African-American Studies B.A.

Offered autumn. Same as HIST 141H. This course introduces students to the primary questions, themes, and approaches to African-American Studies. In addition to examining key historical periods such as Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights era, students will encounter Hip-Hop, African-American film, African-American religion, and contemporary identity politics. This course concludes by discussing the reasons for and new directions in African-American studies, including diaspora studies, Pan-Africanism, and post-colonial studies. Overall students will gain new insight into the social, cultural, political, and intellectual, experiences of a diverse people and into the history and contemporary experience of the United States.

Offered autumn. Analysis of the development and concept of race as a social category and the processes of cultural change within and between ethnic groups.

(AM) Offered intermittently. Same as AAS 342H. Survey of the African American experience from the African background to the end of the Civil War.  Focus on Black American quest for the American Dream, and how Blacks attempted to deal with the challenges of enslavement and racism.

(AM) Same as AAS 343H.  Study of the African American experience since the Civil War. Change and continuity in the African American experience, the fight against Jim Crow, the struggle for civil rights, and post-civil rights economic, political, social and cultural developments and challenges.

Offered autumn. Same as WGS 220S. Analysis of the intersecting structure and dynamics of race, gender and class. Focus on power relationships, intergroup conflict and minority-group status.

Offered intermittently. Prereq., SOCI 101S or SOCI 220S or SOCI 275S. The origins, institutionalization and change of class, status, prestige, power and other forms of social inequality. Special attention to the effects of stratification on individuals.

(R-6) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.

Offered intermittently. Same as HIST 208H. Interdisciplinary study of the history of pre-colonial Africa, focusing on social, economic, political and cultural institutions and traditions including the wealth, diversity and complexity of ancient and classical African civilizations and cultures.

Offered intermittently. A study of the broad scope of relations between African Americans and Native Americans in colonial and United States history. Topics explored through history, sociology, and cultural anthropology.

Offered spring. Same as HIST 262. Interdisciplinary, historical perspective on the early 19th century movement to abolish slavery and racial discrimination in the United States.

(R-9) Offered autumn and spring. Study of the peoples of various geographic regions and their cultures.

Offered autumn, odd-numbered years. Study of the processes of change, modernization and development.

(R-6) Offered Intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.

Offered intermittently. Prereq., ECNS 201S. Study of the processes of economic growth and development in the less developed world.

Offered intermittently.  Prereq., ECNS 201S. Economic analysis of labor markets. Theories of wage determination, discrimination and poverty with implications for manpower policy.

(R-9) Offered every year. Prereq. FILM 103L. Intensive study of the life and work of one major film director.

Offered intermittently.  A diachronic survey of African cinema accompanied by interpretation and evaluation of textual dimensions of films through filmic critical theory.

Offered autumn and/or spring. An overall view of how the lands and peoples of the world are organized into coherent geographical regions, how landscapes differ from region to region, and how the people differ in terms of their traits, beliefs, ways of life, and economic livelihood.

Offered intermittently. A survey of the biophysical and cultural geography of Sub-Saharan Africa. Emphasis is on the region's cultural-historical development and current ecological, demographic, and economic patterns.

(AM) Same as AAS 262. Interdisciplinary, historical perspective on early 19th century movement to abolish slavery and racial discrimination in the United States.

(AM) The African American religious experience encompasses Islam, Christianity, Santeria, voodoo, and many others. In this course, students will examine the history of religious expression within the African-American community from the colonial era through the twentieth century. Central to the course question, "How did religion shape the experience of the African-American community?" Students will also examine the ways in which religious practice influenced social, political, and cultural changes in American history.  Same as AAS 347.

(AM) Social history of the American South with particular attention to race, class, and gender.

(AM) Issues in the social history of law from the colonial period to the present.

(R-12) Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.

Offered intermittently. Same as HSTA 415. Prereq., HSTR 200 and only open to majors and minors in history or consent of instructor. From slave revolts through to the Move rebellion in Philadelphia, this course examines how the African-American community has engaged in radical efforts to change the status quo in the name of seeking justice.

(AM) Same as HSTA 417. HSTR 200 and only open to majors and minors in history or consent of instructor. This course explores the meaning of public prayer in the Civil Rights Movement. Built around the question, "Does religion help or hinder the pursuit of social change?" this class combines historical and religious studies inquiry to trace changes in civil rights activists' efforts to make use of religion. By focusing on a particular religious practice - in this case prayer - in a specific, but limited period of time, this course challenges students to consider how meaning is formed through historical action and study the social significance of religious practice. This formed through historical action and study the social significance of religious practice. This course complicates prevailing ideas about the normalcy of African-American religious practitioners' prayer, invites students to examine their assumptions about the nature of prayer, and traces how religion spilled out of sanctuaries into the streets during the civil rights era.

(R-12) Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one time offerings of current topics.

(WRLD) A concise history of the Islamic world from the 6th century to the fall of the Abbasid Empire in the 13th century, focusing primarily on the teachings of Islam and the causes for the rapid expansion of the Islamic empire.

(R-6) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.

(R-9) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.

Offered intermittently. Prereq., LIT 300 or consent of instr. Selected readings from African American, Asian American, Chicano/a, Latino/a, and Native American literatures.

Offered intermittently. Prereq., LIT 300 or consent of instr. Selected works by African-American authors. Course may define a narrowed focus such as poetry, women writers, etc.

(R-9) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.

(R-9) Offered autumn or spring. Prereq., LIT 300 and six credits in literature courses numbered 300 or higher or consent of instr. Study and application of one or more theoretical approaches to interpreting texts (e.g., aesthetic post-structural, new historicist, classical, Renaissance, Romantic, narrative, psychoanalytic, formalist, neo-Marxist, feminist, gender, cultural studies and reader-response theory).

(R-6) Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.

Offered autumn. The development of jazz in the 20th century with emphasis on critical listening and the recognition of important trends and people in its history.

Offered autumn. Prereq., junior standing or consent of instr. Development of the political systems of sub-Saharan Africa. Analysis of the interaction between African and Western social, political, and economic forces. Consideration of African political thought.

Offered intermittently.  Examines the politics of diversity in the U.S., including national community, identity, citizenship, immigration, assimilation, and racial issues such as voting rights, affirmative action, segregation and integration, and public opinion.

Offered spring. Prereq., junior standing or consent of instr. The role of social movements in shaping the politics of power, reflected in public policy, electoral politics, relations of class, race, and gender, and people's understanding of the world and their place in it.

Offered spring. SOCI 101S and two inequality and social justice courses and consent of instr. Research and writing on Inequity and Social Justice. Students bring together readings from other inequality content courses and/or independent readings, research methods training, and data and/or internship experience to write a final research paper on a topic of their choice within the ISJ area. Meets advanced writing expectation.

Offered autumn. Prereq. junior or senior standing or consent of instr. An examination of the roots, prevalence, and social characteristics of poverty. Analysis of policies intended to end poverty.

Offered spring. In-depth exposure to feminist views and critique of the ethics and methods of scientific, social, and literary inquiry. Includes exposure to primary sources and current societal and global issues and movements, research finding, and literature exemplifying these methods of inquiry and the gendered dimensions of such inquiry.