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African Amer & African Studies (AFRO) Courses

Academic Unit: African-Amer & African Studies

AFRO 1009 - History of Women in Africa: 1500 to the Present [GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
This course examines the histories of women on African frontiers. The course will highlight the role of women in their relation with family, with other African/nonAfrican peoples, as well as the role of women of the border regions of Sahel-Savanna, SavannaForest, within the country of Morocco, and along the Indian Ocean-Swahili Coast and Atlantic Coast frontiers. AFRO 1009 will compare the roles of African women from specific regions to others in different times and places in Africa, as well as with their contemporaries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. We will consider the ways in which the women under scrutiny played a critical role in the dynamic changes that transformed their worlds and the worlds around them. Indeed, the historical lens that informs and underpins this course is premised on the understanding that people make change and that change does not just happen in and of itself. In recognizing the process of change over time, AFRO 1009 emphasizes the significance of social and cultural context in shaping the extent and nature of women?s participation in these processes. Therefore, the course will seek to understand the cultural beliefs and the rich ethnic, economic, religious networks, which buttressed the women?s roles and examine their associated factors. In addition to stressing the importance of change over time, AFRO 1009 engages students in a reflection of the past in an attempt to understand those reflections within the continuum of past, present, and future. Accordingly, AFRO 1009 impels us to think about the long term effects of any change, however slight or insignificant it may seem.
AFRO 1011 - Introduction to African American Studies [DSJ]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
This course is an introduction to the study of people of African descent in the United States with linkages to Africa and connections to the African diaspora. We will explore why people of African descent have occupied an oppressed position in this culture and globally and how they have resisted this oppression creating social change. Our major form of analysis is historical sociology, as well as the arts and humanities. We will examine changes over time and employ sociological, economic, cultural, and political tools for understanding the historical and contemporary positioning of African Americans. We will be centrally concerned with how domination, race, gender, and class shape Black life in the U.S. and how resistance and change have occurred. In our analyses we take seriously the deep intersectionality of systems of oppression as well as historic resistance to oppression. Critical race theory and Black feminist theory are important frames for our work. Moreover, the significance of the cultural creativity of African peoples is foundational to our understanding. We must be concerned with how Black people see themselves today. How social change is imagined in the 21st century informs our work.
AFRO 1021 - Introduction to Africa [GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Through a close engagement with selected oral, visual, audio-visual, and written sources, this course interrogates the representation of Africa as?a failed and passive site, hopelessly mired in poverty and ill-equipped to face the challenges of the 21st century. Using the lens of gender as a critical category, the course specifically considers the ways in which African women have distinguished themselves in the areas of politics, the economy, culture, education, and other fields. The historical lens that informs and underpins this course is premised on the understanding that people make change, and that change does not just happen in and of itself. In recognizing the process of change over time, AFRO 1021 demonstrates that African women have played a pivotal role in the dynamic changes that have transformed the continent and its diverse societies.?More importantly, African women have always defined and carried out their own struggles, always been on the frontline of agitating for socio-economic and political reforms, and always played critical leadership roles in their families, communities, and civil society. In addition to stressing the importance of change over time, AFRO 1021 engages students in a reflection of the past to understand those reflections within the continuum of past, present, and future.
AFRO 1023W - Introduction to African World Literature [LITR WI GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Childhood is a time of intense growth and dramatic change; of rapid physical, mental and emotional development. It is a time of discovering, experiencing, exploring; of exuberant curiosity and creativity. It is a state characterized by play and activity, innocence and wonder, surprise and delight. But childhood can also be a time of great confusion and uncertainty; of doubt, turmoil and anxiety. Through select pieces of short fiction, prose, essays and cinematic works, we will analyze the popularity of the coming?of?age genre (or bildungsroman) as a primary mode of formative response within the African world literary tradition. We will consider how the autobiographical or semi-autobiographical story, told by a narrator who is growing up and becoming conscious of their body, their familial and wider social surroundings, their emotions, their very identity, dramatizes the cultural, political, and historical contexts in which it is set. Through our exploration of socialization as a thematic component of the bildungsroman, we will examine how ?coming-of-age? comes to represent something very different for boys and for girls.
AFRO 1131 - Contemporary Issues in Africa [ENV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall & Spring)
While issues in Africa have been discussed widely, little attention is given to what African nations have achieved since their independence. The course critically questions the generally pessimistic international viewpoint on African economic prospects and emphasizes some of the continent?s national successes. This course examines the factors underlying contemporary issues in the continent, discussing Africa?s major challenges, including climate change, problems related to extractive industries, the brain drain, illicit capital flight, and the burden of debt. It outlines how challenges such as the migration of professionals and extractive industries could be turned into opportunities to transform the continent?s educational and health sectors and improve revenue at local levels by looking at case studies in which these problems have been at least partially overcome. The course uses data derived from cultural anthropology, geography, political sciences, and economics.
AFRO 1221 - Beginning Swahili, Semester I
(5 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was SWAH 1221 until 02-SEP-08
Comprehension, speaking, reading, writing.
AFRO 1222 - Beginning Swahili II
(5 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was SWAH 1222 until 20-JAN-15
Continuation of skill development from 1221.
AFRO 3002 - West African History: 1800 to Present [GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3455
West African history from late 18th century to present. Past/profound changes including new 19th century state formation, European colonialism, post-colonial issues.
AFRO 3006 - Impact of African Migrations in the Atlantic World
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade forced millions of Africans into bondage in the Americas. While the exact number remains unknown, it is estimated that over 10 million Africans arrived in the New World over a period of 400 years. Most of them were bound for Central and South America with less than half a million arriving to the British colonies in North America. At the dawn of the 21st Century, however, U.S. census figures determined that more Africans had arrived in the United States voluntarily since 1990, than the total amount brought in as captives. This course examines the impact of African migrations in the Atlantic World beginning with the explorations of Portuguese mariners down the coast of West Africa in the 15th century, which set the foundation for the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
AFRO 3009 - History of Women in Africa: 1500 to Present
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Through a close engagement with selected oral, visual, audio-visual, and written sources, this course examines the histories of women in Africa. The course will highlight the role of women in their relationship with family and with other African and non-African peoples. AFRO 3009 will compare the roles of African women from specific regions to others in different times and places in Africa, as well as with their contemporaries in other parts of the world. We will consider the ways in which the women under scrutiny played a critical role in the dynamic changes that transformed their worlds and the worlds around them. Indeed, the historical lens that informs and underpins this course is premised on the understanding that people make change, and that change does not just happen in and of itself. In recognizing the process of change over time, AFRO 3009 emphasizes the significance of social and cultural contexts in shaping the extent and nature of women's participation in these processes. Therefore, the course will seek to understand the cultural beliefs and the rich ethnic, economic, religious networks, which buttressed the women's roles and examine their associated factors. In addition to stressing the importance of change over time, AFRO 3009 engages students in a reflection of the past to understand those reflections within the continuum of past, present, and future. Accordingly, AFRO 3009 impels us to think about the long-term effects of any change, however slight or insignificant it may seem.
AFRO 3013 - Cities and States in Ancient Africa [ENV]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 4013 until 19-JAN-21
In this course, students will learn about the nexus between society and the environment, the underlining environmental issues that transformed ancient cities, and the implications they have on the contemporary ecological problems Africa is facing. The continent is endowed with a hugely diverse environment, ranging from desert to equatorial rainforest, as well as diverse cultures. Africa's various natural and cultural environments have played a part in shaping human activities, including agriculture, trade, and technology?which in turn have shaped the nature of the cities and states that have emerged across the continent. Technological innovations such as irrigation have allowed complex societies to develop and grow in an otherwise inhospitable desert climate with limited natural resources. Although the prevalence of animal diseases and all-year-round rainfall restricted surplus agricultural production by affecting the use of animals as a source of draft power and cultivation of cereal crops, advances in technology, including ironwork and adoption of the tropical rainforest crops, facilitated the transformation of the physical environment and emergence of cities and states in the rainforest. The course examines how the nature of early agriculture, the environment, and technology shaped the history of African societies to equip learners with a better understanding of the contemporary social and environmental challenges. It assesses the dynamism in the relation between African societies and the environment over time.
AFRO 3015 - Food Sovereignty in Africa [ENV SOCS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: ANTH 3037, AFRO 5015, ANTH 5037
Course Description `Food Sovereignty in Africa? critically evaluates how the physical environment and historical processes shaped agricultural productivity in Africa, as well as exploring the subsequent relationship the continent has had with the rest of the world. The course uses multi-disciplinary resources to examine historical factors that have contributed to contemporary food security issues, and discusses grassroots food movements that embrace the ethics and values of African societies in their efforts to achieve both food security and environmental sustainability. It also examines the interplay between food security, indigenous knowledge, and environmental sustainability by comparing various standpoints on African food production, scrutinizing the challenges the continent is facing and the unique perspectives it offers in terms of agricultural development in the globalized world. Finally, the course examines how agricultural systems in Africa are affected by the new global land rush. After taking the course, students will have better knowledge of emerging research directions on Africa and will be equipped with sufficient research and practical skills to pursue independent studies beyond the classroom.
AFRO 3016 - Africa and African Diaspora Archaeology [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: ANTH 3016, AFRO 5016, ANTH 5016
Africa and African Diaspora Archaeology (AFRO/ ANTH 3016/5016) examines the evolution of human behavior in Africa and looks at subsequent social, cultural, and technological developments as shown in archaeological records including artifacts, ecofacts, rock art, and structures at archaeological sites. It also discusses methods used to identify archaeological records and how these records can be used to reconstruct past ways of life. Students will obtain hand-on-experience in identifying, classifying, and interpreting archaeological objects. The course covers Africa from around 2.6 million years ago to the recent past, focusing primarily on the last 10,000 years. It examines the development and spread of food production, pottery, metallurgy, trade, and African connections with the Atlantic world dating back to the fifteenth century.
AFRO 3103 - World History and Africa [GP HIS]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: AFRO 5103 (starting 28-MAY-13)
This course is an interdisciplinary survey of the history of the African continent. It examines the social, cultural, economic and political transformations that shaped varied African communities from prehistory to the present. Focusing primarily on the intricate intersection of culture, society, economics, and politics, the course examines the concept of ?world history? and Africa?s location in the production of this history as theoretical and analytical lenses. It puts particular emphasis on the social, cultural and political developments that informed individual and collective experiences of various African peoples and societies, including the historical narratives and scholarly discourses associated with them.
AFRO 3108 - Black Music: A History of Jazz
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
The development of jazz in America and in the world, with special emphasis given to the roots or jazz in the African American experience.
AFRO 3112 - In the Heart of the Beat: the Poetry of Rap
(3 cr; A-F or Audit)
Contemporary African American poetry as expressed by popular culture contributors. Students analyze/evaluate poems used in rap, in context of African American literature, American culture, and aesthetics.
AFRO 3120 - Social and Intellectual Movements in the African Diaspora [GP HIS]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: AFRO 5120, HIST 3456
Political, cultural, historical linkages between Africans, African-Americans, African-Caribbean. Black socio-political movements/radical intellectual trends in late 19th/20th centuries. Colonialism/racism. Protest organizations, radical movements in United States/Europe.
AFRO 3125W - Black Visions of Liberation: Ella, Martin, Malcolm, and the Radical Transformation of U.S. Democracy [WI CIV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Spring)
Course on the critical thought of Black intellectual-activists and others enmeshed in the struggles for the radical transformation of U.S. democracy. Introduces the following three leaders and activists--Ella Baker, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X--whose work in the building of the Black freedom movement spanned the period from the 1930s to the late 1960s. Course proposition is that their life and times in the struggle for liberation offer important insights into the transformation of the U.S. political economy from the welfare/warfare state to the neoliberal state. These intellectual-activists, as well as others who translate their radical traditions through Black-Brown and Afro-Asian solidarity projects (e.g. Grace Lee Boggs of Detroit) have responded to racial formation in the U.S. and presented not just visions of liberation but concrete alternatives at the grassroots to usher in a more just, egalitarian, and ethical society.
AFRO 3131 - Contemporary Issues in Africa
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Departing from a country-specific focus and a comparative regional perspective, this course examines contemporary African challenges and varied struggles using case studies, and a range of analytical parameters. Of particular interest will be issues relating to peace and (in)security, ethnic/civil clashes, religious conflicts, authoritarianism, democracy and related impacts: political destabilization, social fragmentation, economic disruption; internal displacement and international migration within regional and global contexts, etc. Historical contexts (colonial legacies) and contemporary dynamics (contemporary realities) will be studied from a political and sociological perspective to establish course content and outcomes.
AFRO 3141 - Africa [ENVT IP]
(3 cr; Student Option)
Equivalent courses: was GEOG 3141 until 03-SEP-02, was GEOG 3141 until 07-SEP-99
Regional differentiation of human groups and environments; culture contact and problems of underdeveloped countries south of the Sahara.
AFRO 3205 - History of South Africa from 1910: Anti-Racism, Youth Politics, Pandemics & Gender (Based Violence) [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3435
We are all living in extraordinary times. But what does that mean? In South Africa, we have seen the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures implemented to control it causing massive social upheaval and personal distress. It has forced the people in the country to confront issues that life prior to the pandemic had made easy to turn away from. Misogyny, gender based violence, and sexual violence, a long-standing emergency in the south of Africa, have been forced into our vision once again. It was not the pandemic that created this violence. Nor was it the first time people had been outraged by a lack of action to address it. In the years approaching 2020, calls, protests and demonstrations were increasingly demanding the culture of impunity in gender based violence be ended; sometime with violent outcomes against the protestors themselves. Over those same years, nationwide protests have rocked South Africa's university campuses. The student movements known as #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall and #RUReferenceList highlight the contrasts and disappointments of the recent past in South Africa, confront the legacy of racism and misogyny in its institutions and knowledge systems, and resonate with a history of anti-racism and struggle that now, in turn, similarly fuel the on-going Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements worldwide.
AFRO 3225 - Intermediate Swahili
(5 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was SWAH 3225 until 20-JAN-15
Readings of contemporary Swahili texts. Review of grammar and complex verb forms. Vocabulary, communication skills.
AFRO 3226 - Fourth Semester Swahili
(4 cr; Student Option)
Equivalent courses: was SWAH 3226 until 20-JAN-15
Advanced Swahili readings, speaking, and writing practice.
AFRO 3251W - Sociological Perspectives on Race, Class, and Gender [WI]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was SOC 3251W until 04-SEP-01, was SOC 3251W until 21-MAY-01, was SOC 3251W until 16-JAN-01, was SOC 3251W until 05-SEP-00, was AFRO 3251 until 05-SEP-00, was SOC 3251 until 07-SEP-99, SOC 3251W, AAS 3251W (starting 18-JAN-11)
Analytical overview of three major forms of inequalities in the United Sates today: race, class, gender. Focus on these inequalities as relatively autonomous from one another and as deeply connected/intertwined with one another. Intersectionality key to critical understanding of these social forces. Social change possibilities.
AFRO 3301 - The Music of Black Americans [AH DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: MUS 3301
This course examines the variety of ways African and African Americans express social history through music. It will consider the union of African elements and European elements that combined to present a new syncretized African-American product. To do this it is imperative that we explore the diversity of musical ?voices? found within the African American culture. This diversity can be seen in the struggles to retain African cultural effects and the desire to be eclectic, creative, and contemporary. Such an approach to the study of the place of Black music in American music corresponds with the criteria of Diversity and Social Justice in the United States Liberal Education. The ?multi-layered operation of power, prestige, and privilege? can be understood through an examination of the music of African Americans, which represents both a Free African voice and an enslaved African voice; the western-trained Black performer/composer and the self-taught performer/composer. It also represents the habits of well-to-do African Americans and the poor African Americans. Students will examine the complexities of the history of African Americans and how this is played out in the development of musical styles and genres. From this, students will then begin to understand how this unique diversity within a community affects those outside of those communities. Such an approach to the study of the place of Black music in American music corresponds with the criteria of Diversity and Social Justice in the United States Liberal Education. We will follow elements found in West African culture and music such as "call and response" and the "2nd Line" as they travel to the "New World" and expressed through Spirituals, Symphonies, Gospel Music, Jazz, Rock and Roll, Step Bands and more. Through lectures, readings, discussion, audiovisual examples, and homework assignments student can expect to gain a deeper understanding of the ways music both reflects and influences the social history of a
AFRO 3341 - Black Geographies
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: GEOG 3341
This course will engage the sub-discipline of Black Geographies by looking at Geographical literature on the question of Blackness as well as case studies on the ways in which Afro-descendant populations make place. Course readings and films will attend to Blackness as it manifests across the African Diaspora, with specific focus on the Americas. We will discuss the experiences and struggles of enslaved Africans in the Americas, struggles against slavery, the ways in which we can understand histories of Blackness, and different forms of struggle employed by Afro-descendant populations today. At the end of the semester students will have a solid grounding in the literature around Black Geographies, as well as a nuanced understanding of the different ways in which Black populations analyze and create space.
AFRO 3402 - Pleasure, Intimacy and Violence
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Spring Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: GWSS 3402 (starting 02-SEP-14)
Gender/sexual violence to poststructural, anti-racist theories and debates about social construction of sexuality. How intimacy and violence are co-constituted within normative frameworks of U.S. governmentality. Writings by black feminist criminologists who have linked incarceration, welfare reform, and other forms of state regulation to deeply systemic forms of violence against people of color.
AFRO 3426 - African Americans, Social Policy, and the Welfare State
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Period between New Deal (1930s) and present. History/impact of federal policy (presidential, congressional, judicial) and race on African Americans. Politics of allocation of insurance versus relief in Social Security Act of 1935. Race and expansion of social benefits after World War II. School desegregation. Kennedy's civil rights policy, LBJ's War on Poverty. Affirmative Action. Warren court. Busing. Conservative retreat from welfare state under Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
AFRO 3431 - Early Africa and Its Global Connections [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 4 credits)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3431 (starting 21-JAN-03, was AFRO 3431 until 02-SEP-03, was AFRO 3431 until 21-JAN-03, was AFRO 3431 until 03-SEP-02)
Survey of African history from earliest times to 1800. Focuses on socioeconomic, political, and cultural development in pre-colonial Africa from ancient Egypt through the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
AFRO 3432 - Modern Africa in a Changing World [GP HIS]
(3 cr [max 4]; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 4 credits)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3432 (starting 21-JAN-03, was AFRO 3432 until 02-SEP-03, was AFRO 3432 until 21-JAN-03, was AFRO 3432 until 03-SEP-02)
Socioeconomic, political, and cultural development in Africa, from abolition of trans-Atlantic slave trade through postcolonial era.
AFRO 3433 - Economic Development in Contemporary Africa [SOCS GP]
(3 cr; Prereq-APEC 1101 or ECON 1101; A-F only; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: APEC 3061
Major socio-economic challenges that confront post-independence sub-Saharan African countries in quest for sustainable economic development/growth. Causes of persistent poverty/inequality, role of institutions/multinational agencies. Growth in 21st century.
AFRO 3434 - Images of Africa [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3433 (starting 05-SEP-23)
Major themes in African history, from early human development to present. History of western "knowledge" about Africa. Assumptions that have influenced production of African history. Extent to which African history is "packaged" for public consumption inside/outside Africa. How history is used to support modern political agendas.
AFRO 3435 - Political Dynamics in the Horn of Africa [SOCS GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 3135 until 17-JAN-23, POL 3435
Who wields political power? Who challenges those in power? And how do they legitimize their claims and go about enforcing them? These are the core questions that will guide our exploration of the political dynamics in the Horn of Africa. Just like most regions in Africa, the Horn is home to diverse cultures and languages. What distinguishes it, however, is the contested nature of state borders, which have been redrawn in ways not observed anywhere else in Africa since the end of European colonialism. The purpose of this class is to delve deeper into these conflicts, to examine the interactions between incumbent governments, armed rebel groups and international actors in shaping war and peace in the Horn. Throughout this journey, we will pay special attention to ideas of sovereignty, identity and violence and draw on literature outside of the Horn to help us better dissect what is going on within it.
AFRO 3436 - Fighting for History:Historical Roots of Contemporary Crises in Africa
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3436 (starting 02-SEP-08)
Open any newspaper and there is almost certain to be one or more articles about crises or chaos in Africa. Journalistic accounts highlight famines, tribalism, failed states, ethnic cleansing, the plight of refugees, and the AIDS pandemic. There rarely, if ever, is a serious discussion of the underlying causes of this instability. Instead, it is implicitly assumed that this is the natural order of events in the Dark Continent. This course challenges the racially inspired cultural arrogance which underlies assumptions about Africa and explores it with the long-term structural and historical roots of the crises which confront many parts of Africa. It is a course about Africans and how they responded to the challenges and legacies that date back to the colonial period and before. Throughout this course we will be concerned with African initiatives in a rapidly changing political, economic, social, and ideological context and the changing ways that the Global North has represented Africa. In doing so we will be fight for a more accurate history of Africa.
AFRO 3478W - Contemporary Politics in Africa and the Colonial Legacy [WI GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 4478W until 05-SEP-23, was AFRO 4478 until 22-JAN-13, AFRO 5478 (inactive), POL 5478 (inactive, starting 04-SEP-01), POL 3478W (starting 04-SEP-01, was POL 4478W until 05-SEP-23, was POL 4478 until 04-SEP-07)
At the core, this class is about the interaction between the assertion of and challenge to political authority in Africa. Who should have the right to make decisions that structure people's lives? To what extent is "might" an important source of political authority? How, in turn, do people respond to these different means of establishing political authority? Using these questions as a springboard, this class will examine some broader themes relating to colonialism, state building, conflict and development in Africa. Politics in Africa, just as in any other place in the world, is complex and for that reason, the objective of the class is not to give you answers, but to have you think critically about the issues we cover. Towards this end, this class will draw on different sources ranging from novels to manifestos so as to illustrate both the mundane and extraordinary events that have helped shape the political landscape of the continent.
AFRO 3578 - Contemporary Sub-Saharan African Popular Art Forms [AH TS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This course explores popular art practices and representations ? mediated through the lens of television, radio, popular cinema, sequential art, and the internet ? as the everyday expressions of modern African identities. As sites where the tensions, frictions, collisions and notably, the productive creativities of the local and the global are circulated, negotiated and contested, African popular cultures provide insights into a unique and increasingly crucial facet of contemporary African artistic practice as critical intervention. The course is designed on the premise that Africans of all social strata and lifestyles are strategic and deliberate consumers of popular cultural forms, generated within local cultures as signifiers of larger social, political, and economic processes. In light of prevailing studies which sometimes end up naively celebrating agency and resistance, AFRO 3578 underscores the role of popular cultures as public/private sites of power's ideological and material (re-) production, contestation, or transformation. It considers creative practices as sites of both resistance and accommodation; of creative adaptation, innovation, and resilience. Through our discussion of communication technologies and their role in transmitting artistic and political ideas beyond the confines of dominant discourses and established institutions, we will evaluate the interface of technology and sociocultural shifts.
AFRO 3592W - Introduction to Black Women Writers in the United States [LITR WI DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 3592 until 07-SEP-04, ENGL 3592W (starting 02-SEP-08, was ENGL 3592 until 18-JAN-05)
The literature of African American women writers explored in novels, short stories, essays, poetry, autobiographies, and drama from the 18th to the late-20th century.
AFRO 3593 - The African American Novel
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: PSY 5865 (ending 22-JAN-02, starting 07-SEP-99), ENGL 3593, ENGL 5593, AFRO 5593 (starting 07-SEP-99, was AFRO 4593 until 28-MAY-13)
Explore African American novelistic traditions. Plot patterns, character types, settings, symbols, themes, mythologies. Creative perspectives of authors themselves. Analytical frameworks from contemporary literary scholarship.
AFRO 3597W - Introduction to African American Literature and Culture I [LITR WI DSJ]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: ENGL 3597W (starting 07-SEP-10)
African American oral tradition, slave narrative, autobiography, poetry, essay, fiction, oratory, and drama, from colonial era through Harlem Renaissance.
AFRO 3598W - Introduction to African American Literature and Culture II [LITR WI DSJ]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 3598 until 16-JAN-07, ENGL 3598W (starting 18-JAN-11)
African American oral tradition, autobiography, poetry, essay, fiction, oratory, drama. From after Harlem Renaissance to end of 20th century.
AFRO 3601W - African Literature [LITR WI GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 3601 until 20-JAN-09
The globalized present has witnessed increased mobility as economic, political, and social unrest intensify, forcing mass migration of populations across scorching deserts, treacherous mountains and perilous seas. In the United States and in Western Europe specifically, the consequence of this mobility?immigration?remains the single most cross-cutting issue and the most vexed political challenge of the day. Defined as threatening and intrusive, frequently criminalized in discourse and in action, immigrants have become scapegoats for a wide range of problems that bedevil every aspect of life in every country. Blamed for everything from taking jobs from locals to rising crime and the spread of communicable diseases, immigrants have become victims of xenophobic violence and repositories for the routine fear-mongering prevalent in post-9/11 global terror and counter-terror climate. This course addresses the keys issues that arise in contemporary immigration and global security debates. Throughout the course of the semester, we will interrogate the literary and audio-visual arts as a mirror of the times, reflecting socio-political conditions. In a bid to place the current ?crisis? in a historical perspective, we will examine select works by African writers, filmmakers and artists, which provide examples that enable us to move beyond stereotypes and common assumptions.
AFRO 3625W - Women Writers of Africa and the African Diaspora [LITR WI GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Spring Even Year)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 3625 until 19-JAN-10, AFRO 5625
Works of black women writers from Europe, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. Novels, drama, films, and essays.
AFRO 3654 - African Cinema [AH GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Summer)
This course introduces you to films written and directed by African filmmakers beginning the 2nd part of the 20th Century. Through an exploration of the stylistic and thematic issues raised by each film, it is expected that students will gain a broad understanding of how African filmmakers portray African social and cultural life, including the artistic and political contexts within which they work. In this way, students will gain an historical perspective on the origins of African filmmaking, confront the basic social, cultural and aesthetic questions raised by African filmmakers and critics, and consider how questions raised by African filmmakers and their films fit into the larger context of world cinema. We will contrast postcolonial African films with Hollywood jungle epics, settler/adventure romances in safari paradise, and colonial movies about Africa. Moving beyond strict categories and standards we will also examine the role of documentary films in shaping our understanding of African people's lives and the social construction of reality. We will review the place of documentary film in the current media-scape and discuss its functions and limitations. Most films will be screened in original languages with English subtitles.
AFRO 3655 - African-American Cinema [AH DSJ]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Spring Even Year)
Equivalent courses: AFRO 4655 (inactive, starting 07-SEP-99, was AFRO 5655 until 05-SEP-06), ARTH 5655, ARTH 3655
African American cinematic achievements from silent films of Oscar Micheaux through contemporary Hollywood and independent films. Class screenings, critical readings.
AFRO 3681 - Black Central & Nordic Europe [AH GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Spring Even Year)
Equivalent courses: GSD 3681 (starting 16-JAN-24)
Europe is constantly associated with whiteness, yet Black people have existed in Northern and Central Europe (the contemporary spaces known as Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Scandinavia) for centuries. To counter this imagined whiteness, students will be reading histories and Black authors' experiences in these nations. A closer investigation will show that Black people have been traveling to Europe (willingly and unwillingly) for centuries. While Afro-Europeans remain at the margins of these nations, they find avenues to survive and thrive in the face of microaggressions and racism. As the semester progresses, we will examine the following questions: What is daily life like in a majority white country? In what ways are these authors included or excluded from national discourses? What ways do they bring attention to anti-Blackness in their local contexts? How do they define home and belonging? These questions will help us understand the imagined citizens of Central Europe and the people trying to tear these false images down.
AFRO 3741 - Racial Minorities and the Mass Media [CD]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: was JOUR 3741 until 13-MAY-24, was JOUR 3741 until 07-SEP-99
Past and present depictions of minority individuals and groups in movies, literature, radio/TV, etc., against anthropological, psychological, and sociological knowledge and experience. Emphasis on personal and political effects of media depictions.
AFRO 3745 - Black Cultural Studies [AH DSJ]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
What is black life? And what does it mean to talk about black life in the context of the push toward the liberation of black lives? In recent years we have become accustomed to hearing about and debating the efficacy of the term and movement "Black Lives Matter," but what, other than precarity, constitutes these lives that matter? How have black people collectively thrived even under conditions that would assume otherwise? In this course we will consider the myriad ways black people have gone about creating, dreaming, struggling, building, educating, loving, and living, even in the midst of all that works to bring death near. We will explore a range of cultural forms, including stand-up comedy, hip hop and R&B music, reality television, social media, and film, in order to contemplate the urgency and necessity of black social life, or, what it means to be with and for black people.
AFRO 3864 - African American History: 1619 to 1865 [CIV HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3864
Importance of dynamics of class, gender, region, and political ideology. Changing nature of race/racism.
AFRO 3865 - African American History: 1865 to the Present
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3865
History of African American men and women from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Discussion of internal migrations, industrialization and unionization, The Great Depression, world wars, and large scale movements for social and political change.
AFRO 3866 - The Civil Rights and Black Power Movement, 1954-1984
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3856, AFRO 5866
Modern black civil rights struggle in the U.S., i.e., the second reconstruction. Failure of reconstruction, abdication of black civil rights in 19th century. Assault on white supremacy via courts, state, and grass roots southern movement in 1950s and 1960s. Black struggle in north and west. New emphasis on Black Power, by new organizations. Ascendancy of Ronald Reagan, conservative assault on the movement.
AFRO 3867 - Black Men: Representations and Reality
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
This course will explore the lived reality of black men in the United States. Ranging historically-far and thematically-wide, this course will introduce students to the experience of black male labor force participation and employment outcomes; deconstruct representations of black masculinity in popular culture; explore academic dilemmas associated with primary and secondary educational pursuits; and uncover issues connected with law, incarceration, and criminal justice. In addition, this course will examine relationship complexities involving black men and black women, black men and white women, and black men and black men, looking closely at the African-American role in traditional and non-traditional family structures. The course will also address the most central of questions: What is the black male experience, given the growing diversity of black maleness in Minnesota, the United States, and the Diaspora. At the center of the course is not only what other people have said about the black male historical and contemporary experience, but also how black men have imagined and constructed their own experience over time.
AFRO 3868W - Race, War, and Race Wars in American History [WI CIV]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Fall Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 3868 until 21-JAN-14, HIST 3868W (starting 04-SEP-12, was HIST 3868 until 21-JAN-14)
Role that race has played in American war history. Impact that wars have had on race and race relations in the United States and the world. Literature and film.
AFRO 3896 - Internship for Academic Credit
(1 cr [max 4]; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 4 credits; may be repeated 2 times)
An applied learning experience in an agreed-upon, short-term, supervised workplace activity, with defined goals, which may be related to a student's major field or area of interest. The work can be full or part time, paid or unpaid, primarily in off-campus environments. Internships integrate classroom knowledge and theory with practical application and skill development in professional or community settings. The skills and knowledge learned should be transferable to other employment settings and not simply to advance the operations of the employer. Typically the student's work is supervised and evaluated by a site coordinator or instructor. A student may only earn credit for a given internship through one course at a time.
AFRO 3910 - Topics in African American and African Studies (Topics course)
(1 cr [max 3]; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AFRO 3993 - Directed Study
(1 cr [max 5]; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 10 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Guided individual research and study. Prereq-instr consent, dept consent, college consent.
AFRO 4105 - Ways of Knowing in Africa and the African Diaspora
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall)
Impact of European knowledge systems on African world. How peoples on African continent and across African diaspora have produced/defined knowledge. Continuity/change in the way African peoples have thought about and left their epistemological imprints upon the world.
AFRO 4221 - Beginning Swahili
(2 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was SWAH 4221 until 23-MAY-16
Comprehension, speaking, reading, writing.
AFRO 4222 - Beginning Swahili, Semester II
(2 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was SWAH 4222 until 23-MAY-16, SWAH 4222 (ending 16-JAN-07, was AFRO 4222 until 04-SEP-07)
Comprehension, speaking, reading, writing. Meets with AFRO 1222.
AFRO 4225 - Intermediate Swahili
(2 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was SWAH 4225 until 23-MAY-16, SWAH 4225 (ending 16-JAN-07, was AFRO 4225 until 04-SEP-07)
Readings of contemporary Swahili texts. Review of grammar and complex verb forms. Vocabulary, communication skills.
AFRO 4231 - Color of Public Policy: African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans & Chicanos in the U.S.
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: was AMIN 4231 until 07-SEP-99, was CHIC 4231 until 07-SEP-99, AMIN 4231, CHIC 4231, AAS 4231
Examination of structural or institutional conditions through which people of color have been marginalized in public policy. Critical evaluation of social theory in addressing the problem of contemporary communities of color in the United States.
AFRO 4301 - The African Immigrant Story
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 5301 until 22-MAY-06
This course traces the origin of the African novel as a storytelling form to the angst of displacement and the paradox of exilic experience. Beginning with an introduction to the novel as a literary genre, the course will place particular emphasis on digital literature as a literary subgenre that transcends the boundaries of the print, as well as examine the ways in which interactive virtual narratives and digital storytelling challenge the very basic premise on which the novel is built. How have interactive virtual fictions and creative non-fictions changed the process of writing and the definition of "legitimate" literature, of which the novel is a characteristic product? How do interactive fictions help to raise fundamental questions about what literature is, as well as shed light on classical literary techniques and strategies such as narrative perspectives, questions of genre, reader-response and intertextuality? How does digital storytelling as a vector of the global imaginary serve as an especially appropriate tool for coping with the pangs of being uprooted from familiar ground? We will examine the ways in which individuals endeavor to articulate their identity and sense of belonging in unhomely and occasionally untimely situations. How do transnational online communities help mitigate experiences of exclusion, as well as shape individuals? perspectives on citizenship and social membership?
AFRO 4335 - African American Politics
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: POL 4335
This course examines the historical and contemporary efforts by African Americans to gain full inclusion as citizens in the U.S. political system. Specifically, the course explores advocacy efforts by civil rights organizations and political parties to obtain and enforce civil and political rights for blacks. An examination of these efforts begins in the Reconstruction Era and concludes with the historic election of the nation?s first African American president. The course will cover topics such as the politics of the civil rights movement, black presidential bids and racialized voting in federal and state elections. Finally, the course examines how political parties and organized interests used the Voting Rights Act to increase the number of minorities in Congress. The course focuses on whether the growing number of minorities in Congress increases citizens? trust in government and their involvement in voting and participation in political organizations.
AFRO 4406 - Black Feminist Thought
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: GWSS 5406 (starting 20-JAN-15, ending 22-JAN-13), AFRO 5406, GWSS 4406 (starting 20-JAN-15, ending 22-JAN-13)
Critically examine spatiality of African descendant women in Americas/larger black diaspora. Writings from black feminist/queer geographies, history, contemporary cultural criticism. Recent black feminist theorizing.
AFRO 4991W - Thesis Research and Writing [WI]
(3 cr; Prereq-dept consent; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 4900 until 21-JAN-03
Preparing a research paper that satisfies major project requirement. Defining a research problem. Collecting/analyzing data. Writing the research paper.
AFRO 5015 - Food Sovereignty in Africa [ENV SOCS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: ANTH 3037, AFRO 3015, ANTH 5037
Food Sovereignty in Africa critically evaluates how the physical environment and historical processes shaped agricultural productivity in Africa, as well as exploring the subsequent relationship the continent has had with the rest of the world. The course uses multi-disciplinary resources to examine historical factors that have contributed to contemporary food security issues, and discusses grassroots food movements that embrace the ethics and values of African societies in their efforts to achieve both food security and environmental sustainability. It also examines the interplay between food security, indigenous knowledge, and environmental sustainability by comparing various standpoints on African food production, scrutinizing the challenges the continent is facing and the unique perspectives it offers in terms of agricultural development in the globalized world. Finally, the course examines how agricultural systems in Africa are affected by the new global land rush. After taking the course, students will have better knowledge of emerging research directions on Africa and will be equipped with sufficient research and practical skills to pursue independent studies beyond the classroom.
AFRO 5016 - Africa and African Diaspora Archaeology [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: ANTH 3016, AFRO 3016, ANTH 5016
Africa and African Diaspora Archaeology (AFRO/ ANTH 3016/5016) examines the evolution of human behavior in Africa and looks at subsequent social, cultural, and technological developments as shown in archaeological records including artifacts, ecofacts, rock art, and structures at archaeological sites. It also discusses methods used to identify archaeological records and how these records can be used to reconstruct past ways of life. Students will obtain hand-on-experience in identifying, classifying, and interpreting archaeological objects. The course covers Africa from around 2.6 million years ago to the recent past, focusing primarily on the last 10,000 years. It examines the development and spread of food production, pottery, metallurgy, trade, and African connections with the Atlantic world dating back to the fifteenth century.
AFRO 5101 - Seminar: Introduction to Africa and the African Diaspora
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 8101 until 21-JAN-03
Comparative frameworks, related theories, and pivotal texts in study of Africa and African Diaspora.
AFRO 5103 - World History and Africa
(3 cr; Prereq-Grad student or instr consent; A-F or Audit; offered Fall Even Year)
Equivalent courses: AFRO 3103
Contributions of African American thinkers to making of African history/strategies to rework theoretical/analytical foundations of world history. Writings/intellectual networks of major thinkers whose historical/ethnographic works on Africa spanning nineteenth to twentieth century.
AFRO 5120 - Social and Intellectual Movements in the African Diaspora
(3 cr; Prereq-Grad student or instr consent; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: AFRO 3120, HIST 3456
Political, cultural, historical linkages between Africans, African-Americans, African-Caribbean. Black socio-political movements/radical intellectual trends in late 19th/20th centuries. Colonialism/racism. Protest organizations, radical movements in United States/Europe.
AFRO 5143 - Geography of West Africa
(3 cr; Student Option)
Equivalent courses: was GEOG 5143 until 06-SEP-05, was GEOG 5143 until 18-JAN-05, was GEOG 5143 until 07-SEP-99
West Africa from Senegal to Cameroon; social geography of resource use, population, settlement, economic development, and international relations.
AFRO 5181 - Blacks in American Theatre
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: was TH 5181W until 05-SEP-23, was TH 5181 until 17-JAN-12, was TH 5181 until 18-JAN-05, was TH 5181 until 07-SEP-04, was TH 5181 until 03-SEP-02, was TH 5181 until 07-SEP-99
Historical survey of significant events in the development of American Black theatrical tradition; essays, plays, playwrights, and theatres from early colonial references to Black Arts Movement.
AFRO 5181W - Blacks in American Theatre [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 5181 until 17-JAN-12, TH 5181W (inactive, starting 18-JAN-05, was TH 5181 until 17-JAN-12, was AFRO 5181 until 06-SEP-05, was TH 5181 until 18-JAN-05, was AFRO 5181 until 18-JAN-05, was TH 5181 until 07-SEP-04, was AFRO 5181 until 07-SEP-04, was TH 5181 until 03-SEP-02, was AFRO 5181 until 03-SEP-02, was TH 5181 until 07-SEP-99)
Historical survey of significant events in the development of American Black theatrical tradition; essays, plays, playwrights, and theatres from early colonial references to Black Arts Movement.
AFRO 5182 - Contemporary Black Theatre: 1960-Present
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Even Year)
Equivalent courses: was TH 5182 until 08-SEP-15, was TH 5182 until 18-JAN-05, was TH 5182 until 07-SEP-04, was TH 5182 until 16-JAN-01, was TH 5182 until 05-SEP-00, was TH 5182 until 07-SEP-99
Essays, plays, playwrights, and theatres that have contributed to contemporary Black theatre. From the beginning of the Black Arts Movement to the present.
AFRO 5182W - Contemporary Black Drama and Dramaturgies [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 5182 until 02-SEP-14, TH 5182 (inactive, starting 18-JAN-05, was AFRO 5182 until 06-SEP-05, was AFRO 5182 until 18-JAN-05, was AFRO 5182 until 07-SEP-04, was AFRO 5182 until 16-JAN-01, was AFRO 5182 until 05-SEP-00), TH 5182W (starting 03-SEP-13)
This course is an exploration of the impact and evolution of Black Theatre in America, covering the period rising from the Black Arts Movement to the present. The exploration will entail an understanding of cultural and socio-political issues as they are reflected in key and significant plays written and produced from the late 1950's to the present. The plays and essays will be read against the background of significant cultural, social and literary movements - the Civil Rights Movement, Cold War politics, the Women's Movement, Gay Liberation, the Culture Wars, post-modernism, deconstruction, multiculturalism, afro-futurism, etc. as well as the evolution of identity nomenclature and racial classification from Colored to Negro to Black to African American. In addition to play analysis and criticism, students will garner a knowledge of significant Black cultural institutions and their impact on the ever-changing American theatre landscape.
AFRO 5191 - Seminar: The African American Experience in South Africa
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 5438 (inactive)
Ideological, political, religious, and cultural ties that have informed African American and black South African relations from late 18th century to present.
AFRO 5406 - Black Feminist Thought
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: GWSS 5406 (starting 20-JAN-15, ending 22-JAN-13), GWSS 4406 (starting 20-JAN-15, ending 22-JAN-13), AFRO 4406
Critically examine spatiality of African descendant women in Americas/larger black diaspora. Writings from black feminist/queer geographies, history, contemporary cultural criticism. Recent black feminist theorizing.
AFRO 5593 - The African American Novel
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was AFRO 4593 until 28-MAY-13, PSY 5865 (ending 22-JAN-02, starting 07-SEP-99), AFRO 3593, ENGL 3593, ENGL 5593
Explore African American novelistic traditions. Plot patterns, character types, settings, symbols, themes, mythologies. Creative perspectives of authors themselves. Analytical frameworks from contemporary literary scholarship.
AFRO 5625 - Women Writers of Africa and the African Diaspora
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: AFRO 3625W (starting 03-SEP-13, was AFRO 3625 until 19-JAN-10)
In Coming to America, a 1988 film which blends humor and romance with some fairly pertinent observations, an African prince travels to Queens, NY, in search of a bride who will be both an equal and valued partner in life?s great adventure. In the thirty years since, the African immigrant story has become an intrinsic component of the booming canon of contemporary American immigrant literature, which includes such names as Edwidge Danticat, Jhumpa Lahiri, Junot Diaz, Chang-rae Lee, Gary Shteyngart, and others. This literary phenomenon mirrors trends identified in surveys and other similar data gathering activities. According to a 2009 study of the Migration Policy Institute, for instance, more than 75% of the foreign born African population in the United States has arrived since 1990. For these newcomers, Africa is not an imagined ancestral ?motherland? impressed in collective memory. Nor is it a faraway continent of parental origin whose negative media portrayal at times foments a problematic identification. Africa is a lived space, a home left behind, the anchor of childhood memories and?all too frequently?a horizon that perpetually beckons. As for America, it is the idealized land of freedom, prosperity, and opportunity that sometimes gives more than it promised, but oftentimes disenchants. This course situates gender squarely within the interlocking contexts of dynamic, complex and ever-changing African and American landscapes. Over the course of the semester, we will read short stories, novellas, personal narratives and essays, interspersed with visual excerpts from selected films and other representations of immigration, migration and border crossing in contemporary African and American cultural landscapes.
AFRO 5627 - Seminar: Harlem Renaissance
(3 cr; Prereq-Grad student or instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3627 (inactive), ENGL 5597 (inactive), AFRO 3627 (inactive, starting 04-SEP-01, was AFRO 4597 until 28-MAY-13, was AFRO 5597 until 17-JAN-12, was AFRO 4597 until 19-JAN-10, was AFRO 5597 until 05-SEP-06)
Review Harlem Renaissance from variety of perspectives. Literary, historical, cultural, political, international. Complex patterns of permeation/interdependency between worlds inside/outside of what W.E.B. Du Bois called "the Veil of Color."
AFRO 5866 - The Civil Rights and Black Power Movement, 1954-1984
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: AFRO 3866, HIST 3856
The "second reconstruction." Failure of Reconstruction, abdication of black civil rights in 19th century. Post-1945 assault on white supremacy via courts/state, grass-roots southern movement in 1950s/1960s. Black struggle in north and west, emphasis on Black Power by new organizations/ideologies/leaders. Ascendancy of Reagan, conservative assault on movement.
AFRO 5910 - Topics in African American and African Studies (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics vary by instructor.
AFRO 5932 - The Production of Knowledge, Negotiating the Past, and the Writing of African Histories
(3 cr; Prereq-Grad student or instr consent; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 5932 (starting 28-MAY-13)
Recent scholarship on social history of Africa. Focuses on new literature on daily lives of ordinary people in their workplaces, communities, households.
AFRO 5993 - Directed Study
(1 cr [max 3]; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 3 credits)
Guided individual reading/study for qualified seniors and graduate students.
AFRO 8202 - Seminar: Intellectual History of Race
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
At its heart, the 8202 seminar is about dialogue, interrogating scholarship on race, intellectual history, and knowledge production. We will be in deep conversation with one another as we negotiate meaning around the intellectual history of race. Dialogue, indeed, is at the heart of this graduate seminar experience. Given the multidisciplinary composition of the students and content in 8202, we build together to form a learning whole in a remote format. Central to our work is excavating the 500 year legacy of race thought and making into the contemporary period.
AFRO 8554 - Seminar: Gender, Race, Nation, and Policy--Perspectives from Within the African Diaspora
(3 cr; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Interdisciplinary analysis of U.S. domestic and foreign policies as they affect Africans and peoples of African descent in the diaspora. Intersections of gender, race, nation, and class.
AFRO 8590 - Contemporary Literary and Cultural Studies (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Each term explores a topic of key intellectual and critical significance in African American and/or African literary and cultural studies.
AFRO 8802 - Africa & the Rise of the East
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
This course draws attention to the Indian Ocean as the new theatre of global economy and politics. Indeed, most historians generally consider Christopher Columbus's 1492 landfall in the New World as the epoch-making moment in modern history. The undisputed and central place in history that North America?and the larger Americas?have come to occupy since that chance "discovery" and the subsequent centuries of conquest, colonization, and imperial domination have made the Atlantic region the most studied area in the world. Long before European presence turned the Indian Ocean into a volatile space rife with tensions and competing interests, however, the Afrasian region was the locus of trade flows between Africa, the Middle East and Asia. By the time Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama reached the Swahili coast of East Africa in 1497 enroute to India, expansive trade networks thrived in the area extending across the Sahara into the Atlantic Ocean in the West, and into the far East and beyond. Over the past two decades, Indian Ocean studies have witnessed an explosion driven by the incontestable fact that the region has today become the epicenter of global commerce, and a battleground for resource-based conflicts between waning, emerging superpowers, and their antagonists. AFRO 8802 deploys literary texts as reflective of ongoing critical engagement with the rise of the East as a major world center for technology, business, and increasingly, culture.
AFRO 8910 - Topics in Studies of Africa and the African Diaspora (Topics course)
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AFRO 8993 - Directed Study
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer)
Guided indvidual reading/study for qualified seniors and graduate students

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