Africana Studies 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

See description of HIST 122. CL: HIST 122; SA; PI; STAFF

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. CL: 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.  Prereq: 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. CL: ANSO 205; STAFF

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

See description for GWST 206. CL: GWST 206, PJST 206; STAFF

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. CL: 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 210 Jazz History

See description for MUS 210. CL: 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; CL: PSYC 215; STAFF

AFST 220 Francophone African Literature

See description for FREN 210. Prereq: FREN 210 or FREN 211; CL: FREN 220; C. Akuetey

AFST 224 Black Power in America: Sociological Perspectives

AFST 227 The Black Image in American Film

See description for HIST 227. Prereq: sophomore standing or permission of the instructor; CL: AMST 227, FILM 227, HIST 227; IC; PI; STAFF

AFST 228 Environmental Racism

See description for ENVS 228.  CL: ENVS 228, HIST 228, PJST 228; PI; P. Schwartzman

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 durée 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 analysis 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. Prereq: 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; CL: 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; CL: ENG 234; STAFF

AFST 235 African American Women Writers

See description for GWST 235. Alternate years; CL: ENG 235, GWST 235; STAFF

AFST 236 Culture and Identity in the Caribbean

See description for ANSO 234.  Prereq: Two courses in ANSO or permission of the instructor; CL: 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.  CL: LAST 240; STAFF

AFST 254 Music of the African Diaspora

See description for MUS 254.  Prereq: sophomore standing or permission of the instructor; CL: 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. Prereq: sophomore standing or permission of the instructor; CL: LAST 260; STAFF

AFST 263 Slavery in the Americas

See description for HIST 263.  CL: HIST 263, LAST 263; STAFF

AFST 278 Stereotypes and Prejudice

See description for PSYC 278. Prereq: PSYC 100; CL: PSYC 278, PJST 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. Prereq: one course in Africana Studies or one course in Philosophy, or permission of the instructor; CL: PHIL 285; STAFF

AFST 301 Apartheid in Kenya

See description of AFST 201.  Prereq: AFST 101 or AFST 145; STAFF

AFST 330 Afro-German Culture

See description for GERM 330. Prereq: Sophomore standing or approval of the instructor; CL: GERM 330; T. Heidt

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?  CL: GWST 336, IDIS 336, PJST 336; M. Crawford, D. Cermak

AFST 366 The American Civil Rights Movement

See description for HIST 366. Prereq: sophomore standing, HIST 285 and permission of the instructor; CL: HIST 366; STAFF

AFST 383 Women Playwrights

See description for THTR 383. Prereq: junior standing or permission or the instructor; CL: ENG 383, GWST 383, THTR 383; E. Carlin 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.    Prereq: 3 core courses in Africana Studies, 4 Africana Studies electives, AFST 389; or permission of the instructor;  STAFF