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UGRD > AFRSTY
Africana Studies
AFRSTY 100 Introduction to African-American Literature
Description:
This survey course examines the writings of African-Americans who have made unique contributions to the African-American literary tradition. The course explores these writings in terms of their sociohistorical context, making use of analyses of character, plot, and symbolism. It gives particular attention to the writers' roles as social critics. Among the writers whose work may be considered are Frederick Douglass, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Leroi Jones, Ernest Gaines, George Jackson, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 101 Introduction to Africana Studies
Description:
This course presents an overview of the major theories in the field of Africana studies. It seeks to explore the Africana experience in a way that is orderly, systematic, and structurally integrated; and to convey an understanding of the cultural, historical, and political roots of this experience. The course focuses chronologically on major historical episodes through a study of ancient African civilizations, slavery, colonialism, and African liberation movements. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 102 The History of African-American Education
Description:
A comparative study of the history of African-American education from earliest times to 1954. (Course offered in the fall only.) More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 108 African-American Social Movements
Description:
Concepts of social movements as well as the appearance of social movements among African-Americans in the nineteenth century. Examination of twentieth century African-American social movements, especially Marcus Garvey's movement, the Nation of Islam, the Civil Rights movement, and the Black Power movement. (Course offered in the spring only.) More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 110 African-American History I
Description:
An intensive study of the social, economic, and political history of African-Americans from the slavery period through the Civil War, with particular emphasis on the social and cultural antecedents of African-Americans, Abolitionism and the Civil War. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 111 African-American History II
Description:
An intensive study of the social, economic, and political history of African-Americans from the era of Reconstruction to the present. Topics include the African-American during Reconstruction, racism in America, and a critical examination of the variegated patterns of African-American response to American social conditions in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 115G Black Consciousness
Description:
This course examines the social, economic, cultural and political implications of the development of Black consciousness in twentieth-century United States. It considers the role played in these developments by Ida B Wells, WEB DuBois, Marcus Garvey, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights/Black Power movement, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Arts Movement. This course may count toward the Africana studies major. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 116 African Civilizations: Historical Perspectives
Description:
This course provides a broad survey of the historical processes that have shaped African societies from the earliest traces of human culture to the modern period. Specific attention will be paid to such precolonial African societies as ancient Egypt, Nubia, Mali, Ghana, and Great Zimbabwe among others. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AFRSTY 117 Modern African Historical Perspectives
Description:
The course considers a variety of perspective on modern history of Africa beginning from the 19th Century to the present with particular emphasis on African sources and materials. It explores a number of important themes - the Scramble for Africa, colonialism, the fight for independence, the post-colonial era, as well as the many connections between the African continent and the African Diaspora and the impact of current events around the world on people of African descent. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AFRSTY 150 African Images in Literature
Description:
This course examines the different ways in which African writers have represented the continent of Africa by focusing on their struggle to develop authentic forms and images. Through the reading of selected folk tales, novels, and poems from different African societies, participants consider such issues as the influence of colonialism on creative writing; the politics of African culture; race and class; the images and status of women. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 201 The Roots of the African-American Family
Description:
An exploration of the social, economic, and religious issues affecting the African-American family. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 210 The Making of the African Diaspora
Description:
This seminar explores global and transnational experiences; social, political, cultural and economic issues confronting people of African descent in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa from the seventeenth century on. Topics include theory, methods, and historiography of African Diaspora. In addition, this course will introduce student to racial theories or formations such as mestizaje-notions of racial mixing in Brazil and Blanqueamiento-the process of 'whitening' in Spanish speaking nations in South America in efforts to erase the "black" population or presence. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AFRSTY 220 Free and Slave in the New World, 1492-1888
Description:
A survey of African-American and Afro-Caribbean societies from the European settlement of the Americas to the abolition of slavery in Brazil. The geographical focus is on Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guyana, Brazil, Cuba, and the English-speaking Caribbean-primarily Trinidad, Jamaica, and Barbados. The course introduces students to the historical debate over the varieties of slave systems. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 225 The Origins of Caribbean Civilizations
Description:
This course explores Caribbean society from the Columbian era to the period of emancipation. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it focuses on the foundations of Caribbean civilizations in the English-, French-, and Spanish-speaking areas of the region. Special emphasis is given to the rise of African communities in the New World. (Course offered in the spring only.) More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 230 African-American Women's History
Description:
This course introduces students to the major issues in the history of African-American women. Topics include the role of women in pre-colonial Africa, the slave trade, the female experience in slavery, free women, African-American women and religion, and the role of African-American women in the early twentieth century. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 250 The Civil Rights Movement
Description:
This course examines the American Civil Rights movement as it developed during the period from 1954 to 1965, and as it changed during the period from 1966 to 1986. The course assesses the roles played by individuals, movements, governments, and political leaders in the process of social change. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 260L African-American Folklore
Description:
This course examines the development and the significance of African-American folklore through study of its various genres: music, tales, legends, shorter verbal forms, material culture, folk belief, and folk humor. Emphasis is given to both African survivals and Indo-European influences in these genres. AFRSTY 260L and AMST 260L are the same course. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 270 The African-American Image on Stage, Screen and Television
AFRSTY 292G African Caribbean Literature
Description:
This course examines the development and significance of Afro-Caribbean literature in the 20th century. Texts are examined both individually and in relation to each other. Emphasis is given to the development of post-colonial themes and techniques in Caribbean sociocultural contexts, asking what "post-colonial" means to writers of different Caribbean nations. This course may count toward the major or minor in Africana studies. Capabilities addressed: Critical reading, critical thinking, clear writing, academic self assessment, collaborative learning, information technology, oral presentation. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 300L Women in African Cultures
Description:
This course challenges stereotypical constructions of Africa and African woman in mainstream media by considering internal and external historical relationships that have shaped and redefined the cultures, ideas, institutions, politics, and social relations of several specific groups of African women. Through a multi-disciplinary approach, the course addresses issues and challenges of contemporary Africa, and explores many of the themes and concerns that have run throughout Africas gendered, complex, and changing history. Popular culture sources, as well as scholarly studies and activist writing, will be employed to help illuminate the lived experiences and perspectives of contemporary women living in various African societies. AFRSTY 300L and WOST 300L are the same course. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 301 African-American Intellectual Thought
Description:
A survey course of the significant writings of African-Americans from the period of Emancipation to the present, with special reference to issues concerning the educational, political, sociological, and psychological status of African-Americans in the United States. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 302 Martin and Malcolm X
Description:
An examination of the philosophical and ideological frameworks of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Their impact on African-American social movements, on modern American social and political life, and on the Third World is also considered. (Course offered in the spring only.) More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 310 Modern Caribbean Society
Description:
This course undertakes a phenomenological and interpretive analysis of the organization and social structure of modern Caribbean societies. After a brief examination of the colonization and slavery period, it concentrates on the contemporary era with a special focus on key factors that have shaped the cultural parameters and the internal dynamics of the social systems of these Creolophone, Francophone, Anglophone Hispanophone and Dutch-speaking Caribbean societies. Special attention is therefore given to the salient racial, ethnic, social, political, economic and cultural issues that have significantly influenced and contributed to present day Caribbean societies. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 320 Problems in Urban Education
Description:
This course looks at the relationship between young people growing up in the cities and the efforts to reform urban schooling. The course examines the cultural, social, economic, and political dimensions of formal "education" in the city. Questions posed include: What is education? Why educate? Who is educated in the city? What impact does urban education have upon its recipients and their families, culture, community? What is the relationship between urban education and the American social order? (Course offered in the fall only.) More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 335 African-American Nationalism Before Garvey
Description:
This course explores the theme of African-American nationalism and the question of racial identity in the period from the American Revolution to World War I. Topics include the emergence of "back-to-Africa" movements, African-American communities in Canada, resettlement in the French- and English-speaking Caribbean, the African-American response to white colonizers, the establishment of African-American utopian communities, and western migration during Reconstruction. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 350L Race, Class, and Gender: Issues in US Diversity
Description:
This course deals with the interrelationship of race, class and gender, exploring how they have shaped the experiences of all people in the United States. Focusing on race, class and gender as distinct but interlocking relationships within society, the course examines both the commonalities and the differences that different historical experiences have generated. AFRSTY 350L and AMST 350L are the same course. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 352L Harlem Renaissance
Description:
This course focuses on major texts of the Harlem Renaissance within contexts of modernism, history, and the development of an African American literary tradition. The course will examine how literature creates and represents real and "imagined" communities and will explore the diverse and often contradictory roles that literature plays in shaping, resisting, and reinforcing cultural discourses. AFRSTY 352L and AMST 352L and ENGL 352L are the same course. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 355L Black Popular Culture
Description:
This course requires students to engage with Black/African diasporic cultural products intended for a mass audience. The macro-contents of American and global consumer capitalism and the micro- categories of ethnicity, gender, and sexualities are used as a framework for the critical analysis of production, consumption, and reception of African American popular culture in the US and abroad. AFRSTY 355L and AMST 355L are the same course. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 410 African-American Urban Politics
Description:
An examination of the dynamics of African-American politics in the urban setting. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AFRSTY 420 Race, Class, and Political Modernization
Description:
An exhaustive treatment of the evolution of the American sociopolitical system and the role and function of African people and Third World nationalities within that system. Special attention is given to the interplay between racial oppression and class exploitation as factors in the political process. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AFRSTY 430 Race and the American Legal System
Description:
This course focuses on the historical relationship between race and the American legal system. It examines the social forces and events that precipitated major court decisions and legislative enactments from slavery to the present. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AFRSTY 440 Post-Colonial Literature: Africa and the Caribbean
Description:
This course examines contemporary African and Caribbean literature in its historical, cultural, and intellectual context. Emphasis is on the ways different writers have attempted to develop new literary forms in order to create authentic images of their cultures and communities. The course also looks at the continuing influence of colonialism on the literary and social life of these communities. There is no prerequisite, but AFRSTY 290 is strongly recommended. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AFRSTY 478 Independent Study
Description:
Students may conduct independent research under the supervision and guidance of members of the faculty. Students wishing to register for independent study must do so through the department. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 479 Independent Study
Description:
Students may conduct independent research under the supervision and guidance of members of the faculty. Students wishing to register for independent study must do so through the department. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 480 Topics in Africana Studies
Description:
Intensive study of special topics varying each year according to instructor. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AFRSTY 489 Africana Studies Senior Thesis II
Description:
Study in depth of a topic chosen by the student in consultation with an honors advisor, and a paper written with the approval and under the direction of an honors advisor, normally related to work done in the honors seminar (AFRSTY 498-499). Honors are awarded on the basis of performance in the honors seminar, evaluation of the paper by the Africana Studies Concentration Committee, and 3.0 overall average. More Info
Offered in:AFRSTY 498 Africana Studies Honors Seminar I
Description:
An interdisciplinary seminar for students admitted to honors, and to a limited number of other highly qualified students. More Info
Offered in:
