 133b, ECON 69a, ED 170a, HS 515a, HSSP 114b, IGS 170a, POL 124b, SOC 138a.

4. Africa: AAAS 18b, AAAS 102a, AAAS 60a, AAAS 115a, AAAS 117a, AAAS 122a, AAAS 146b, AAAS 148b, AAAS 162a, AAAS 163b, AAAS/FA 74b, ANTH 133b, COML 168a, ENG 170a.

5. African-American or the Americas: AAAS 70a, AAAS 79b, AAAS 82a, AAAS 114b, AAAS 125b, AAAS 131a, AAAS 133b, AAAS 134b, AAAS 148b, AAAS 155b, AAAS 156a, AAAS 160b, AAAS 168b, AAAS 177a, AAAS/ENG 141b, AAAS/WGS 136a, AMST 40a, COML 168a, ECON 69a, ED 170a, ENG 57b, ENG 80a, ENG 87a, ENG 107a, ENG 127b, ENG 138b, ENG 197b, HIST 71a, HIST 71b, HIST 153b, HIST 157b, HIST 162a, HIST 172b, HIST 175b, HS 515a, HSSP 114b, IGS 170a.

D. One additional elective which maybe taken from those listed in letter C or from the following: senior essay, senior thesis, independent study.

E. Five of the nine required courses must be AAAS-designated. No course with a final grade below C- can count toward the major. No course taken pass/fail may count toward the major requirements.

F. One approved study abroad course per semester may count as an elective.

G. Candidates for departmental honors must satisfactorily complete AAAS 99d (Senior Research).

(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students

AAAS 5a Introduction to African and Afro-American Studies
[ ss ]
An interdisciplinary introduction to major topics in African and Afro-American studies. Provides fundamental insights into Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas through approaches and techniques of social science and the humanities. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Johnson or Mr. Williams

AAAS 18b Africa and the West
[ nw ss ]
Focuses on the relationship between Africa and the "West" from the time of the ancient Egyptians to the postcolonial period. It also assesses the dilemma neocolonialism poses for the West. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 60a Economics of Third World Hunger
[ nw ss ]
Employs the tools of social science, particularly economics, to study causes and potential solutions to problems in production, trade, and consumption of food in the underdeveloped world. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 70a Introduction to African American History
[ ss ]
Introduces the experiences of African Americans from the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to the present. Explores major themes that have shaped African American history, such as survival and resistance, struggles for freedom, citizenship and equality, institution building and the meaning of progress. Particular attention given to the role of class, gender and diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 79b Afro-American Literature of the Twentieth Century
[ hum ss wi ]
An introduction to the essential themes, aesthetic concerns, and textual strategies that characterize Afro-American writing of this century. Examines those influences that have shaped the poetry, fiction, and prose nonfiction of representative writers. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman or Ms. Smith

AAAS 80a Economy and Society in Africa
[ nw ss wi ]
Perspectives on the interaction of economic and other variables in African societies. Topics include the ethical and economic bases of distributive justice; models of social theory, efficiency, and equality in law; the role of economic variables in the theory of history; and world systems analysis. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 82a Urban Politics
[ ss ]
Examines urban politics in the United States from the early twentieth century to the present. Topics include urban political machines; minority political participation; the evolution of American suburbs; and racial, economic, and political inequities that challenge public policymaking. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS 98a Independent Study
Independent readings and research on a topic within the student's interest under the direction of a faculty supervisor. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS 98b Independent Study
Independent readings and research on a topic within the student's interest under the direction of a faculty supervisor. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS 99d Senior Research
Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS/FA 74b Introduction to African Art
[ ca nw ss ]
Surveys the visual artistic traditions of Africa. Investigates the different forms of visual art in relation to their historical and socio-cultural context. Symbolism and complexity of Africa's visual art traditions are explored through analysis of myth, ritual, cosmology, and history. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hassan

(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students

AAAS 102a African Cinema
[ nw ss ]
Explores the foundation and development of African cinema in the context of African history, culture and politics. Examines issues of social change, gender, class, tradition, and modernization through various African cinematic genres. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hassan

AAAS 114b Race, Ethnicity, and Electoral Politics in the United States
[ ss ]
Explores the role that racial and ethnic politics play in American political campaigns and elections. Readings provide historical, theoretical, and empirical overviews of racial and ethnic politics in four contexts: political parties, presidential elections, congressional campaigns, and state legislative contests. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS 115a Introduction to African History
[ nw ss ]
Explores the history of African societies from their earliest beginnings to the present era. Topics include African participation in antiquity as well as early Christianity and preindustrial political, economic, and cultural developments. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS 117a Communications and Social Change in Developing Nations
[ ss ]
Examines the role of communications and information systems within and between developed and underdeveloped nations. Addresses the larger perspective of global communications. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 122a Politics of Southern Africa
[ nw ss ]
Study of clashing nationalisms, alternative patterns of development, and internationalization of conflict in southern Africa. The political economy of South Africa in regional context and its effect on the politics of its neighbors, particularly Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 123a Third World Ideologies
[ nw ss wi ]
Analyzes ideological concepts developed by seminal Third World political thinkers and their application to modern political analysis. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 125b Caribbean Women and Globalization: Sexuality, Citizenship, Work
[ ss wi ]
Utilizing perspectives from sociology, anthropology, fiction, and music to examine the relationship between women's sexuality and conceptions of labor, citizenship, and sovereignty. The course considers these alongside conceptions of masculinity, contending feminisms, and the global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 126b Political Economy of the Third World
[ nw ss wi ]
Development of capitalism and different roles and functions assigned to all "Third Worlds," in the periphery as well as the center. Special attention will be paid to African and Afro-American peripheries. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 131a African Americans and Health
[ ss ]
Examines the history of African American health experiences, beginning with the "seasoning" of slaves in the Atlantic world and ending with present debates on racial inequalities in health care. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Muigai

AAAS 132b Introduction to African Literature
[ hum nw ss wi ]
Examines the cultural production of African writers and filmmakers and their critiques of the postcolonial state. Topics include their exploration of gender, sexuality, language choice, the pressures placed on "authentic" identities by diasporic communities, and the conflicting claims of tradition and modernity. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 133b The Literature of the Caribbean
[ hum nw ss wi ]
An exploration of the narrative strategies and themes of writers of the region who grapple with issues of colonialism, class, race, ethnicity, and gender in a context of often-conflicting allegiances to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 134b Novel and Film of the African Diaspora
[ hum nw ]
Writers and filmmakers, who are usually examined separately under national or regional canonical categories such as "(North) American," "Latin American," "African," "British," or "Caribbean," are brought together here to examine transnational identities and investments in "authentic," "African," or "black" identities. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 135a Race, Sex, and Colonialism
[ oc ss ]
Explores the histories of interracial sexual relations as they have unfolded in a range of colonial contexts and examines the relationships between race and sex, on one hand, and the exercise of colonial power, on the other. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 146b African Icons
[ nw oc ss wi ]
From Walatta Petros, a seventeenth century Ethiopian nun turned anticolonial agitator to Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, this course introduces a broad range of iconic figures in Africa's history to students who also acquire the investigative and analytical skills associated with sound historical research and writing. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 148b Dancing the African Diaspora: Keyterms, Grammars
[ ca pe-1 ss ]
Introduces students to theories, debates, and critical frameworks in African Diaspora Dance Studies. This course asks: How is black movement political? What makes a dance 'black'? How do conceptualizations of gender and sexuality inform our reading of dancing bodies? Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Johnson

AAAS 155b Hip Hop History and Culture
[ ss ]
Examines the history of hip hop culture, in the broader context of U.S., African American and African diaspora history, from the 1960s to the present. Explores key developments, debates and themes shaping hip hop's evolution and contemporary global significance. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 156a #BlackLivesMatter: The Struggle for Civil Rights from Reconstruction to the Present
[ ss ]
Explores the evolution of the modern African American civil rights movement through historical readings, primary documents, films and social media. Assesses the legacy and consequences of the movement for contemporary struggles for black equality. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 158a Theories of Development and Underdevelopment
[ nw ss wi ]
Humankind has for some time now possessed the scientific and technological means to combat the scourge of poverty. The purpose of this seminar is to acquaint students with contending theories of development and underdevelopment, emphasizing the open and contested nature of the process involved and of the field of study itself. Among the topics to be studied are modernization theory, the challenge to modernization posed by dependency and world systems theories, and more recent approaches centered on the concepts of basic needs and of sustainable development. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 160b If We Must Die: War and Military Service in African American History
[ ss ]
Examines the role war and the military has played in the history of African Americans from slavery to the present. We will explore themes of violence, freedom, citizenship, manhood, internationalism and civil rights. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 162a Assassination: A History of 20th Century Africa
[ nw oc ss ]
Examines the assassinations of a range of different political, cultural, and activist figures, such as Patric Lumumba, Steve Biko, and Ken Saro-Wiwa, and assesses the social, political, economic, and cultural implications and legacies this particular form of murder has had on twentieth-century Africa. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 163b Africa in World Politics
[ nw ss ]
Explores the impact of African states in world affairs; the African and Afro-Asian groups in the United Nations; relations with Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the Americas; the Afro-Asian movement; nonalignment; the Organization of African Unity; and Pan-Africanism. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 164b Afrofuturism
[ ss ]
Analyzes the various ways in which African Diaspora cultural producers - writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers - use Afrofuturism to critique racial asymmetries in the present and to imagine as-yet-unrealized, free black futures. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

AAAS 165a Performance and the Politics of Black Authenticity
[ ca ss wi ]
Introduces students to black performance theory. Foregrounds the micro-politics through which black racialized subjects are shaped in the realm of culture. This course asks what is black authenticity? How is it evoked through performance? How is black performance political? Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Johnson

AAAS 168b The Black Intellectual Tradition
[ ss wi ]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
Introduces broad historical themes, issues and debates that constitute the black intellectual tradition. Examines the works of male and female black intellectuals from slavery to present. Will explore issues of freedom, citizenship, uplift, gender, and race consciousness. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 175a Comparative Politics of North Africa
[ nw ss ]
Explores the formation and development of political cleavages and cleavage systems, and of mass-based political groups, analyzing the expansion of mass political participation, elections, the impact of the military on political groups, and international factors. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 177a The Other African Americans: Comparative Perspectives on Black Ethnic Diversity
[ ss ]
Explores the identities, immigration and integration of Black Africans and Afro-Caribbeans in the United States and United Kingdom from interdisciplinary perspectives. It examines intra-racial and inter-ethnic similarities and differences, conflicts and collaborations that animate the lived experiences of native and new Blacks. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Wallace

AAAS/ENG 141b Critical Race Theory
[ hum ]
Traces an intellectual and political history of critical race theory that begins in law classrooms in the 1980s and continues in the 21st century activist strategies of Black Lives Matter movement. We proceed by reading defining theoretical texts alongside African American literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

AAAS/WGS 136a Black Feminist Thought
[ ss ]
Formerly offered as AAAS 136a.
Critical examination of the historical, political, economic, and ideological factors that have shaped the lives of African-American women in the United States. Analyzing foundation theoretical texts, fiction, and film over two centuries, this class seeks to understand black women's writing and political activism in the U.S. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman or Ms. Johnson

African and Afro-American Studies: History

AAAS 18b Africa and the West
[ nw ss ]
Focuses on the relationship between Africa and the "West" from the time of the ancient Egyptians to the postcolonial period. It also assesses the dilemma neocolonialism poses for the West. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 70a Introduction to African American History
[ ss ]
Introduces the experiences of African Americans from the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to the present. Explores major themes that have shaped African American history, such as survival and resistance, struggles for freedom, citizenship and equality, institution building and the meaning of progress. Particular attention given to the role of class, gender and diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 115a Introduction to African History
[ nw ss ]
Explores the history of African societies from their earliest beginnings to the present era. Topics include African participation in antiquity as well as early Christianity and preindustrial political, economic, and cultural developments. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS 135a Race, Sex, and Colonialism
[ oc ss ]
Explores the histories of interracial sexual relations as they have unfolded in a range of colonial contexts and examines the relationships between race and sex, on one hand, and the exercise of colonial power, on the other. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 146b African Icons
[ nw oc ss wi ]
From Walatta Petros, a seventeenth century Ethiopian nun turned anticolonial agitator to Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, this course introduces a broad range of iconic figures in Africa's history to students who also acquire the investigative and analytical skills associated with sound historical research and writing. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 155b Hip Hop History and Culture
[ ss ]
Examines the history of hip hop culture, in the broader context of U.S., African American and African diaspora history, from the 1960s to the present. Explores key developments, debates and themes shaping hip hop's evolution and contemporary global significance. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 156a #BlackLivesMatter: The Struggle for Civil Rights from Reconstruction to the Present
[ ss ]
Explores the evolution of the modern African American civil rights movement through historical readings, primary documents, films and social media. Assesses the legacy and consequences of the movement for contemporary struggles for black equality. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 160b If We Must Die: War and Military Service in African American History
[ ss ]
Examines the role war and the military has played in the history of African Americans from slavery to the present. We will explore themes of violence, freedom, citizenship, manhood, internationalism and civil rights. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 162a Assassination: A History of 20th Century Africa
[ nw oc ss ]
Examines the assassinations of a range of different political, cultural, and activist figures, such as Patric Lumumba, Steve Biko, and Ken Saro-Wiwa, and assesses the social, political, economic, and cultural implications and legacies this particular form of murder has had on twentieth-century Africa. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 168b The Black Intellectual Tradition
[ ss wi ]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
Introduces broad historical themes, issues and debates that constitute the black intellectual tradition. Examines the works of male and female black intellectuals from slavery to present. Will explore issues of freedom, citizenship, uplift, gender, and race consciousness. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AMST 40a Women in American History
[ ss ]
Examines the private and public experiences of women-family life, sexuality, work, and activism-as reflected in historical and autobiographical sources, fiction, and many films. The diverse experiences of women of different races, ethnicities, and classes are highlighted. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HIST 71a Latin American and Caribbean History I: Colonialism, Slavery, Freedom
[ hum nw ss ]
Studies colonialism in Latin America and Caribbean, focusing on coerced labor and struggles for freedom as defining features of the period: conquest; Indigenous, African, and Asian labor; colonial institutions and economics; Independence and revolutionary movements. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Childs

HIST 71b Latin American and Caribbean History II: Modernity, Medicine, Sexuality
[ hum nw ss ]
Studies the idea of "modernity" in Latin America and Caribbean, centered on roles of health and human reproduction in definitions of the "modern" citizen: post-slavery labor, race and national identity; modern politics and economics; transnational relations. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Childs

HIST 153b Slavery and the American Civil War
[ ss ]
A survey of the history of slavery, the American South, the antislavery movement, the coming of the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Cooper

HIST 157b The Secret Lives of the Enslaved: African-Americans and the Writing of History
[ ss ]
Seeks to understand not only the system but the inner lives and cultures of slaves within that system. This course is a reading-intensive seminar examining both primary and secondary sources on American slaves. Focuses on the American South but includes sources on the larger African diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Cooper

HIST 162a Writing on the Wall: Histories of Graffiti in the Americas
[ ss ]
Focuses on the history of graffiti in the U.S. from 1960s forward. Includes the historical role of Caribbean migration, the impact of criminology and economic recession of the 1970s on graffiti culture, and the relationship between private property, public space, and graffiti. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Childs

HIST 172b Historicizing the Black Radical Tradition
[ ss ]
Introduces students to the many ways that people and scholars of African descent have historically struggled against racial oppresion by formulating theories, philosophies, and practices of liberation rooted in their experiences and understandings of labor, capitalism, and modernity. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Childs

HIST 175b Resistance and Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean
[ nw ss wi ]
Focuses on questions of race, gender and modernity in resistence movements and revolutions in Latin American and Caribbean history. The Haitian Revolution, Tupac Amaru Rebellion, and Vaccination Riots in Brazil are some topics that will be covered. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Childs

African and Afro-American Studies: Arts

AAAS 79b Afro-American Literature of the Twentieth Century
[ hum ss wi ]
An introduction to the essential themes, aesthetic concerns, and textual strategies that characterize Afro-American writing of this century. Examines those influences that have shaped the poetry, fiction, and prose nonfiction of representative writers. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman or Ms. Smith

AAAS 102a African Cinema
[ nw ss ]
Explores the foundation and development of African cinema in the context of African history, culture and politics. Examines issues of social change, gender, class, tradition, and modernization through various African cinematic genres. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hassan

AAAS 132b Introduction to African Literature
[ hum nw ss wi ]
Examines the cultural production of African writers and filmmakers and their critiques of the postcolonial state. Topics include their exploration of gender, sexuality, language choice, the pressures placed on "authentic" identities by diasporic communities, and the conflicting claims of tradition and modernity. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 133b The Literature of the Caribbean
[ hum nw ss wi ]
An exploration of the narrative strategies and themes of writers of the region who grapple with issues of colonialism, class, race, ethnicity, and gender in a context of often-conflicting allegiances to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 134b Novel and Film of the African Diaspora
[ hum nw ]
Writers and filmmakers, who are usually examined separately under national or regional canonical categories such as "(North) American," "Latin American," "African," "British," or "Caribbean," are brought together here to examine transnational identities and investments in "authentic," "African," or "black" identities. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 148b Dancing the African Diaspora: Keyterms, Grammars
[ ca pe-1 ss ]
Introduces students to theories, debates, and critical frameworks in African Diaspora Dance Studies. This course asks: How is black movement political? What makes a dance 'black'? How do conceptualizations of gender and sexuality inform our reading of dancing bodies? Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Johnson

AAAS 155b Hip Hop History and Culture
[ ss ]
Examines the history of hip hop culture, in the broader context of U.S., African American and African diaspora history, from the 1960s to the present. Explores key developments, debates and themes shaping hip hop's evolution and contemporary global significance. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 164b Afrofuturism
[ ss ]
Analyzes the various ways in which African Diaspora cultural producers - writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers - use Afrofuturism to critique racial asymmetries in the present and to imagine as-yet-unrealized, free black futures. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

AAAS 165a Performance and the Politics of Black Authenticity
[ ca ss wi ]
Introduces students to black performance theory. Foregrounds the micro-politics through which black racialized subjects are shaped in the realm of culture. This course asks what is black authenticity? How is it evoked through performance? How is black performance political? Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Johnson

AAAS/FA 74b Introduction to African Art
[ ca nw ss ]
Surveys the visual artistic traditions of Africa. Investigates the different forms of visual art in relation to their historical and socio-cultural context. Symbolism and complexity of Africa's visual art traditions are explored through analysis of myth, ritual, cosmology, and history. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hassan

AAAS/WGS 136a Black Feminist Thought
[ ss ]
Formerly offered as AAAS 136a.
Critical examination of the historical, political, economic, and ideological factors that have shaped the lives of African-American women in the United States. Analyzing foundation theoretical texts, fiction, and film over two centuries, this class seeks to understand black women's writing and political activism in the U.S. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman or Ms. Johnson

COML 168a Things Fall Apart: The Novel and Postcolonial Anarchy
[ hum ]
Explores the shared history of British Imperialism and examines the postcolonial novel's response to the breakdown of colonial power and the advent of the postcolonial state. We will read novels from South Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Singh

ENG 57b Writing the Nation: James Baldwin, Philip Roth, Toni Morrison
[ hum ]
An in-depth study of three major American authors of the twentieth century. Highlights the contributions of each author to the American literary canon and to its diversity. Explores how these novelists narrate cross-racial, cross-gendered, cross-regional, and cross-cultural contact and conflict in the United States. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

ENG 80a Black Looks: The Promise and Perils of Photography
[ hum ]
Explores photography and Africans, African-Americans and Caribbean people, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. This course will examine fiction that refers to the photograph; various photographic archives; and theorists on photography and looking. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith

ENG 87a Sex and Race in the American Novel
[ hum ]
Depictions of racial and sexual others abound in American literature of the twentieth century. Reading texts across racial, geographical, and temporal divides, this course investigates the representation of non-normative sexualities as signaled, haunted, or repaired by an appeal to race. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

ENG 107a Women Writing Desire: Caribbean Fiction and Film
[ hum ]
About eight novels of the last two decades (by Cliff, Cruz, Danticat, Garcia, Kempadoo, Kincaid, Mittoo, Nunez, Pineau, Powell, or Rosario), drawn from across the region, and read in dialogue with popular culture, theory, and earlier generations of male and female writers of the region. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith

ENG 127b Migrating Bodies, Migrating Texts
[ hum nw ]
Beginning with the region's representation as a tabula rasa, examines the textual and visual constructions of the Caribbean as colony, homeland, backyard, paradise, and Babylon, and how the region's migrations have prompted ideas about evolution, hedonism, imperialism, nationalism, and diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

ENG 138b Toni Morrison
[ hum ]
An advanced introduction to the oeuvre of Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. Reading her novels and nonfiction, we investigate concerns that shaped our world in the last century and haunt the current one, foregrounding Morrison's writing as a key site of trouble and of transformation. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

ENG 170a The Globalization of Nollywood
[ hum nw ]
Introduces students to Nigeria's film industry, one of the world's largest. It focuses on both the form and the content of Nollywood films. Examines how Nollywood films project local, national, and regional issues onto global screens. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Diouf

ENG 197b Within the Veil: African-American and Muslim Women's Writing
[ hum ]
In twentieth-century United States culture, the veil has become a powerful metaphor, signifying initially the interior of African-American community and the lives of Muslims globally. This course investigates issues of identity, imperialism, cultural loyalty, and spirituality by looking at and linking contemporary writing by African-American and Muslim women. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

HIST 162a Writing on the Wall: Histories of Graffiti in the Americas
[ ss ]
Focuses on the history of graffiti in the U.S. from 1960s forward. Includes the historical role of Caribbean migration, the impact of criminology and economic recession of the 1970s on graffiti culture, and the relationship between private property, public space, and graffiti. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Childs

African and Afro-American Studies: Social Sciences

AAAS 60a Economics of Third World Hunger
[ nw ss ]
Employs the tools of social science, particularly economics, to study causes and potential solutions to problems in production, trade, and consumption of food in the underdeveloped world. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 80a Economy and Society in Africa
[ nw ss wi ]
Perspectives on the interaction of economic and other variables in African societies. Topics include the ethical and economic bases of distributive justice; models of social theory, efficiency, and equality in law; the role of economic variables in the theory of history; and world systems analysis. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 82a Urban Politics
[ ss ]
Examines urban politics in the United States from the early twentieth century to the present. Topics include urban political machines; minority political participation; the evolution of American suburbs; and racial, economic, and political inequities that challenge public policymaking. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS 114b Race, Ethnicity, and Electoral Politics in the United States
[ ss ]
Explores the role that racial and ethnic politics play in American political campaigns and elections. Readings provide historical, theoretical, and empirical overviews of racial and ethnic politics in four contexts: political parties, presidential elections, congressional campaigns, and state legislative contests. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS 117a Communications and Social Change in Developing Nations
[ ss ]
Examines the role of communications and information systems within and between developed and underdeveloped nations. Addresses the larger perspective of global communications. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 123a Third World Ideologies
[ nw ss wi ]
Analyzes ideological concepts developed by seminal Third World political thinkers and their application to modern political analysis. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 125b Caribbean Women and Globalization: Sexuality, Citizenship, Work
[ ss wi ]
Utilizing perspectives from sociology, anthropology, fiction, and music to examine the relationship between women's sexuality and conceptions of labor, citizenship, and sovereignty. The course considers these alongside conceptions of masculinity, contending feminisms, and the global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 126b Political Economy of the Third World
[ nw ss wi ]
Development of capitalism and different roles and functions assigned to all "Third Worlds," in the periphery as well as the center. Special attention will be paid to African and Afro-American peripheries. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 131a African Americans and Health
[ ss ]
Examines the history of African American health experiences, beginning with the "seasoning" of slaves in the Atlantic world and ending with present debates on racial inequalities in health care. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Muigai

AAAS 135a Race, Sex, and Colonialism
[ oc ss ]
Explores the histories of interracial sexual relations as they have unfolded in a range of colonial contexts and examines the relationships between race and sex, on one hand, and the exercise of colonial power, on the other. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 158a Theories of Development and Underdevelopment
[ nw ss wi ]
Humankind has for some time now possessed the scientific and technological means to combat the scourge of poverty. The purpose of this seminar is to acquaint students with contending theories of development and underdevelopment, emphasizing the open and contested nature of the process involved and of the field of study itself. Among the topics to be studied are modernization theory, the challenge to modernization posed by dependency and world systems theories, and more recent approaches centered on the concepts of basic needs and of sustainable development. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 163b Africa in World Politics
[ nw ss ]
Explores the impact of African states in world affairs; the African and Afro-Asian groups in the United Nations; relations with Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the Americas; the Afro-Asian movement; nonalignment; the Organization of African Unity; and Pan-Africanism. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 164b Afrofuturism
[ ss ]
Analyzes the various ways in which African Diaspora cultural producers - writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers - use Afrofuturism to critique racial asymmetries in the present and to imagine as-yet-unrealized, free black futures. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

AAAS 165a Performance and the Politics of Black Authenticity
[ ca ss wi ]
Introduces students to black performance theory. Foregrounds the micro-politics through which black racialized subjects are shaped in the realm of culture. This course asks what is black authenticity? How is it evoked through performance? How is black performance political? Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Johnson

AAAS 175a Comparative Politics of North Africa
[ nw ss ]
Explores the formation and development of political cleavages and cleavage systems, and of mass-based political groups, analyzing the expansion of mass political participation, elections, the impact of the military on political groups, and international factors. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 177a The Other African Americans: Comparative Perspectives on Black Ethnic Diversity
[ ss ]
Explores the identities, immigration and integration of Black Africans and Afro-Caribbeans in the United States and United Kingdom from interdisciplinary perspectives. It examines intra-racial and inter-ethnic similarities and differences, conflicts and collaborations that animate the lived experiences of native and new Blacks. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Wallace

AAAS/ENG 141b Critical Race Theory
[ hum ]
Traces an intellectual and political history of critical race theory that begins in law classrooms in the 1980s and continues in the 21st century activist strategies of Black Lives Matter movement. We proceed by reading defining theoretical texts alongside African American literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

ANTH 113b Race and Ethnicity: Anthropological Perspectives
[ ss ]
Examines theories and ethnographies of race and ethnicity through three units: literary and social scientific theories of race and othering; the race system in the U.S. today; and a comparative look at the American racial system to explore ways in which America’s race system varies cross-societally and cross-historically. One goal of the course is to understand changing ideas of race and ethnicity that have emerged from anthropologists and cultural critics. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

ANTH 133b Colonialism and Post-coloniality in Africa: Encounters and Dilemmas
[ nw ss ]
Uses an anthropological lens to explore colonialism and post-coloniality in sub-Saharan Africa. Topics include colonial racism; missionary encounters; African experiences of colonial medicine; African nationalism; the politics of land alienation; colonial memory; post-colonial modernities. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. McIntosh

ECON 69a The Economics of Race and Gender
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or 10a.
The role of race and gender in economic decision making. Mainstream and alternative economic explanations for discrimination, and analysis of the economic status of women and minorities. Discussion of specific public policies related to race, class, and gender. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Brainerd

ED 170a Critical Perspectives in Urban Education
[ ss wi ]
Examines the nature of urban schools, their links to the social and political context, and the perspectives of the people who inhabit them. Explores the historical development of urban schools; the social, economic, and personal hardships facing urban students; and challenges of urban school reform. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HS 515a Race/Ethnicity and Gender in Health and Human Services Research
Explores theoretical and empirical approaches to race/ethnicity and gender as factors in health and human services practices, programs, and policies in the United States. Begins by examining current data on racial/ethnic and gender differences in health, mental health, functional status, and lifestyle. Attention then turns to alternative accounts of the causes of these differences. Although primary focus is on patterns of race/ethnicity and gender differences in health outcomes and services that have received the most comprehensive attention, the course offers perspectives on research methods and analytic frameworks that can be applied to other issues. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Sampath

HSSP 114b Racial/Ethnic and Gender Inequalities in Health and Health Care
[ ss ]
An examination of the epidemiological patterns of health status by race/ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status. Addresses current theories and critiques explaining disparities in health status, access, quality, and conceptual models, frameworks, and interventions for eliminating inequalities. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Jefferson

IGS 170a The Rise of Brazil
[ ss wi ]
Examines how Brazil now wields global influence in energy, South-South politics, culture and environmental affairs. This course looks at key elements - from the favela to high finance, carnvial to Candomblé - that make up one of the world's most dynamic societies. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

POL 124b Race, Inequality, and Social Policy
[ ss ]
Explores the causes and consequences of economic, social, and political inequality in the United States. Examines trends from the perspective of both liberal and conservative social scientists. Asks what forms of inequality matter and what should be done about them. Usually offered every year.
Staff

SOC 138a Sociology of Race, Gender, and Class
[ oc ss ]
Examines race, class and gender as critical dimensions of social difference that organize social systems. Uses a variety of media to analyze how race, class and gender as axes of identity and inequality (re)create forms of domination and subordination in schools, labor markets, families, and the criminal justice system. Usually offered every third year. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wallace

African and Afro-American Studies: Africa

AAAS 18b Africa and the West
[ nw ss ]
Focuses on the relationship between Africa and the "West" from the time of the ancient Egyptians to the postcolonial period. It also assesses the dilemma neocolonialism poses for the West. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 60a Economics of Third World Hunger
[ nw ss ]
Employs the tools of social science, particularly economics, to study causes and potential solutions to problems in production, trade, and consumption of food in the underdeveloped world. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 102a African Cinema
[ nw ss ]
Explores the foundation and development of African cinema in the context of African history, culture and politics. Examines issues of social change, gender, class, tradition, and modernization through various African cinematic genres. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hassan

AAAS 115a Introduction to African History
[ nw ss ]
Explores the history of African societies from their earliest beginnings to the present era. Topics include African participation in antiquity as well as early Christianity and preindustrial political, economic, and cultural developments. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS 117a Communications and Social Change in Developing Nations
[ ss ]
Examines the role of communications and information systems within and between developed and underdeveloped nations. Addresses the larger perspective of global communications. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 122a Politics of Southern Africa
[ nw ss ]
Study of clashing nationalisms, alternative patterns of development, and internationalization of conflict in southern Africa. The political economy of South Africa in regional context and its effect on the politics of its neighbors, particularly Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 146b African Icons
[ nw oc ss wi ]
From Walatta Petros, a seventeenth century Ethiopian nun turned anticolonial agitator to Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, this course introduces a broad range of iconic figures in Africa's history to students who also acquire the investigative and analytical skills associated with sound historical research and writing. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 148b Dancing the African Diaspora: Keyterms, Grammars
[ ca pe-1 ss ]
Introduces students to theories, debates, and critical frameworks in African Diaspora Dance Studies. This course asks: How is black movement political? What makes a dance 'black'? How do conceptualizations of gender and sexuality inform our reading of dancing bodies? Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Johnson

AAAS 162a Assassination: A History of 20th Century Africa
[ nw oc ss ]
Examines the assassinations of a range of different political, cultural, and activist figures, such as Patric Lumumba, Steve Biko, and Ken Saro-Wiwa, and assesses the social, political, economic, and cultural implications and legacies this particular form of murder has had on twentieth-century Africa. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ray

AAAS 163b Africa in World Politics
[ nw ss ]
Explores the impact of African states in world affairs; the African and Afro-Asian groups in the United Nations; relations with Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the Americas; the Afro-Asian movement; nonalignment; the Organization of African Unity; and Pan-Africanism. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS/FA 74b Introduction to African Art
[ ca nw ss ]
Surveys the visual artistic traditions of Africa. Investigates the different forms of visual art in relation to their historical and socio-cultural context. Symbolism and complexity of Africa's visual art traditions are explored through analysis of myth, ritual, cosmology, and history. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hassan

ANTH 133b Colonialism and Post-coloniality in Africa: Encounters and Dilemmas
[ nw ss ]
Uses an anthropological lens to explore colonialism and post-coloniality in sub-Saharan Africa. Topics include colonial racism; missionary encounters; African experiences of colonial medicine; African nationalism; the politics of land alienation; colonial memory; post-colonial modernities. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. McIntosh

COML 168a Things Fall Apart: The Novel and Postcolonial Anarchy
[ hum ]
Explores the shared history of British Imperialism and examines the postcolonial novel's response to the breakdown of colonial power and the advent of the postcolonial state. We will read novels from South Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Singh

ENG 170a The Globalization of Nollywood
[ hum nw ]
Introduces students to Nigeria's film industry, one of the world's largest. It focuses on both the form and the content of Nollywood films. Examines how Nollywood films project local, national, and regional issues onto global screens. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Diouf

African and Afro-American Studies: African-American or the Americas

AAAS 70a Introduction to African American History
[ ss ]
Introduces the experiences of African Americans from the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to the present. Explores major themes that have shaped African American history, such as survival and resistance, struggles for freedom, citizenship and equality, institution building and the meaning of progress. Particular attention given to the role of class, gender and diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 79b Afro-American Literature of the Twentieth Century
[ hum ss wi ]
An introduction to the essential themes, aesthetic concerns, and textual strategies that characterize Afro-American writing of this century. Examines those influences that have shaped the poetry, fiction, and prose nonfiction of representative writers. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman or Ms. Smith

AAAS 82a Urban Politics
[ ss ]
Examines urban politics in the United States from the early twentieth century to the present. Topics include urban political machines; minority political participation; the evolution of American suburbs; and racial, economic, and political inequities that challenge public policymaking. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS 114b Race, Ethnicity, and Electoral Politics in the United States
[ ss ]
Explores the role that racial and ethnic politics play in American political campaigns and elections. Readings provide historical, theoretical, and empirical overviews of racial and ethnic politics in four contexts: political parties, presidential elections, congressional campaigns, and state legislative contests. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AAAS 125b Caribbean Women and Globalization: Sexuality, Citizenship, Work
[ ss wi ]
Utilizing perspectives from sociology, anthropology, fiction, and music to examine the relationship between women's sexuality and conceptions of labor, citizenship, and sovereignty. The course considers these alongside conceptions of masculinity, contending feminisms, and the global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 131a African Americans and Health
[ ss ]
Examines the history of African American health experiences, beginning with the "seasoning" of slaves in the Atlantic world and ending with present debates on racial inequalities in health care. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Muigai

AAAS 133b The Literature of the Caribbean
[ hum nw ss wi ]
An exploration of the narrative strategies and themes of writers of the region who grapple with issues of colonialism, class, race, ethnicity, and gender in a context of often-conflicting allegiances to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 134b Novel and Film of the African Diaspora
[ hum nw ]
Writers and filmmakers, who are usually examined separately under national or regional canonical categories such as "(North) American," "Latin American," "African," "British," or "Caribbean," are brought together here to examine transnational identities and investments in "authentic," "African," or "black" identities. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 148b Dancing the African Diaspora: Keyterms, Grammars
[ ca pe-1 ss ]
Introduces students to theories, debates, and critical frameworks in African Diaspora Dance Studies. This course asks: How is black movement political? What makes a dance 'black'? How do conceptualizations of gender and sexuality inform our reading of dancing bodies? Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Johnson

AAAS 155b Hip Hop History and Culture
[ ss ]
Examines the history of hip hop culture, in the broader context of U.S., African American and African diaspora history, from the 1960s to the present. Explores key developments, debates and themes shaping hip hop's evolution and contemporary global significance. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 156a #BlackLivesMatter: The Struggle for Civil Rights from Reconstruction to the Present
[ ss ]
Explores the evolution of the modern African American civil rights movement through historical readings, primary documents, films and social media. Assesses the legacy and consequences of the movement for contemporary struggles for black equality. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 160b If We Must Die: War and Military Service in African American History
[ ss ]
Examines the role war and the military has played in the history of African Americans from slavery to the present. We will explore themes of violence, freedom, citizenship, manhood, internationalism and civil rights. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 168b The Black Intellectual Tradition
[ ss wi ]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
Introduces broad historical themes, issues and debates that constitute the black intellectual tradition. Examines the works of male and female black intellectuals from slavery to present. Will explore issues of freedom, citizenship, uplift, gender, and race consciousness. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams

AAAS 177a The Other African Americans: Comparative Perspectives on Black Ethnic Diversity
[ ss ]
Explores the identities, immigration and integration of Black Africans and Afro-Caribbeans in the United States and United Kingdom from interdisciplinary perspectives. It examines intra-racial and inter-ethnic similarities and differences, conflicts and collaborations that animate the lived experiences of native and new Blacks. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Wallace

AAAS/ENG 141b Critical Race Theory
[ hum ]
Traces an intellectual and political history of critical race theory that begins in law classrooms in the 1980s and continues in the 21st century activist strategies of Black Lives Matter movement. We proceed by reading defining theoretical texts alongside African American literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

AAAS/WGS 136a Black Feminist Thought
[ ss ]
Formerly offered as AAAS 136a.
Critical examination of the historical, political, economic, and ideological factors that have shaped the lives of African-American women in the United States. Analyzing foundation theoretical texts, fiction, and film over two centuries, this class seeks to understand black women's writing and political activism in the U.S. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman or Ms. Johnson

AMST 40a Women in American History
[ ss ]
Examines the private and public experiences of women-family life, sexuality, work, and activism-as reflected in historical and autobiographical sources, fiction, and many films. The diverse experiences of women of different races, ethnicities, and classes are highlighted. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

COML 168a Things Fall Apart: The Novel and Postcolonial Anarchy
[ hum ]
Explores the shared history of British Imperialism and examines the postcolonial novel's response to the breakdown of colonial power and the advent of the postcolonial state. We will read novels from South Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Singh

ECON 69a The Economics of Race and Gender
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or 10a.
The role of race and gender in economic decision making. Mainstream and alternative economic explanations for discrimination, and analysis of the economic status of women and minorities. Discussion of specific public policies related to race, class, and gender. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Brainerd

ED 170a Critical Perspectives in Urban Education
[ ss wi ]
Examines the nature of urban schools, their links to the social and political context, and the perspectives of the people who inhabit them. Explores the historical development of urban schools; the social, economic, and personal hardships facing urban students; and challenges of urban school reform. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ENG 57b Writing the Nation: James Baldwin, Philip Roth, Toni Morrison
[ hum ]
An in-depth study of three major American authors of the twentieth century. Highlights the contributions of each author to the American literary canon and to its diversity. Explores how these novelists narrate cross-racial, cross-gendered, cross-regional, and cross-cultural contact and conflict in the United States. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

ENG 80a Black Looks: The Promise and Perils of Photography
[ hum ]
Explores photography and Africans, African-Americans and Caribbean people, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. This course will examine fiction that refers to the photograph; various photographic archives; and theorists on photography and looking. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith

ENG 87a Sex and Race in the American Novel
[ hum ]
Depictions of racial and sexual others abound in American literature of the twentieth century. Reading texts across racial, geographical, and temporal divides, this course investigates the representation of non-normative sexualities as signaled, haunted, or repaired by an appeal to race. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

ENG 107a Women Writing Desire: Caribbean Fiction and Film
[ hum ]
About eight novels of the last two decades (by Cliff, Cruz, Danticat, Garcia, Kempadoo, Kincaid, Mittoo, Nunez, Pineau, Powell, or Rosario), drawn from across the region, and read in dialogue with popular culture, theory, and earlier generations of male and female writers of the region. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith

ENG 127b Migrating Bodies, Migrating Texts
[ hum nw ]
Beginning with the region's representation as a tabula rasa, examines the textual and visual constructions of the Caribbean as colony, homeland, backyard, paradise, and Babylon, and how the region's migrations have prompted ideas about evolution, hedonism, imperialism, nationalism, and diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

ENG 138b Toni Morrison
[ hum ]
An advanced introduction to the oeuvre of Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. Reading her novels and nonfiction, we investigate concerns that shaped our world in the last century and haunt the current one, foregrounding Morrison's writing as a key site of trouble and of transformation. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

ENG 197b Within the Veil: African-American and Muslim Women's Writing
[ hum ]
In twentieth-century United States culture, the veil has become a powerful metaphor, signifying initially the interior of African-American community and the lives of Muslims globally. This course investigates issues of identity, imperialism, cultural loyalty, and spirituality by looking at and linking contemporary writing by African-American and Muslim women. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Abdur-Rahman

HIST 71a Latin American and Caribbean History I: Colonialism, Slavery, Freedom
[ hum nw ss ]
Studies colonialism in Latin America and Caribbean, focusing on coerced labor and struggles for freedom as defining features of the period: conquest; Indigenous, African, and Asian labor; colonial institutions and economics; Independence and revolutionary movements. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Childs

HIST 71b Latin American and Caribbean History II: Modernity, Medicine, Sexuality
[ hum nw ss ]
Studies the idea of "modernity" in Latin America and Caribbean, centered on roles of health and human reproduction in definitions of the "modern" citizen: post-slavery labor, race and national identity; modern politics and economics; transnational relations. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Childs

HIST 153b Slavery and the American Civil War
[ ss ]
A survey of the history of slavery, the American South, the antislavery movement, the coming of the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Cooper

HIST 157b The Secret Lives of the Enslaved: African-Americans and the Writing of History
[ ss ]
Seeks to understand not only the system but the inner lives and cultures of slaves within that system. This course is a reading-intensive seminar examining both primary and secondary sources on American slaves. Focuses on the American South but includes sources on the larger African diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Cooper

HIST 162a Writing on the Wall: Histories of Graffiti in the Americas
[ ss ]
Focuses on the history of graffiti in the U.S. from 1960s forward. Includes the historical role of Caribbean migration, the impact of criminology and economic recession of the 1970s on graffiti culture, and the relationship between private property, public space, and graffiti. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Childs

HIST 172b Historicizing the Black Radical Tradition
[ ss ]
Introduces students to the many ways that people and scholars of African descent have historically struggled against racial oppresion by formulating theories, philosophies, and practices of liberation rooted in their experiences and understandings of labor, capitalism, and modernity. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Childs

HIST 175b Resistance and Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean
[ nw ss wi ]
Focuses on questions of race, gender and modernity in resistence movements and revolutions in Latin American and Caribbean history. The Haitian Revolution, Tupac Amaru Rebellion, and Vaccination Riots in Brazil are some topics that will be covered. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Childs

HS 515a Race/Ethnicity and Gender in Health and Human Services Research
Explores theoretical and empirical approaches to race/ethnicity and gender as factors in health and human services practices, programs, and policies in the United States. Begins by examining current data on racial/ethnic and gender differences in health, mental health, functional status, and lifestyle. Attention then turns to alternative accounts of the causes of these differences. Although primary focus is on patterns of race/ethnicity and gender differences in health outcomes and services that have received the most comprehensive attention, the course offers perspectives on research methods and analytic frameworks that can be applied to other issues. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Sampath

HSSP 114b Racial/Ethnic and Gender Inequalities in Health and Health Care
[ ss ]
An examination of the epidemiological patterns of health status by race/ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status. Addresses current theories and critiques explaining disparities in health status, access, quality, and conceptual models, frameworks, and interventions for eliminating inequalities. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Jefferson

IGS 170a The Rise of Brazil
[ ss wi ]
Examines how Brazil now wields global influence in energy, South-South politics, culture and environmental affairs. This course looks at key elements - from the favela to high finance, carnvial to Candomblé - that make up one of the world's most dynamic societies. Usually offered every second year.
Staff