Courses

AFST 101 Introduction to Africana Studies

An interdisciplinary broad survey of the experience of people of African descent. Although focus is on the African American facet, the African and Black Caribbean experiences are examined, especially where they connect with the African American dimension. Disciplines explored include history, religion, sociology, political science, economics, art, music, literature, and psychology. IC; PI; Staff

AFST 122 American Biography: MLK

This course introduces first-year students to the study of history at the college level by examining the life and times of a prominent figure in American history, Martin Luther King, Jr. In the process, students learn how historians use documents--letters, edited papers and the like--to arrive at conclusions. Students are required to use published documents in a series of short writing assignments, geared toward teaching basic skills of historical reading and interpretation. A) Martin Luther King, Jr. Cross Listing: HIST 122; SA; PI; K. Hamilton

AFST 122C American Biography: Douglass

This course introduces first-year students to the study of history at the college level by examining the life and times of a prominent figure in American history, Frederick Douglass. In the process, students learn how historians use documents--letters, edited papers and the like--to arrive at conclusions. Students are required to use published documents in a series of formal and informal writing assignments, geared toward teaching basic skills of historical reading and interpretation. K. Hamilton

AFST 145 Introduction to African Studies

An interdisciplinary introduction to African history and culture, with consideration given to the philosophies, religions, politics, economics, social life, education, and the arts of African peoples. Beginning with African classical civilization, the course explores the early African presence in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, traditional African philosophies and religions, the impact of Islamic and European slavery, the experiences of colonialism, neo-colonialism and apartheid, and the ideas of twentieth-century leaders. We also explore the major problems of contemporary African development. Alternate years. Cross Listing: HIST 145; Staff

AFST 201 Apartheid in Kenya

This course provides students with a history of racial discrimination and racial violence in Kenya with a special emphasis on the town, now city of Nairobi. The course examines pre-colonial history through to contemporary histories of ethnic violence and continued group-based discrimination. Students will examine archival documents, be introduced to theories including post-colonial, critical race and post-structuralist theory. The course aims to deal with central themes of white supremacist settler-colonialism, the racialized built environment and the reification of ethnic identity. Prerequisite(s): AFST 101 or AFST 145; Staff

AFST 205 Race and Ethnic Relations

The course examines the development and role of race and ethnicity in comparative perspective. Cross Listing: ANSO 205; Staff

AFST 206 Theory in the Flesh: Writings by Feminists of Color

This course is an introduction to the rich and diverse contributions of women of color to feminist theory. We investigate the question of why many non-white, non-middle class women have challenged the claims and practices of Euro-American feminism. Black, Chicana, Asian-American and Native American feminists address race and racism as it affects their lives, and invite white feminists to do the same. The goal is to renegotiate a basis for feminist solidarity. Cross Listing: GWST 206; M. Roy-Fequiere

AFST 207 Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement

An historical survey of Black women in the modern Civil Rights Movement, especially of their significant contributions. We shall explore the virtual silence regarding those contributions for almost a quarter of a century and how that silence was broken. The most prominent organizations will be examined and the gender and class issues that evolved. Finally, the sexism of Black men in the movement will be assessed, along with interracial relationships. Cross Listing: GWST 207; Staff

AFST 208 Black Lives Matter

This course examines the history of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. It considers it in its historical specificity as a 2010-2020s US activist movement, in its global (and viral) dimensions, and in its departures and intersections with other black intellectual movements. The course examines invisibility and spectacle in black death, voyeurism, and the significance of the destruction of the black body in the new public square. We ask whether it is true that black lives are more easily taken and black bodies destroyed with less legal consequence than others: What are the ways in which black lives do not matter? In search for our answers this course analyzes media coverage and debates on social media about black death. We place these discussions in conversation with the critique of race and racialized violence offered in literature, music, film and social theory. We also consider the ways in which all lives matter, racist universalisms and white supremacist anti-racist ideology paying particular attention to #AllLivesMatter, #BlueLivesMatter and #MarchForOurLives. Students will develop, employ, and critique a number of methodological approaches to the study of racialized violence and engage with interesectionality, critical race theory, womanism/feminism, queer theory, anti-colonial theory and Marxist-Fanonist theory. Open to first-year students. Offered alternate years.; Staff

AFST 209 Deconstructing the Police

Y. Marshall

AFST 210 Jazz History

Survey course and topical seminar designed to broaden student's knowledge of the spectrum of recorded jazz with a heavy emphasis on listening, primary source readings, speaking, and critical writing. The course examines the basic musical elements that define jazz as a unique musical idiom by examining stylistic periods, major innovators, performers and composers, issues of improvisation, and musical practices. Primary source readings contextualize music through discussions of the complex relationships between jazz, ethnicity, gender, economics, politics and social history. Cross Listing: MUS 210;MUS 210; IC; PI; Staff

AFST 215 Black Psychology

An exploration of the different models--inferiority, deprivation/deficit, multicultural--in psychological research regarding critical issues in the African American experience, such as personality, psychological assessment, education, expressiveness, racism, mental health, counseling, family functioning, and male/female relationships. Using the major contemporary schools of black psychology, the different configurations of the reformist and radical models are analyzed regarding their implications for the self-actualization and mental health of all in a multicultural society. Alternate years. Cross Listing: PSYC 215; Staff

AFST 220 Francophone African Literature

An introduction to African authors who write in French. The texts exist in an underlying conflict between two cultures: African and European. The course emphasizes the relationship between the texts and the socio-economic and political structures. Prerequisite(s): FREN 210 or FREN 211; Cross Listing: FREN 220;FREN 220; C. Akuetey

AFST 224 Black Power in America: Sociological Perspectives

The Black Power Movement of the 1960s and 1970s was a cultural and social movement that emphasized racial pride, economic empowerment, and equality for all people. However, the major organizations, key figures, and ideologies of the Black Power Movement are often misunderstood. Students in this course will engage in a sociological exploration of the connection between Civil Rights and Black Power, the Black Panther Party, the Black Arts Movement, Black Power on Campus, Black Political Power, Black Capitalism and Contemporary Expressions of Black Power. Cross Listing: ANSO 224; Offered alternate years; SA; PI; A. Bradford

AFST 226 Hip-Hop through a Sociological Lens

Hip-Hop was birthed in communities with high levels of poverty, oppression and other social issues. Today, hip-hop is the most popular music genre in the United States. This course will introduce students to the history and foundation of hip-hop culture. An exploration of hip-hop culture provides a powerful medium to understand issues related to inequality within society. Through a critical examination of contemporary texts and media, students in the course will explore sociological perspectives and theories relevant to understanding hip-hop music and culture. Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or permission of the instructor; Cross Listing: ANSO 226; IC; SA; Staff

AFST 227 The Black Image in American Film

Since the beginning of the American film industry, white, black and other filmmakers have used the black image to interrogate American identity. This course focuses upon the often contentious dialog between white and black filmmakers, critics, and activists over the creation and control of the black image - a struggle that has been a fundamental component of the American film industry since its creation. Examination of this artistic conflict helps students to explore the larger social struggles and issues surrounding race in American society, as well as to experience the richness of African American culture and the vibrant history of American film and criticism. Above all, students learn to see the political, social and economic context in which film is created, viewed, and understood. Some of the issues to be discussed include: the black aesthetic; representations of the black family, religion, and gender/sexuality by Hollywood vs. independent black films; the changing black image in film over time; the business and economics of filmmaking. Prerequisite(s): sophomore standing or permission of the instructor; Cross Listing: AMST 227;HIST 227; IC; PI; M. Roy-Fequiere; K. Hamilton

AFST 228 Environmental Racism

This course focuses upon issues of environmental quality, and how the cost to human health and access to environmental benefits is often distributed according to race and poverty. Proposals devised by environmental and civil rights groups working within the growing environmental justice movement are also explored. The goal is to help students understand more fully how decisions affecting the health of neighborhoods, regions, and groups of people are made, and what individuals can do about it. The link between environmental issues and past and present discrimination is examined from an interdisciplinary perspective, requiring students to do work in both the natural and social sciences. Fieldwork will also be required. Cross Listing: ENVS 228; PI; P. Schwartzman; K. Hamilton

AFST 229 Trap Music and Black Arts

This course puts "Trap Music" i.e. contemporary hip hop from Black lumpenproletariate/ underclass cultures into conversation poetry, plays and film from the longue dur�e Black Arts movement -- a Black cultural and artistic movement identified with the work of Black artists such as Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez of the 1960s and 1970s but extending beyond these decades. This course invites students to be scholars, requiring that they draw from their own knowledge of popular music, subject it to critical anaysis and situate it in the intellectual history of the Black political thought. We will read them together to discuss commonalities and divergences, aesthetic choices, gender, race, colorism and class issues and ask what art reveals about political conditions and what political work art attempts. The course aims to have students critically examine the music they might listen to as art, ideology and political tract and at the same time brings Black popular (ized) lumpen culture into conversation with Africana Studies as not merely an object to study but a peer in conversations about Blackness and Black futures. Prerequisite(s): A course in Africana Studies; Staff

AFST 233 African American Literature

A survey of African American literature from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. Major literary movements, major writers, and folk literature are studied in historical, cultural, and purposive context. Consideration is given to the form and language of the literature, as well as to the dynamics of cultural repression. Alternate years. Cross Listing: ENG 233;ENG 233; Staff

AFST 234 African and Black Caribbean Literature

A survey of twentieth-century African and Black Caribbean literature. After tracing the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century backgrounds of that literature, we explore the Indigenism, Negritude, and Negrista movements, including the interaction between African and Black Caribbean writers. Post-World War II writing includes emphasis on its increased visibility in the 1950s; the art, nationalism/Pan-Africanism, and orality orientations since 1960; and the question of language. Alternate years. Cross Listing: ENG 234; Staff

AFST 235 African American Women Writers

A broad survey of the poetry, fiction, autobiographies and literary criticism of African American women. Beginning with late eighteenth-century poetry, we explore the themes and images of black women and men, language, settings, and form of that literature. With African American women at the center of discourse speaking as subjects, we further examine the interlocking of gender, race, and class and the uniqueness of their experience as reflected in their literature, as well as how the historical context of internal colonialism has affected their voices. Alternate years. Cross Listing: GWST 235; M. Roy-Fequiere

AFST 236 Culture and Identity in the Caribbean

This course offers a study of the diversity and distinctiveness of cultural practices and social contexts of the Pan-Caribbean, understood broadly. We examine the rhythms of everyday life of Caribbean people and how these articulate with historic and contemporary experiences of migration - both forced and free - of remembrances and forgetting, of social organization and political economy, and of the affective power of cultural expressions and identities. We foreground these vantage points through a series of stories, essays, films, music, and selected ethnographic case studies. Prerequisite(s): Two courses in ANSO or permission of the instructor; Cross Listing: ANSO 234; W. Hope

AFST 240 Caribbean Literature and Culture

The course surveys literary, historical and political works that have shaped ideas on race and culture in the Caribbean context. Special attention is given to critical readings of such texts as Columbus' letters to the Spanish crown; the 19th century Cuban anti-slavery narrative; and to the highly original literature of the Negritude movement. In addition we reflect on the significance of popular culture as a creative response to racial and social oppression. Cross Listing: LAST 240; M. Roy-Fequiere

AFST 254 Music of the African Diaspora

This course examines the transmission of music from Africa throughout Europe, South America, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the U.S. We examine the ways in which African musical systems have traveled, changed, and incorporated new sounds, how the African experience differs around the globe and how displaced communities share core social processes and characteristics. Students examine the concept of blackness as a broad and heterogeneous set of qualities that extend beyond the boundaries of Africanism and African-Americanism. Music studied includes West, North and South Africa, Reggae, Jazz, Blues, Afro-Cuban Santeria, Samba, Candomble, Copeira, Merengue, and World Beat. Prerequisite(s): sophomore standing or permission of the instructor; Cross Listing: MUS 254; PI; Staff

AFST 260 African Dimensions of the Latin America Experience

A survey of the African relationships with the Latin American peoples in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Beginning with the Pre-Columbian contacts, we focus on Mexico, Brazil, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, with some attention given to Guatemala, Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. Alternate years. Prerequisite(s): sophomore standing or permission of the instructor; Cross Listing: LAST 260; Staff

AFST 263 Slavery in the Americas

This course surveys the experiences of Africans enslaved in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. It is designed to introduce students to the complex history and issues of slavery, and to help them understand the origins, nature and impact of this institution. Slavery is examined both as an international system with global impact, and as a comparison of the smaller local systems of individual slave societies. Some of the subjects addressed include: European economic motivation and gain; capture and enslavement in Africa; differences between slave systems in the Americas; comparisons of slave revolts and abolition movements; African cultural retention in different slave populations; comparison of racist ideology and race relations in different slave societies. This course serves as the first half of the African-American history series, and as a required course for the major in Black Studies. Cross Listing: HIST 263; K. Hamilton

AFST 278 Stereotypes and Prejudice

This course is an introduction to the psychological literature on stereotypes and prejudice. We study general concepts and theories, as well as examine stereotypes and prejudice directed at particular groups. Emphasis is placed on the evaluation and discussion of this material. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100; Cross Listing: PSYC 278; K. Shaw

AFST 285 Black Philosophy

An introduction to the black philosophical tradition of self in community from its origins in ancient Egyptian myth and ritual to contemporary African American thinkers. Authors read include, among others, W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, bell hooks, Kwame Nkrumah, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Angela Davis and Cornel West. Alternate years. Prerequisite(s): one course in Africana Studies, one course in Philosophy, or permission of the instructor; Cross Listing: PHIL 285; Staff

AFST 301 Apartheid in Kenya

See description of AFST 201. Prerequisite(s): AFST 101 or AFST 145.; Staff

AFST 336 Science and Social Construction of Race and Gender

We will examine the social construction of race and gender and how social constructs influence scientific knowledge. We will use the social constructs of the past and present to discuss the following: (a) How does science define and how does it examine issues related to gender and race? (b) How do societal attitudes about race and gender influence scientific knowledge and scientific access? Cross Listing: GWST 336;IDIS 336;PJST 336; M. Crawford; D. Cermak

AFST 346 Doing it for the Culture: Exploring Diversity through Knox's Special Collection

In order to understand how Knox's diverse students have shaped the college, one must examine the cultural artifacts left behind by its students. In this course students will become acquainted with a variety of cultural artifacts found within the Seymour Library Special Collections. Each week, students will explore cultural artifacts from a different diverse group at Knox through personal narratives, scrapbooks, pictures and newspaper articles. Students will also utilize contemporary texts and media to explore sociological perspectives and theories relevant to each diverse group at Knox. Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or permission of the instructor; Cross Listing: ANSO 346; Offered alternate years; IC; SA; A. Bradford

AFST 366 The American Civil Rights Movement

This course covers the period of the Black Freedom Struggle generally referred to as the Civil Rights Movement--beginning with the Brown decision in 1954, and ending with Bakke decision in 1978. This is not a survey course, however. Students are expected to immerse themselves in some of the considerable scholarship on this period, and to discuss significant issues in class. Some of the topics covered include: the nature of mass social movements--origins, dynamics, strategies and tactics; the significance of black leadership and institutions; black separatism vs. coalition-building; the role of the federal government and political parties; the persistence of racism in American life; black militancy and white liberalism; radical and conservative critiques of the Civil Rights Movement. Prerequisite(s): sophomore standing; also HIST 285 and permission of the instructor; Cross Listing: HIST 366; K. Hamilton

AFST 383 Women Playwrights

Analysis of the works of female playwrights who represent diversity in race, nationality, perspective, and style. A brief review of the evolution of feminisms is traced in order to identify the areas of thought and conflict that most influence the condition of the female writer and specifically the playwright. Prerequisite(s): junior standing or permission or the instructor; Cross Listing: ENG 383;GWST 383;THTR 383; E. Metz

AFST 389 Theory and Method

This course primarily seeks to familiarize students with the range of theoretical paradigms and research methodologies applied within the field of Black/Africana Studies in preparation for the Advanced Seminar (AFST 399). The paradigms include Afrocentric, Feminist/Womanist, Nationalistic, Negritude, Pan-African and other related perspectives. Significant attention is also given to various mainstream paradigms in the social sciences and humanities which students can expect to encounter in other disciplines. Through the vehicle of these paradigms, the course provides a rigorous examination of the historical construction, political uses, and social meanings of race as a determinant factor in the distribution of power, status and resources throughout the African Diaspora. This course provides students adequate preparation to conduct supervised research on a wide range of topics within the field of Africana Studies. Staff

AFST 399 Advanced Seminar

Based on the theory and method studied in AFST 389, students pursue a term-long independent research project. Research is presented to the group during the term and written up as a research paper. A wide range of research projects is possible, from library or archival research to community action projects. Prerequisite(s): 3 core courses in Africana Studies, 4 Africana Studies electives, AFST 389; or permission of the instructor; Staff