Africana Studies
Overview and Learning Goals
Africana studies offers courses in the following fields of study: African American; African, and African diaspora. Over the course of their major/minor in Africana studies, students acquire knowledge and develop skills through coursework, independent studies, and, in some cases, a senior honors project. These skills and knowledge include:
- learning about the past and present of the African continent and its diaspora, with a particular focus on the United States, by employing interdisciplinary methods;
- writing clear and concise arguments about the historical, literary, economic, political, social, visual, and religious texts of Africa and its diaspora;
- working collaboratively with peers and/or faculty on research pertaining to African American and African political thought and historical contexts;
- speaking or performing coherently to a diverse audience about a specific topic pertaining to African American and African culture and politics; and
- designing a project using primary and secondary sources regarding Africa and its diaspora.
Options for Majoring or Minoring in the Department
Students may elect to major in Africana studies or to coordinate a major in Africana studies with digital and computational studies, education, or environmental studies. Students pursuing a coordinate major may not normally elect a second major. Non-majors may elect to minor in Africana studies.
Brian Purnell, Department Chair
Elizabeth Palmer, Department Coordinator
Professor: Tess Chakkalakal (English)
Associate Professors: Judith S. Casselberry, Brian Purnell (History), Michele Reid-Vazquez (Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies), Bianca Williams (Anthropology)
Assistant Professor: Michael Oshindoro
Contributing Faculty: Charlotte Daniels, Guy Mark Foster, David M. Gordon, Tracy McMullen, Ingrid A. Nelson‡, Patrick J. Rael, Hanétha Vété-Congolo*
Africana Studies Major
The major in Africana studies consists of nine courses. There are two tracks or concentrations:
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Required Courses | ||
| AFRS 1101 | Introduction to Africana Studies | 1 |
| Select one 2000-level Africana studies intermediate seminar. | 1 | |
| Select one 3000-level Africana studies senior seminar. | 1 | |
| Select six additional Africana studies electives. a,b,c | 6 | |
- a
At least five courses at the intermediate or advanced level (2000 or higher)
- b
Students in the African American concentration must take a least one course from the African and African Diaspora track.
- c
Students in the African and African Diaspora concentration must take at least one course from the African American track.
For both concentrations:
-
A maximum of two courses, either as an intermediate or advanced level independent study course or a course taken at another college or university, can count toward the major.
-
An approved honors project fulfills the senior seminar requirement. A complete honors project comprises two semesters of work.
Africana Studies Minor
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Required courses | ||
| AFRS 1101 | Introduction to Africana Studies | 1 |
| Select four Africana studies elective courses from either of the two Africana studies tracks. d,e | 4 | |
- d
Three of these courses must be at the 2000 and 3000 levels.
- e
Only one of these four electives can be an intermediate or advanced level independent study course or a course taken at another college or university.
Additional Information and Program Policies
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A first-year writing seminar in Africana studies counts toward the major or minor in Africana studies.
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Courses that count toward the major or minor must be taken for regular letter grades, and students must earn grades of C- or better.
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The chair of Africana studies will work with students to discuss double-counting cross-listed courses with other departments or programs.
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Since the AP African American Studies course is new, the AFRS department is reviewing the exam and AP course design recommendations to determine if or how to grant credit. The department will make its decision on this issue by 2026. See the chair if you have questions.
Information for Incoming Students
This fall, we will be offering one section of AFRS 1101 Introduction to Africana Studies; it is capped at 50 students and often fills. This class will likely also be offered in the spring, depending on student demand. All Africana studies classes are open to first-year students, with the exception of those taught at the 3000-level. Most of our courses attract students from all class years and academic interests, allowing first-years to get to know their fellow students in different years and with different levels of academic experience. There are many courses appropriate for first-year students that are cross-listed in other departments such as history, English, Francophone studies, anthropology, and sociology. If you have questions about any of these courses, contact the department chair: Professor Brian Purnell.
Explores the significant roles that women of color have played in American politics and around the world. Begins with the US context, starting in the antebellum era and moving forward by reading biographies/autobiographies that provide voice to the experiences faced by women of color in both traditional and non-traditional political spaces. These include women of color as close confidants to male political figures (first ladies, wives, and mistresses) and as politicians, judges, activists, and revolutionaries. Then shifts to a more global context considering the perspectives of women of color in countries where they have championed gender equality and feminism, and where they have become powerful political actors. This course originates in Government and Legal Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: GOV 1005, GSWS 1007)
Examines the social, political, and historical evolution of racism as a system and the challenges to studying and eradicating racism in contemporary American society. Investigates the construction of race, the various logics used to justify racial thinking, and the visible and invisible forces that perpetuate racial stratification and inequality in American life. Understands the various political and social debates that complicate and undermine how racism is defined and identified. Explores its impact on individuals, institutions, and cultures in the United States, and the various formal and subversive strategies deployed by individuals and collectives for challenging and combatting it. Emphasis on developing a language for discussing, debating, and writing about race and racism sociologically for public and academic audiences. This course originates in Sociology and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: SOC 1010)
Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester
Interdisciplinary exploration of the rise and fall (and reappearance) of the affirmative action debate that shaped so much of the American culture wars during the 1970s and 2000s. Students primarily study affirmative action in the United States, but comparative analysis of affirmative action systems in societies outside the United States, such as South Africa and India, is also considered. Examines important Supreme Court cases that have shaped the contours of affirmative action, the rise of diversity discourse, and the different ways political and cultural ideologies -- not to mention historical notions of American identity -- have determined when, where, and how affirmative action has existed and whom it benefits. Study of law, economics, sociology, anthropology, history, and political science introduces students to different methodological approaches that inform Africana studies and the field’s examination of the role people of African descent have played in contemporary and historical American society. Writing intensive. Analytical discussions of assigned texts. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: HIST 1019)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Explores the ways in which the idea of American freedom has been defined both with and against slavery through readings of legal and literary texts. Students come to terms with the intersections between the political, literary, and historical concept of freedom and its relation to competing definitions of American citizenship. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 1026)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester
Explores how the Black Caribbean scholars transformed race, nation, and class; expanded Blackness as a political stance and identity; and brought together Black radical traditions across the globe. The trans-Atlantic slave trade and capitalist expansion in the Caribbean radically altered notions of race, class, nation, and Blackness. Since then, Caribbean scholars have contributed new social theory through their critique and engagement with race and capitalism, exchange of ideas with Black scholars in the U.S., Europe, and Africa, and commentary on events across the world. Using the Caribbean as a starting point, the class seeks to define, interrogate, and expand what is meant by race, nation, and class through the lens of Blackness and introduces Caribbean scholarship as a site of global political, social, and cultural thought. This course originates in Sociology and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Ltn Am, Caribbean & Latinx St. (Same as: SOC 1018, LACL 1048)
Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Focuses on major humanities and social science disciplinary and interdisciplinary African American and African diaspora themes in the context of the modern world. The African American experience is addressed in its appropriate historical context, emphasizing its important place in the history of the United States and connections to African diasporic experiences, especially in the construction of the Atlantic world. Material considered chronologically and thematically builds on historically centered accounts of African American, African diaspora, and African experiences. Introduces prospective Africana studies majors and minors to the field; provides an overview of the predominant theoretical and methodological perspectives in this evolving discipline; and establishes historical context for critical analyses of African American experiences in the United States, and their engagement with the African diaspora.
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2022 Spring Semester; 2022 Fall Semester; 2023 Spring Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Introduces the techniques and methods of archaeology through an examination of Egyptian material culture. Emphasis is placed upon understanding the major monuments and artifacts of ancient Egypt from the prehistoric cultures of the Nile Valley through the period of Roman control. Architecture, sculpture, fresco painting, and other “minor arts” are examined at sites such as Saqqara, Giza, Thebes, Dendera, Tanis, and Alexandria. Considers the nature of this archaeological evidence, its context, and the relationship of archaeology to other disciplines such as africana studies, art history, anthropology, history, and classics. Course themes include the origins and development of complex state systems, funerary symbolism, contacts between Africa and the Mediterranean, and the expression of social, political and religious ideologies in art and architecture. Selected readings supplement illustrated presentations of the major archaeological finds of Egypt. Class meetings include artifact sessions in Bowdoin College Museum of Art. This course originates in Classics and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ARCH 1103)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester
Introduces students to the literary and historical aspects of the black novel as it developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United States. Begins with a consideration of the novels of Charles Chesnutt, Sutton Griggs, and Pauline Hopkins, then examines the ways in which novelists of the Harlem Renaissance—James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, and W. E. B. Du Bois—played with both the form and function of the novel during this era. Then considers how novels by Richard Wright, Chester Himes, and Ralph Ellison challenged and reformed the black novel’s historical scope and aesthetic aims. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 1107)
Examines the twin themes of love and sex as they relate to poems, stories, novels, and plays written by African American women from the nineteenth century to the contemporary era. Explores such issues as Reconstruction, the Great Migration, motherhood, sexism, group loyalty, racial authenticity, intra- and interracial desire, homosexuality, the intertextual unfolding of a literary tradition of black female writing, and how these writings relate to canonical African American male-authored texts and European American literary traditions. Students are expected to read texts closely, critically, and appreciatively. Possible authors: Harriet Jacobs, Frances Harper, Nella Larsen, Jessie Faucet, Ann Petry, Ntozake Shange, Suzan-Lori Parks, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Gayle Jones, Jamaica Kincaid, Terry McMillan, Sapphire, Lizzette Carter. Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: ENGL 1108, GSWS 1104)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
In conjunction with the fiftieth anniversary of Africana studies at Bowdoin, this yearlong, two-part course will address debates and issues of Africana studies through the lives of black women. In Part I, students will focus on early Africana studies texts, reading works by and about Phillis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, Frances Harper, Ida B. Wells, and Anna Julia Cooper. We will take up differences and continuities between these thinkers to understand the politics of respectability, work, representation, sexuality, and family across multiple historical contexts. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: English; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: ENGL 1301, GSWS 1301)
Terms offered: 2025 Fall Semester
In conjunction with the fiftieth anniversary of Africana studies at Bowdoin, this course will address debates and issues of Africana studies through the lives of black women. Students will focus on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries reading works by and about Zora Neale Hurston, Pauli Murray, Nina Simone, Josephine Baker, Angela Davis, and Condoleezza Rice. We will take up differences and continuities between these thinkers to understand the politics of respectability, work, representation, sexuality, and family across multiple historical contexts. Though this course continues the themes of AFRS 1109, students need not take Part I to take Part II. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: English; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: ENGL 1302, GSWS 1205)
Introduces students to the rich and diverse musical traditions of sub-Saharan Africa. Covers traditional and modern musical practices from various regions, and explores their roles in social, cultural, and political contexts from historical and contemporary perspectives. Students learn to identify basic regional musical properties and characteristic musical styles. Case studies may include West African dance-drumming, Ghanaian highlife, musical oral historians, “African Ballets,” South African a cappella, the protest music of Nigerian Fela Kuti and Zimbabwean Thomas Mapfumo, as well as contemporary hip-hop and religious pop music. Based on lectures, readings, performances by visiting artists, discussions, and audio and video sources. No prior musical knowledge necessary. This course originates in Music and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: MUS 1211)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester
From the folkloric dance forms to popular and secular dance practices, this course journeys through various islands and countries of the Caribbean to learn about their various histories and cultures, including the music, costumes, and basic rhythms associated with each particular dance form. This in-studio course provides a general introduction to some of the sacred and popular dances of the Caribbean. Although movement is the primary work of this course, what we learn in class may be supplemented by readings and outside research. *Please note that no prior experience or training is required. Grading will not be based on technical skill levels, but on mindful, full-bodied participation that demonstrates comprehension and articulation of course materials. This course originates in Theater and Dance and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: DANC 1213)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2025 Spring Semester
This course introduces students to connective concepts and issues in locations throughout the region, such as Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. The course engages a combination of historical and qualitative analysis to provide a deeper understanding of the Caribbean’s complex history, cultural vibrancy, and global connections. Topics may include Indigenous and African enslavement, degrees of freedom within slave systems, rebellion and revolution, anticolonial and social movements, contemporary migration, and social justice issues. This course originates in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: LACL 1215)
Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Examines the coming of the Civil War and the war itself in all its aspects. Considers the impact of changes in American society, the sectional crisis and breakdown of the party system, the practice of Civil War warfare, and social ramifications of the conflict. Includes readings of novels and viewing of films. Students are expected to enter with a basic knowledge of American history, and a commitment to participating in large class discussions. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 1241)
This course is an opportunity to engage with the history, heritage, and culture of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latin American and Caribbean communities in the US through music. We will explore issues of race, identity, religion, and politics from a broad temporal span of around five hundred years—from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. We will cover a broad variety of regions, contexts, and musical genres from classical, folk, and popular traditions, such as salsa, Cuban son, hip-hop, Latin polyphony, rock, villancicos, protest song, chamber music, reggaeton, vallenato, and more. This course is not meant to be comprehensive but will reflect on the many ways in which music has been used in different cultural and historical contexts, offering a close examination of its characteristics, means, and meanings. This course originates in Music and is crosslisted with: Ltn Am, Caribbean & Latinx St. (Same as: MUS 1271, LACL 1271)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Introduces students to the genre of African American biography by examining the form from its first inception in the eighteenth century with biographical sketches of important black figures -- such as Crispus Attucks, Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, and Benjamin Banneker -- to the contemporary African American biopic feature film of figures including Jackie Robinson, Mohammad Ali, and Nina Simone. Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: English. (Same as: ENGL 1300)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
American cities have been historic cauldrons of racial and ethnic conflict. Concentrates on urban violence in American cities since 1898. Students study moments of conflict during the early republic and the nineteenth century. Topics examined include the post-Reconstruction pogroms that overturned interracial democracy; the Red Summer and its historical memory; the ways race and ethnicity shaped urban residential space; the effects of immigration on urban political economy and society, and the conflicts over space, labor, and social relations that arose; and the waves of urban violence that spread across the country in the mid-1960s. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: HIST 1320, URBS 1320)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2024 Spring Semester
African peoples are often imagined as victims of history. This course challenges such stereotypes by introducing students to the great civilizations of medieval and early modern Africa. Includes the Nile Valley, Ethiopia, Mali, Oyo, Dahomey, Asante, Kongo, Lunda, Swahili, and Zulu. Various themes include political power and governance; culture and society; trade and economy; women and gender; and youth and generational conflict. Content is explored by reading fiction, poetry, myth, artwork (including art in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art), and historical scholarship. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa. It also meets the non-Euro/US requirement and pre-modern requirements. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 1461)
Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester
A socio-cultural, historical, and analytical introduction to jazz music from the turn of the twentieth century to around 1950. Includes some concert attendance. This course originates in Music and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: MUS 1281)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Explores how a marginalized and racially segregated genre (the so called 'Race Music' of the 1920s) developed into the world's most dominant popular music tradition. The history of rock, pop, and soul music and its descendants (including r&b, folk-rock, art-rock, punk, metal, and funk) will be considered through six often inter-related filters: race relations, commerce and the recording industry, politics, authenticity and image, technology, and, of course, the music itself. This course originates in Music and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: MUS 1291)
Traces the history of hip-hop culture (with a focus on rap music) from its beginnings in the Caribbean to its transformation into a global phenomenon by the early 1990s. Explores constructions of race, gender, class, and sexuality in hip-hop’s production, promotion, and consumption, as well as the ways in which changing media technology and corporate consolidation influenced the music. Artists/bands investigated include Grandmaster Flash, Run-D.M.C., Public Enemy, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, N.W.A., MC Lyte, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Dr. Dre. This course originates in Music and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: MUS 1292, GSWS 1592)
Analyzes the ability of race and ethnicity to restrict access to citizenship rights and produce dynamic forms of political behavior that range from micro to macro-politics. Considers the traditional forms of political behavior (e.g., voting) as well as those that function outside of the traditional institutions of governmental influence. Specific forms of political behavior discussed include foot-dragging (failure to act with the necessary promptness), sports, music, protests, and voting. This course originates in Government and Legal Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: GOV 2051)
Examines the impact of race and ethnicity on American politics. Key topics include the impact of race on government, and the development and influence of group identities. Also covers rights, representation, and voting, as well as impacts on education and criminal justice. This course originates in Government and Legal Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: GOV 2052)
Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Spring Semester
Traces and examines the political efforts of black Americans to gain full and equitable inclusion into the American polity. Key topics include identity, ideology, movement politics, electoral participation, institutions and public policy. This course originates in Government and Legal Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: GOV 2053)
Examines the history of African Americans from the origins of slavery in America through the death of slavery during the Civil War. How could anyone (let alone the Founding Fathers) have traded human beings as chattel? How did African-descended people in America come to be both part of and yet perpetually marginalized in America? What does this say about the nature of American democracy and the mythologies of American history? How much agency did African Americans have in crafting their own experience, and what does this say about the nature of both their oppression and their resistance? In what ways have African Americans contributed to the formation of American society? We will be concerned not simply with the important task of reinserting the African American past into our national historical narrative. We will also be interested in understanding the depths to which American society has been predicated on the intersections of race, economy, and society. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 2140)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester
Explores the history of African Americans from the end of the Civil War to the present. Issues include the promises and failures of Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era, black leadership and protest institutions, African American cultural styles, industrialization and urbanization, the world wars, the Civil Rights Movement, and conservative retrenchment. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 2141)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester
An interdisciplinary introduction from the perspectives of art history, literary history, and history to the political, economic, and social questions arising from American Reconstruction (1866-1877) and Reunion (1878-1900) following the Civil War between the North and South. Readings delve into a wide array of primary and secondary sources -- including photographs, novels, poetry, and government documents -- in order to understand the fierce political debates rooted in Reconstruction that continue to occupy conceptions of America today. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: English; History. (Same as: ENGL 2900, HIST 2142)
This course explores the United States Civil War. Beginning with an overview of causes and ending with prospects for Reconstruction, it focuses on the key issues raised by the war: the relationship between military and political factors, the social changes wrought by war, and the crucial issues of slavery and emancipation. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 2145)
Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester
Seminar. Examines the convergence of politics and spirituality in the musical work of contemporary black women singer-songwriters in the United States. Analyzes material that interrogates and articulates the intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality generated across a range of religious and spiritual terrains with African diasporic/black Atlantic spiritual moorings, including Christianity, Islam, and Yoruba. Focuses on material that reveals a womanist (black feminist) perspective by considering the ways resistant identities shape and are shaped by artistic production. Employs an interdisciplinary approach by incorporating ethnomusicology, anthropology, literature, history, and performance and social theory. Explores the work of Shirley Caesar, the Clark Sisters, Meshell Ndegeocello, Abby Lincoln, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Dianne Reeves, among others. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: Gender Sexuality and Women St; Music; Religion. (Same as: GSWS 2207, MUS 2291, REL 2201)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester
Introduction to the sociological study of race and ethnicity in the contemporary United States. Examines prominent theories pertaining to the social and cultural meanings of race and ethnicity, causes and consequences of structural racism, relationships between race and class, how immigration and assimilation shape and are shaped by social constructions of race and ethnicity, dynamic representations of race and ethnicity in the media, formation and shifts of intra-group and inter-group boundaries, and more. This course originates in Sociology and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: SOC 2208, LACL 2708)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2024 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester
Intermediate seminar. Postwar US cities were considered social, economic, political, and cultural zones of crisis. African Americans -- their families; gender relations; their relationship to urban political economy, politics, and culture -- were at the center of this discourse. Uses David Simon’s epic series “The Wire” as a critical source on postindustrial urban life, politics, conflict, and economics to cover the origins of the urban crisis, the rise of an underclass theory of urban class relations, the evolution of the urban underground economy, and the ways the urban crisis shaped depictions of African Americans in American popular culture. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: Urban Studies. (Same as: URBS 2620)
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2023 Fall Semester
Focuses on the ways black people have experienced twentieth-century events. Examines social, economic, and political catalysts for processes of protest music production across genres including gospel, blues, folk, soul, funk, rock, reggae, and rap. Analysis of musical and extra- musical elements includes style, form, production, lyrics, intent, reception, commodification, mass-media, and the Internet. Explores ways in which people experience, identify, and propose solutions to poverty, segregation, oppressive working conditions, incarceration, sexual exploitation, violence, and war. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: Anthropology; Music. (Same as: ANTH 2227, MUS 2292)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester
This course introduces students to written and visual modes of storytelling in Africa, with emphasis on a variety of literary texts and films. Students engage novels, plays, and films from diverse geographical regions on the continent and analyze topics and themes to gain a critical understanding of the most important issues for African writers, filmmakers, and artists across genres and generations. This course fulfills the International Perspectives distribution requirement by introducing students to themes and topics from different cultural, national, historical contexts in Africa. It also fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement by equipping students with analytical skills to creatively explore their curiosities in critical aspects of African storytelling. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: English; Cinema Studies. (Same as: ENGL 2230, CINE 2571)
Terms offered: 2025 Fall Semester
Introduction to the traditional patterns of livelihood and social institutions of African peoples. Following a brief overview of African geography, habitat, and cultural history, lectures and readings cover a representative range of types of economy, polity, and social organization, from the smallest hunting and gathering societies to the most complex states and empires. Emphasis upon understanding the nature of traditional social forms. Changes in African societies in the colonial and post-colonial periods examined, but are not the principal focus. This course originates in Anthropology and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ANTH 2533)
A continuation of modern dance principles introduced in Dance 1211 with the addition of African-derived dance movement. The two dance aesthetics are combined to create a new form. Technique classes include center floor exercises, movement combinations across the floor, and movement phrases. Students also attend dance performances in the community. This course originates in Theater and Dance and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: DANC 2241, LACL 2396)
Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester
Repertory students are required to take Dance 2241 concurrently. A continuation of modern dance principles introduced in Dance 1211 with the addition of African-derived dance movement. The two dance aesthetics are combined to create a new form. Through regular rehearsals students are part of an artistic creative process and perform in the Spring Dance concert at the end of the semester. This course originates in Theater and Dance and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: DANC 2242)
An introduction to dance as a meaning-making, cultural practice. Using embodiment/performance, writing, and discussion, students will use the gestures embedded within dance cultures as critical tools necessary for analyzing and theorizing aspects of race, sexuality, gender, and nationalism. Accordingly, students will understand the meanings and roles of dance and gesture within larger historical, cultural, social, and theatrical contexts. In sum, this class examines dance forms and dancing bodies, such as Indian classical dance, Puerto Rican bomba, and blackface minstrelsy, to better understand how cultures throughout the globe come to know and understand both themselves and the world at large. This course originates in Theater and Dance and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: DANC 2506)
Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester
Students examine the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement to understand the centrality of race, racism, and political organizing in change-making processes in the US Critical perspectives offered in speeches, biographies, music, and films shed light on the connections between ever-changing notions of Blackness(es), structural and institutional forms of oppression, and the bloody, sweaty, and tearful efforts people engaged in to create change. Analyzes the political and social transformations made possible by changemakers such as Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Ella Baker, Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, the Black Panther Party, SNCC, and the Freedom Riders, providing insight into the diversity of strategies and methods for organizing and resistance that Black peoples and allies used to get free(er). This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: History.
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2023 Spring Semester; 2024 Spring Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
In this course, we will engage inter-disciplinarily with a wide range of media and texts (films, documentaries, prose works, autobiographies, and essays) in examining the historical development of Black Germany and discuss diasporic and transnational influences instrumental to the formation of early Black German movements. The content intersects with a variety of aspects—for instance, how the Afro-German poet, activist, researcher, and educator May Ayim links feminist issues with racial discourse or how W.E.B. DuBois intersects with both African American history and German philosophy. The course is structured along a chronological axis, and into five units: German colonial occupations in Africa, Weimar Republic, Nazi period, the postwar era, and the post-unification period. We will discuss how Blackness was constructed in relation to Germanness, nationality, gender, and race and how these conceptualizations shaped the experiences of Black persons living in Germany. Lastly, in looking to the contemporary, we will consider the importance of Black popular culture for Germany and highlight notable efforts in scholarship, activism, cultural production, and creativity. Authors may include Franz Fanon, May Ayim, W. E. B. DuBois, Grada Kilomba, Tina Campt, Fatima El-Tayeb, William Gardner Smith, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and others. This course originates in German and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: GER 2257)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
Seminar. Examines black sacred music from its earliest forms, fashioned by enslaved Africans, through current iterations produced by black global actors of a different sort. Explores questions such as: What does bondage sound like? What does emancipation sound like? Can we hear corresponding sounds generated by artists today? In what ways have creators of sacred music embraced, rejected, and re-envisioned the 'strange land' over time? Looks at musical and lyrical content and the context in which various music genres developed, such as Negro spirituals, gospel, and sacred blues. Contemporary artists such as Janelle Monáe, Beyoncé, Bob Marley, and Michael Jackson included as well. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: Music. (Same as: MUS 2261)
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2023 Spring Semester
Examines the ways religion, race, and gender shape people’s lives from the nineteenth century into contemporary times in America, with particular focus on black communities. Explores issues of self-representation, memory, material culture, embodiment, and civic and political engagement through autobiographical, historical, literary, anthropological, cinematic, and musical texts. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: Gender Sexuality and Women St; Religion. (Same as: GSWS 2270, REL 2271)
Provides a socio-cultural, historical, and analytical introduction to jazz music from around 1950 to the present. Students learn to understand the history of jazz in terms of changes in musical techniques and social values and to recognize music as a site of celebration and struggle over relationships and ideals. Students increase their ability to hear differences among performances and styles. They gain greater knowledge of US history as it affects and is affected by musical activities and learn to appreciate the stakes and motives behind the controversies and debates that have often surrounded various styles of African American music. This course originates in Music and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: MUS 2281)
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2024 Spring Semester
This course examines hip-hop culture's vast array of expressive practices. Focusing primarily on hip-hop dance practices, our study will situate these dances within a larger hip-hop culture, acknowledging hip-hop as both inherently African diasporic and specific to the particular US historical, cultural, and sociopolitical contexts in which—and the communities from whom—these practices emerge. Exploring aesthetics and/as cultural values, we will pay particular attention to the roles of power and inequity, interrogating themes that may include racism, anti-Blackness, white supremacy, globalization, appropriation, community, joy, and agency. We will examine our own positionalities, asking what it can mean to engage responsibly in hip-hop as well as what it can mean to be responsible to the communities of folks who created and continue to create hip-hop culture. Primarily a reading-, writing-, and discussion-based course, our study will be supplemented with physical practice in the studio. This course originates in Theater and Dance and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Music. (Same as: DANC 2404, MUS 2298)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2024 Fall Semester
Dance—an art form whose medium is the body—and ethnography—the study of people and their cultures—are great tools for addressing some of the ways different dancing bodies have been historically policed for “dancing sex(y).” Other tools, such as critical dance and Black theories, in addition to queer and feminist approaches, will also be utilized to comprehend the uneven ways these bodies are further racialized, sexualized, and gendered throughout the Americas. In particular, students will learn about various dances (such as the Argentine tango, the Martinican bélè, US vogueing, and the Trinidadian wine) through readings, lectures, and actual in-studio dancing/embodiment. Ultimately, the intention here is to understand dancing as both a meaning-making activity and a way of understanding the world. In turn, it is an important lens for critically thinking, talking, researching, and writing about politics of identity (especially regarding nationality, gender, race, and sexuality). (Same as: DANC 3505, GSWS 3104, LACL 3310)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
Traces the history of hip-hop culture (with a focus on rap music) from the 1990s to the present day. Explores how ideas of race, gender, class, and sexuality are constructed and maintained in hip-hop’s production, promotion, and consumption, and how these constructions have changed and/or coalesced over time. Investigates hip-hop as a global phenomenon and the strategies and practices of hip-hop artists outside of the United States. Artists investigated range from Iggy Azalea to Jay-Z, Miz Korona to Ibn Thabit. This course originates in Music and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: MUS 2294, GSWS 2294)
Provides students with a comprehensive understanding of armed conflicts on the continent and practical strategies for resolution. Delves into African conflicts' historical and sociopolitical contexts, exploring the complexities underlying their causes. Students will gain insights into peace-building frameworks and engage with case studies to analyze successful peace-building initiatives. Introduces traditional sources of peace-building and peacemaking in Africa and efforts and initiatives by Africa’s regional organizations, such as the African Union and ECOWAS. Encourages critical thinking and equips students with the skills to understand Africa better. Through lectures, discussions, and practical exercises, students will emerge with a nuanced perspective on the challenges and opportunities in fostering sustainable peace in Africa. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: Government and Legal Studies. (Same as: GOV 2532)
Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
This class investigates the central feminist concept of difference—in sex, gender, race, class, ability, and nation—centrally through the history of women of color and Third World feminist coalitional organizing from the 1970s to the present. Taking as its spine central anthologies of feminist writing including The Black Woman Anthology (Bambara, 1970), This Bridge Called My Back (Anzaldúa & Moraga, 1981), and Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (Mohanty 1991), the course considers theoretical approaches to feminist formations of difference alongside the difficult and crucial work of relational feminist praxes. Proceeding thematically through questions of sex, gender, race, and colonial/civilizational difference among other formations, we will draw on the works of thinkers such as Audre Lorde, Toni Cade Bambara, Cherri Moraga, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Rita Segato, Adrienne Rich, Iris Marion-Young, Wendy Brown, Suzanne Césaire, Angela Davis, and Mariame Kaba in order to develop a historically and theoretically grounded conception of our own feminist praxes and liberatory political responses and responsibilities in context. The course originates in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies, Government and Legal Studies, and Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies. (Same as: GSWS 2014, GOV 2930, LACL 2314)
Terms offered: 2025 Fall Semester
Investigates the construction of girlhood through the lens of global feminist resistance, centering the writings and struggles of young women and femmes in the experience and practice of colonized, transnational, and refugee girlhood. With groundings in race, class, gender, ability, and sexuality, the course will engage with not only academic writing but also media and cultural production by and concerning girls. The work of this course is to interrogate (neo)colonial histories by centering not only what empire wants and takes from girls (how their images are deployed, how their reproductive labor is extracted), but also what girls want and do in the course of their living with, under, and against colonial power(s). This course originates in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Asian Studies; Ltn Am, Caribbean & Latinx St. (Same as: GSWS 2245, LACL 2322, ASNS 2322)
To master and think critically about classic and contemporary work in critical race theory, especially the work of Derrick Bell, Richard Delgado, Kimberle Crenshaw, and Tommy Curry, we will critically examine such topics as intersectionality, gender and black male studies, social dominance theory, the racial wealth gap, reparations, hate speech, the black/white binary, and revisionist history, among other topics. We will take a distinctively philosophical outlook on these topics: identify value assumption and analyze and evaluate arguments. Finally, we will ponder the relationship of critical race theory (a domain of critical legal studies) to contemporary philosophy of race (a domain of moral and political philosophy). Students will come away with a better understanding of both the conceptual and political issues involved in discussing contemporary issues of race. This course originates in Philosophy and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: PHIL 2326, LACL 2326)
Explores higher education in the contemporary United States through a sociological lens, highlighting the ways that colleges and universities both promote social mobility and perpetuate inequality. Examines the functions of higher education for students and society; issues of inequality in college access, financing, campus experiences, and outcomes later in life; the challenges and benefits of diversity and inclusion; and other topics, with special attention across all topics to the case of African Americans. This course originates in Sociology and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Education. (Same as: SOC 2330, EDUC 2279)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester
How “African” is Latin American music? Although the size, nature, and significance of the Black population in Spanish America is often dismissed, the massive forced migration of African peoples to transatlantic Portuguese and Spanish dominions changed not only the soundscape but also tastes and musical practices in the entire Western Hemisphere. This course explores the legacies of Western African traditions in the music of Latin America. The scope and diversity of Afro-Latin, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latinx musical traditions is immense, but we will explore specific historical narratives, regions, music genres, and sources and will engage with diverse scholarly approaches for the study of African roots in Latin American music(s). Some examples include seventeenth-century negrillas, eighteenth-century songs and dances for the Luso-Brazilian viola, Afro-Dominican salves, Mexican spirituals, Colombian vallenato, Brazilian samba, Cuban timba, Puerto Rican bomba, and Caribbean reggae, reggaetón, rap, and hip-hop. This course originates in Music and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: MUS 2297, LACL 2336)
Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester
An introduction to ongoing topics in colonialism, racial thinking, environmental studies, global, and Caribbean studies. Examines how race, gender, and class operate under racial capitalism and settler colonialism. Readings will center on the works of critical geographers, Caribbeanists, and scholars of the African diaspora (including Latin America), among other critical, anti-capitalist, decolonial, and environmentalist scholars. Reading in this course will take up the question(s) of land and land-making and race, racialization, and racial thinking alongside questions of space and place, as they all relate to the various processes, projects, and methods of (dis)/(re)possession. Weekly in-class discussions will be combined with guest lectures to provide the opportunity for exploring how race, space, and (dis)(re)possession can be understood geographically, and to also explain how a range of these territorializing processes operate. Sample topics include the following: indigeneity and Blackness, dispossession and accumulation, and environmental imperialism, war, and colonial resistance. The course originates in Environmental Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies. (Same as: ENVS 2360, LACL 2860)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
Surveys history of Africa after conquest by European powers until independence in the 1960s, with a focus on west and central Africa. Includes the global precursors to colonialism, African resistance to European encroachment, and the violence of conquest. The nature of the colonial endeavor, in terms of the type of colonial regime (concessionaire, settler, or trade) is explored alongside the policies of British, French, Belgian, and Portuguese colonists and early resistance to colonialism. Covers the rise of anti-colonial nationalism and decolonization and why European powers quit Africa after only sixty years of formal colonialism. Addresses the diverse hopes and visions of the first independent generation of African leaders, including Kwame Nkrumah, Leopold Sénghor, Nnandi Azikiwe, Julius Nyerere, and Patrice Lumumba. Concludes with colonial legacies in the form of the postcolonial “gatekeeper” state. Within this time frame, considers the politics of gender, race, and class. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa and Colonial Worlds. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 2364)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester
An introduction to ongoing and more contemporary topics in colonialism, racial thinking, African Diaspora Studies (including the Caribbean and Latin America) alongside studies of ‘the environment,’ and dispossession. Readings will examine how race, gender, and class operate under racial capitalism and settler colonialism both in "the past" and in "the contemporary." Readings will center on the works of critical geographers, Caribbeanists, and scholars of the African Diaspora, among other critical, anti-capitalist, decolonial, and environmentalist scholars. Reading in this course will take up the question(s) of land and landmaking; race, racialization, and racial thinking; alongside questions of space and place as they all relate to the various processes, projects, and methods of (dis)/(re)possession. We will examine temporal binaries and notions of "progress." Weekly in-class discussions will be combined with guest lectures to provide the opportunity for exploring how race, space, and (dis)(re)possession can be understood geographically, and to also explain how a range of these territorializing processes operate and can be understood geographically. Sample topics include the following: indigeneity and Blackness; dispossession and accumulation; environmental imperialism, war, genocide, and colonial resistance. This course originates in Environmental Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies. (Same as: ENVS 2361, LACL 2361)
Terms offered: 2025 Fall Semester
The study of apartheid in South Africa, the system of racial and ethnic segregation that began in 1948 and ended with the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994. Explores the many different facets of apartheid: how and why it emerged; its social and economic aspects; how people lived under, resisted, and collaborated with apartheid, and its similarities and differences to other forms of racial and identity-based governance, including European colonialism in Africa, US segregation, and Zionism in Israel / Palestine. The readings, lectures, and class discussions focus on the voices of diverse South Africans, activists, youth, workers, artists, soldiers, and students, exploring their different gendered, ethnic, and racial perspectives. NOTE: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa; and Atlantic Worlds. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 2366)
Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
The end of European colonialism was a revolutionary moment across the African continent. This course explores not only how this revolution was betrayed and compromised, but also how the anti-colonial revolution continued to inspire struggles for political and economic justice. Topics of study may include African socialism and nationalism; post-colonial predatory states; underdevelopment and globalization; the politics of aid; civil society and the African nation-state; inter-state and civil wars; eco-struggles; gender; music, movies and popular culture; health and healing; contested sovereignties and citizenships; and African diasporas. A general survey of continental trends south of the Sahara with particular emphasis on Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Angola, Mozambique, Senegal, Mali, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Nigeria. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 2367)
Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester
Millennium-old interactions between peoples of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia forged cosmopolitan and diverse civilizations stretching from Mogadishu to Madagascar. As with recent phases of globalization, these older cosmopolitan civilizations created landscapes of inequality. This course considers how interactions between different peoples contributed to structures of power and privilege in the history of East Africa. Themes covered include: dhow-based maritime trade across the Indian Ocean; coastal Swahili civilizations; empires such as Axum, Ethiopia and Great Zimbabwe; the spread of Islam; the slave trade and slavery; concubinage and gender-based hierarchies; and Omani, Portuguese, British, Italian, and German colonialisms. Concludes with late colonial conflicts including the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya; the revolution in Zanzibari; post-colonial states; and rebel Islamic insurgencies from Mozambique to Somalia. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Middle Eastern & North African. (Same as: HIST 2825, MENA 2365)
Terms offered: 2025 Fall Semester
Introduces the religious beliefs and practices of African peoples and their descendants in the Americas. Topics will include historical spiritual links between Africa and the African diaspora, spirits and divinities from an Afro-Atlantic perspective, and religious contact and mixture in Africa and the Americas. The contributions of Afro-Atlantic peoples to global Christianity, Islam, and other world religions will be explored. After a brief historical and cultural grounding, the course pursues these issues thematically, considering various Afro-Atlantic religious technologies in turn, from divination and spirit possession to computers and mass media. This course originates in Anthropology and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Religion. (Same as: ANTH 2470, REL 2470)
An introduction to the cultures of various French-speaking regions outside of France. Examines the history, politics, customs, cinema, and the arts of the Francophone world, principally Africa and the Caribbean. Increases cultural understanding prior to study abroad in French-speaking regions. This course originates in Romance Languages and Literatures and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: FRS 2407, LACL 2407)
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2023 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester
Examines oral and written traditions of areas where French is spoken in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America from the Middle Ages to 1848. Through interdisciplinary units, students examine key moments in the history of the francophone world, drawing on folktales, epics, poetry, plays, short stories, essays, and novels. Explores questions of identity, race, colonization, and language in historical and ideological context. Taught in French. This course originates in Romance Languages and Literatures and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: FRS 2409, LACL 2209)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2022 Spring Semester; 2022 Fall Semester; 2023 Spring Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2024 Spring Semester; 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Spring Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Examines questions of power and resistance as addressed in the literary production of the French-speaking world from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries. Examines how language and literature serve as tools for both oppression and liberation during periods of turmoil: political and social revolutions, colonization and decolonization, the first and second world wars. Authors may include Hugo, Sand, Sartre, Fanon, Senghor, Yacine, Beauvoir, Condé, Césaire, Djebar, Camus, Modiano, Perec, and Piketty. Students gain familiarity with a range of genres and artistic movements and explore the myriad ways that literature and language reinforce boundaries and register dissent. Taught in French. This course originates in Romance Languages and Literatures and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: FRS 2410, LACL 2210)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2022 Spring Semester; 2022 Fall Semester; 2023 Spring Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2024 Spring Semester; 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Spring Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
What does it mean to say that we perform our identities? What role can performance play in the fight for racial and social justice?,What role has performance played in shaping the history of black Americans, a people long denied access to literacy? Performance studies--an interdisciplinary field devoted to the study of a range of aesthetic practices--offers us insight into such questions. Investigates various performances, including contemporary plays, movies and television, dance, and social media. Queries the relationships between identities like race, gender, class, and performance as well as the connection between performance onstage and in everyday life. This course originates in Theater and Dance and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Dance. (Same as: THTR 2503, DANC 2503)
Historical survey of nineteenth-century American fiction, including works by Washington Irving, Catherine Sedgwick, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frank Webb, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Wells Brown, Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Henry James, John DeForest, Edith Wharton, William Dean Howells, and Charles Chesnutt. Note: Fulfills the literature of the Americas requirement for English majors. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 2504)
Continues the themes and issues introduced in American Literature I into the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In particular, examines the aftermath of the Civil War and slavery, both its material devastation as well as the technological and literary innovation it generated that helped the country prosper for the next five decades. Examines the development of various literary movements including, realism, naturalism, and African American literature through readings of works by William Dean Howells, Henry James, Edith Wharton, W.E.B. DuBois, Charles Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, Stephen Crane, Sarah Orne Jewett, Mark Twain, Ida B. Wells, Frank Norris, Pauline Hopkins, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 2506)
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester
Surveys societies and politics in sub-Saharan Africa, seeking to understand the sources of current conditions and the prospects for political stability and economic growth. Looks briefly at pre-colonial society and colonial influence on state-construction in Africa, and concentrates on three broad phases in Africa’s contemporary political development: (1) independence and consolidation of authoritarian rule; (2) economic decline and challenges to authoritarianism; (3) democratization and civil conflict. Presumes no prior knowledge of the region. This course originates in Government and Legal Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: GOV 2530)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Intermediate seminar. This course examines past and present social movements through the lens of global Black feminist writing and media. By reading and engaging key texts of activist groups and leaders (such as the Combahee River Collective, The Black Panther Party, and the Movement for Black Lives), students will learn about the principles, philosophies, and organizing praxis of Black feminist activists. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: Anthropology; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: ANTH 2566, GSWS 2566)
Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester
Introduces students to the controversial history of reader responses to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Students engage with various theoretical approaches—reader response theory, feminist, African Americanist, and historicist—to the novel, then turn to the novel itself and produce their own literary interpretation. In order to do so, students examine the conditions of the novel’s original production. By visiting various historic locations, the Stowe House on Federal Street, the First Parish on Maine Street, Special Collections of the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, students compare the novel’s original historical context to the history that the novel produced. Aside from reading Stowe’s antislavery fiction, students also read works produced with and against Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Note: Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 2582)
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2024 Fall Semester
Examines literature published in the United States between 1861 and 1865, with particular emphasis on the wartime writings of Louisa May Alcott, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, William Gilmore Simms, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman. Students also consider writings of less well-known writers of the period found in popular magazines such as “Harpers Monthly,” “The Atlantic Monthly,” “The Southern Illustrated News,” and Frank Leslie’s “Illustrated Newspaper.” Note: This course fulfills the literature of the Americas requirement for English majors. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: English. (Same as: ENGL 2583)
: Oil, diamonds, gold. . . riches in the midst of poverty. How can Africa boast so many natural resources and yet remain the poorest continent on earth? What is the “resource curse?” Begins by putting Africa in the context of global resource extraction, oil in particular. Establishes Africa’s long pre-colonial experience with trade in iron, gold, salt, and slaves. The colonial period deepened the reliance of many territories on specific resources, a pattern that continues to the present. Uses Burkina Faso as a specific example of gold extraction, contrasting industrial and artisanal mining. Modern streams of prospectors throughout West Africa echo the California gold rush, but with important distinctions.. A research-based writing seminar in political science, the course will highlight the interplay between national and foreign governments, international and domestic firms, and local and migrant prospectors as they vie for access to valuable resources. Students will gain skills in library research, writing and revision, peer review and oral presentations. (IRBW) This course originates in Government and Legal Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: GOV 2596)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester
Explores rich traditions of African American humor in fiction, comics, graphic narratives, and film. Considers strategies of cultural survival and liberation, as well as folkloric sources, trickster storytellers, comic double-voicing, and the lampooning of racial ideologies. Close attention paid to modes of burlesque, satirical deformation, caricature, tragicomedy, and parody in historical and contemporary contexts, including such writers and performers as Charles Chesnutt, Bert Williams, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Pryor, Ishmael Reed, Aaron McGruder, Dave Chappelle, and Suzan-Lori Parks. Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 2603)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
Explores creative collaborations and cross currents in African American literary and visual arts over the past century. Considers the problems of minstrelsy, masking, and caricature -- as well as instruments of militant image-making in both literary and visual forms. Topics of special interest include uplift and documentary photography; modernist resistance languages of the Harlem Renaissance; shadows, silhouettes, and invisibility; comic strips and graphic narratives; and contemporary images -- prints, texts, and illustrations -- that introduce alternative socio-political allegories. The course will engage with works held in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and in Special Collections and Archives. Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 2604)
Focuses on the African American literary and cultural call-to-arms of the 1920s. Modernist resistance languages; alliances and betrayals on the left; gender, sexuality, and cultural images; activism and literary journalism; and music and visual culture are of special interest. Note: Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 2605)
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2024 Fall Semester
When we perform music on stage, what are we performing? Is it only the “music” or is there something more? When we watch a live musical performance, what are we taking into our bodies? Are we learning lessons about which bodies go with which music or who is allowed on a particular stage and who is “different” in that context? This course investigates lineages of performance practice for what these lineages teach about bodies and genre. For example, how did jazz music created in African American communities and initially replete with women artists in the 1920s turn into a musical community dominated by white middle-class boys and men? We will examine how musical lineages are constructed with particular attention to the history of segregation in post-secondary education in the United States. The course includes a final performance of a musical and/or theatrical nature. Previous music experience is not necessary but is welcomed. This course originates in Music and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: MUS 2606, GSWS 2208)
Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester
Seminar. Close examination of the decade following the Civil War. Explores the events and scholarship of the Union attempt to create a biracial democracy in the South following the war, and the sources of its failure. Topics include wartime Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan, Republican politics, and Democratic Redemption. Special attention paid to the deeply conflicted ways historians have approached this period over the years. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 2621)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester
Intermediate seminar. Covers the history of people of African descent in what becomes New York City from the Dutch colonial period through the present. Students read key books on all major historical themes and periods, such as the early history of slavery and the slave trade; black life and religion during the early republic and gradual emancipation; the Civil War and draft riots; black communal life during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the Harlem Renaissance; the Great Depression; the civil rights era; the age of urban crisis; the 1980s and the rise of hip-hop; and blacklife since 9-11. Students gain wide exposure to working with primary sources. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: Urban Studies. (Same as: URBS 2626)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester
Explores the canon of public protest thought developed by African Americans from the time of the American Revolution through World War I. Examines how black thinkers have conceptualized their relationship to a nation predicated on universal liberty that nonetheless enslaved and proscribed people of African descent. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 2627)
Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester
Examines the history and contributions of African Americans to United States theater from the early blackface minstrel tradition, to the revolutionary theater of the Black Arts writers, to more recent postmodernist stage spectacles. Among other concerns, such works often dramatize the efforts of African Americans to negotiate ongoing tensions between individual needs and group demands that result from historically changing forms of racial marginalization. A particular goal is to highlight what Kimberly Benston has termed the expressive agency with which black writers and performers have imbued their theatrical presentations. Potential authors include Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, Ron Milner, Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange, George C. Wolfe, Anna Deavere Smith, Afro Pomo Homos, and August Wilson. Note: Fulfills the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 2654, THTR 2854)
Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester
In 1845, Frederick Douglass told his white readers: “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” This simple statement effectively describes the enduring paradox of African American male identity: although black and white males share a genital sameness, until the nation elected its first African American president the former has inhabited a culturally subjugated gender identity in a society premised on both white supremacy and patriarchy. But Douglass’s statement also suggests that black maleness is a discursive construction, i.e. that it changes over time. If this is so, how does it change? What are the modes of its production and how have black men over time operated as agents in reshaping their own masculinities? Reading a range of literary and cultural texts, both past and present, students examine the myriad ramifications of, and creative responses to, this ongoing challenge. Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: ENGL 2650, GSWS 2260)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester
How does the concept of queerness signify in cultural texts that are ostensibly about the struggle for racial equality? And vice versa, how does the concept of racialization signify in cultural texts that are ostensibly about the struggle for LGBT recognition and justice? While some of this work tends to reduce queer to traditional sexual minorities like lesbigay and trans folk while downplaying racial considerations, others tend to limit the category race to people of color like blacks while downplaying questions about sexuality. Such critical and creative gestures often place queer and race in opposition rather than as intersecting phenomena. Students examine the theoretical and cultural assumptions of such gestures, and their implications, through close readings of selected works in both the LGBT and African American literary traditions. Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: ENGL 2651, GSWS 2651)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester
Intermediate Seminar. The struggle against anti-black racism has often required that individual African Americans serve as representative figures of the race. How have twentieth- and twenty-first-century black authors tackled the challenge of having to speak for the collective while also writing narratives that explore the singularity of an individual life? What textual approaches have these authors employed to negotiate this tension between what theorists of the genre broadly call referentiality and subjectivity? Authors include W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Malcolm X, Jamaica Kincaid, Maya Angelou, Samuel Delaney, Barack Obama, among others. Note: Fulfills the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 2013)
Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester
Violence and interracial sex have long been conjoined in U.S. literary, televisual, and filmic work. The enduring nature of this conjoining suggests there is some symbolic logic at work in these narratives, such that black/white intimacy functions as a figural stand-in for negative (and sometimes positive) commentary on black/white social conflict. When this happens, what becomes of “sex” as a historically changing phenomenon when it is yoked to the historically unchanging phenomenon of the “interracial”? Although counter-narratives have recently emerged to compete with such symbolic portrayals, i.e. romance novels, popular films and television shows, not all of these works have displaced this earlier figural logic; in some cases, this logic has merely been updated. Explores the broader cultural implications of both types of narratives. Possible authors/texts: Richard Wright, Chester Himes, Ann Petry, Lillian Smith, Jack Kerouac, Frantz Fanon, Kara Walker, Amiri Baraka, Alice Walker, Octavia Butler, John R. Gordon, Kim McLarin, Monster’s Ball, Far From Heaven, and Sex and the City. Note: beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, and multiethnic American or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: ENGL 2653, GSWS 2283)
Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester
Intermediate seminar. Close readings of literary and filmic texts that interrogate widespread beliefs in the fixity of racial categories and the broad assumptions these beliefs often engender. Investigates whiteness and blackness as unstable and fractured ideological constructs that become most visible in narratives of racial passing. These are constructs that, while socially and historically produced, are no less real in their tangible effects, whether internal or external. May include works by Nella Larsen, Norman Mailer, John Howard Griffin, Mat Johnson, Toi Derricotte, and Mohsin Hamid. Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: ENGL 2004, GSWS 2257)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester
Uses historical and contemporary case studies to explore the intersections of sexuality, gender, class, and race in the lives and labors of people African descent. Addresses how the construction of Black identity has been informed by understandings and expressions of transness, masculinity, femininity, and queerness. Examines how Black people mobilize and practice sex and gender to create community, mutual aid, leisure, joy, sexual agency, self-expression, and political struggle. Analyzes the topic through the interdisciplinary study of film, music, art, literature, historical and sociological scholarship, queer-of-color critique, critical race theory, and Black feminist thought. This course originates in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies (Same as: GSWS 2381)
Investigates the intersection of African American life and art. Topics include the changing definitions of “African American Art,” the embrace of African cultural production, race and representation in slavery and freedom, art as source of inspiration for social movements, and the politics of exhibition. Our mission is to develop art-historical knowledge about this critical aspect of American art history, while facilitating ways of seeing and writing about art. This course originates in Art History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ARTH 1705)
Seminar. Examines the lives and thoughts of Martin L. King Jr. and Malcolm X. Traces the development in their thinking and examines the similarities and differences between them. Evaluates their contribution to the African American freedom struggle, American society, and the world. Emphasizes very close reading of primary and secondary material, use of audio and videocassettes, lecture presentations, and class discussions. In addition to being an academic study of these two men’s political and religious commitment, also concerns how they inform our own political and social lives. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. (IRBW) This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: HIST 2700)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
This course explores the range of issues inspiring Latinx activism and its diverse expressions across the United States from the turn of the 20th century to the present. It introduces students to the intellectual traditions and analytical approaches that inform both Latinx and Afro-Latinx activism in the US During the course of the semester students will ‘travel’ to U.S. cities (and regions) such as San Antonio and the Texas Borderlands, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Chicago, and the Central Valley in California. As we ‘travel’ to these locations, we will explore diverse expressions of Latinx activism, including labor activism, cultural activism, political activism surrounding citizenship rights, and the struggles for gender and sexuality rights. Students will also learn about the many similarities and differences among Latinx communities in the United States, including Afo-Latinx communities, specifically Afro-Cuban in Miami, and Afro-Puerto Ricans and Afro-Domincans in New York. We will explore how these communities have used and continue to use activist practices ranging from labor strikes to literary texts, to gain visibility and negotiate their rights within the country. This course will also draw connections between Latinx and Afro-Latinx and other activist movements in the US, from civil rights to labor rights and the formation of worker’s unions. Drawing from various disciplines including history, law, literature, sociology, and cultural studies, students will explore how Latinx activism has shaped understandings of race and inclusion, gender, sexuality, and citizenship in the United States. This course originates in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: LACL 2421, GSWS 2720)
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester
Afro-Latinx are one of the fastest growing demographic groups in the United States—among the sixty million Latinos in the US, almost one quarter embrace their Blackness and identify as Afro-Latino. The course examines Afro-Latinx communities—African-descended peoples from primarily Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin America and the Caribbean who reside in the United States. The class begins with an overview of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx studies, explores historical perspectives on African enslavement in Latin America, and examines the development of racial ideologies in post-emancipation societies. Next, the class looks at the historical relationship between the US and Latin America and how this has shaped migration. We also examine the spectrum of Black identity through the contemporary experiences of Afro-Latinxs in the US by analyzing the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, politics, and representation through historical, textual, oral, and visual sources. This course originates in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: LACL 2422)
Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester
Introduction to the historical and ethnographic study of the politics of science, technology, and medicine in African contexts. Offers opportunities to learn about African experiences of science, technology, and medicine. Reconsiders common definitions of science and technology from the perspective of African cultures of expertise. Topics considered include the spiritual and religious dimensions of expert knowledge, environmental management, conservation, archaeology, hunting, metallurgy, healing, genetically modified organisms, pharmaceutical development, epidemiology, and information technology. Science and technology will be considered in relation to precolonial social formations, colonialism, independence struggles, and the postcolonial state. Course materials include historical and ethnographic writing as well as speculative fiction. This course originates in Anthropology and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ANTH 2235)
Intercontinental trade, the exchange of ideas and technology, and the mass emigration of peoples reshaped life, art, and culture in the Americas, Europe, and Africa in the eighteenth century. Uses the production of commodities -- sugar, tobacco, rice, and rum -- to trace the circulation of art and artifacts in the Atlantic World. Situates art and other forms of cultural production alongside the larger exchange of people and ideas, and focuses on the fluctuating nature of national, racial, and sexual identities in the circum-Atlantic world. Explores how British, French, and Spanish citizens in the colonies and Caribbean attempted and often failed to sustain national identity in the face of separation, revolution, or insurrection. Of special interest are people such as pirates and activists, art like paintings and prints, and artifacts such as ceramics and silver, which moved seamlessly across the Atlantic divide. Examines the cultural impact, adaptations, and changes in native, African, and European cultures resulting from this interaction. Includes intensive hands-on object study at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. This course originates in Art History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ARTH 2760)
Intermediate Seminar. Africa has attracted renewed interest in recent years after decades of marginalization following the end of the Cold War, when competition for the continent among global powers halted. Recent renewed interest among external actors has crystallized around core issues of energy supplies, trade and investment, and security cooperation. Within the continent itself, African countries have taken the affairs of their neighbors more seriously, facilitated by the enhanced role of African regional organizations like the African Union and ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), promoting a multilateral approach to problems confronting the continent. The International Relations of Africa course aims to enhance students’ understanding of Africa’s international relations within the continent and with external actors. This course helps students explore the underlying historical context of African international relations as well as emergent issues and phenomena they spawn, including development, trade, and security relationships, and the dynamics of external relations with major powers like the United States, Europe, and China. Through lectures, thematic seminars, debates, memoirs, and documentaries, this course will equip students to interrogate the headlines about Africa they hear in the news through evaluating the set of policies guiding Africa's relationships toward global centers of power and that of major powers toward it. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: Government and Legal Studies. (Same as: GOV 2920)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
How do South Africans remember their past? Begins with the difficulties in developing a conciliatory version of the past during Nelson Mandela’s presidency immediately after apartheid. Then explores the changing historiography and popular memory of diverse historical episodes, including European settlement, the Khoisan “Hottentot Venus” Sara Baartman, Shaka Zulu, the Great Trek, the Anglo-Boer War, the onset of apartheid, and resistance to it. Aims to understand the present-day social, economic, and cultural forces that shape the memories of South Africans and the academic historiography of South Africa. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 2821)
Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester
Seminar.The African continent has an unmatched percentage of young people in relation to total population. Over the last sixty years, these youth have driven a continent-wide revolution against an intersection of traditional, gerontocratic, and neo-colonial structures. By studying student activism in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, youth movements against colonialism and neocolonialism in central Africa, the “blood diamond” wars of Liberia and Sierra Leone, the child soldiers of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and youth protests against policy brutality in West Africa, this course nuances oft-ascribed youth roles as changemakers and as child soldiers. It considers the gendered and political identities that have emerged through this continental societal revolution. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 2822)
Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester
Seminar. The art of Central Africa inspired European avant-garde artists from Pablo Picasso to Paul Klee. This course explores art as a historical source. What does the production, use, commerce, and display of art reveal about politics, ideology, religion, and aesthetics? Prior to European colonialism, what was the relationship between art and politics in Central Africa? How did art represent power? What does it reveal about gender relations, social divisions, and cultural ideals? The course then turns to the Euro-American scramble for Central African art at the onset of European colonialism. How did the collection of art, its celebration by European artists, and display in European and American museums transform patterns of production, cultural functions and aesthetic styles of Central African art? The course ends with current debates over the repatriation of African art. Note:This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa. This course meets the non-European/ US History requirements. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Art History. (Same as: HIST 2823, ARTH 2390)
Knowledge of the history of the slave trade to the Americas has grown immensely. This course pivots from viewing the Atlantic World through the lens of the trade in slaves to how a diverse Atlantic World developed through Afro-Portuguese encounters from the age of Henry the Navigator to the formal abolition of slavery in Brazil and the extension of colonization in Portuguese-ruled Africa. How and why did early modern Africans and Portuguese participate in the Atlantic trade? What other forms of commerce, such as ivory and rubber, proliferated? What cultural systems, cosmologies, religions, and identities emerged through these Atlantic World exchanges, including the formation of Afro-Portuguese identities? What are the legacies of the early modern Afro-Portuguese Atlantic world? In exploring these and other questions, this course introduces students to the histories of Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, and Brazil. It fulfills the non-Euro/US and premodern requirements for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Ltn Am, Caribbean & Latinx St. (Same as: HIST 2824, LACL 2824)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester
Provides an exploration of globalization processes in sub-Saharan Africa. Delves into the impact of international forces and emerging technologies on the continent's citizens and countries, while also examining how African nations and actors contribute to global dynamics. Topics covered include technological advancements, development, immigration, art and culture, foreign aid, and China's influence in Africa. Aims to spotlight both the opportunities and challenges that African countries face in the ever-evolving global landscape. Through this exploration, students will gain a nuanced understanding of Africa's place in the globalized world, challenging stereotypes and fostering a deeper appreciation for the diversity and resilience of African societies.
Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Lecture course on seminal works in African and African diasporic thought since the decline of Atlantic slavery in the nineteenth century to the period of decolonization after the Second World War. Topics include anti-slavery movement, mission Christianity, Islamic reformism, Pan-Africanism, Negritude, colonialism, nationalism, neocolonialism, and black feminist thought. Lectures presented in the context of global and regional historical currents in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: HIST 2381)
Seminar. Examines one of the most significant and yet neglected revolutions in history. Between the years 1791-1804, Haitian revolutionaries abolished slavery and ultimately established a free and independent nation. Explores the Revolution’s causes and trajectory and connects Haiti to the broader Atlantic world. Likewise, studies the revolution's aftermath and its impact on world history. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America, Atlantic Worlds, and Colonial Worlds. It fulfills the premodern and the non-Euro/US requirements for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: HIST 2862, LACL 2162)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester
Seminar. The form of slavery pioneered by Europeans who brought Africans to the New World occupies a unique place in the institution's long story. Examines the rise and demise of New World slavery: its founding, central practices, and long-term consequences. Just as New World slavery deserves to be considered a unique historical practice, so too do the impulses and transformations that led to its ending. Explores slavery as it rose and fell throughout the Atlantic basin, focusing particularly on Brazil, the Caribbean, and mainland North America. Investigates a range of issues: the emergence of market economies, definitions of race attendant to European commercial expansion, the cultures of Africans in the diaspora, slave control and resistance, free black people and the social structure of New World slave societies, and emancipation and its aftermath. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: US, Europe, Atlantic Worlds and Colonial Worlds. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 2870)
This seminar explores the various institutions of slavery in the North African and Middle Eastern (MENA) region beginning with the trans-Saharan slave trade, and ending with the contemporary manifestations of slave markets in Libya. Students will examine the theoretical definitions of slavery as they confront the range of paradigms that existed for slave systems. Slavery existed in varying contexts such as the royal courts in the case of eunuchs in Ottoman courts, in the Janissary army in Egypt with “voluntary” conscript soldiers, and in varying socio-economic classes in North Africa, where slave owners considered slaves “members of the family.” Students will grapple with: the implications of, and association with, an “African” identity for descendants of slaves; the application of an “African diasporic” lens to this group and region; and the ways in which the legacy of slavery shapes the experiences of recent sub-Saharan Africans within these contexts. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: African and African Diaspora. It fulfills the non-Euro requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Middle Eastern & North African. (Same as: HIST 2911, MENA 2911)
Intermediate Seminar. Military effectiveness is a key concept in international relations. Many scholars see military power as the main factor determining war and peace, global stability or instability, and how political and economic power is distributed across countries. States often evaluate their own military strength compared to that of their allies and enemies, which influences their alliances, efforts to prevent conflict, and domestic spending. But what exactly is military power? Why are some militaries strong and effective while others are weak? And how do we measure and explain military effectiveness? The course on military effectiveness aims to educate students on the subject of military effectiveness while introducing them to the international relations and comparative politics approaches and tools employed by scholars in understanding the subject. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: Government and Legal Studies. (Same as: GOV 2921)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
Examines the intersections between literature and law through works of African American literature. Students investigate the influence of landmark legal cases -- Dred Scott, Plessy v. Fergusson, Brown v. Board of Education, Loving v. Virginia -- on the production and dissemination of particular works of American and African American literature. Works by Charles Chesnutt, Ralph Ellison, Pauline Hopkins, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Frederick Douglass are among those considered. Note: Fulfills the literature of the Americas requirement for English majors. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 3004)
Advanced seminar on the criminal justice system in America and the ways African Americans specifically, and racial minorities in general, experience protection and prosecution in it. Students read Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy's provocative text of the same title and explore and debate such topics as racial criteria in jury selection, racial disparities and capital punishment, and the rise of mass incarceration in America. Students study key Supreme Court decisions that have considered questions of race and criminal justice. Students conduct research on a specific academic question or policy issue of their choosing and present their findings.
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
Advanced Seminar. Explores the rise of American literary realism that occurred following the Civil War and its relationship to the social and political events of the South’s Reconstruction. Studies works by the major figures of the movement such as Charles Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Sarah Orne Jewett, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton. Students are required to develop original readings of these literary texts that engage the political and social contexts in which they were produced. All students present their research in written and oral form. Fulfills the advanced seminar requirement for African studies and English majors. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: English. (Same as: ENGL 3800)
Advanced Seminar. Explores a spectrum of films produced since 1950 that engage African American cultural experience. Topics may include black-white buddy movies, the L.A. Rebellion, blaxploitation, the hood genre, cult classics, comedy and cross-dressing, and romance dramas. Of special interest will be the documentary impulse in contemporary African American film; gender, sexuality, and cultural images; the politics of interpretation—writers, filmmakers, critics, and audiences; and the urban context and the economics of alienation. Extensive readings in film and cultural theory and criticism. Note: Fulfills the film theory requirement for Cinema Studies minors. Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Cinema Studies. (Same as: ENGL 3011, CINE 3011)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Examines the major postwar writings of the controversial African American author and the role his fiction and nonfiction played in challenging that era’s static understandings of racial, gender, and sexual politics. Although Baldwin lived abroad for much of his life, many critics associate the author narrowly with the United States black civil rights and sexual liberation struggles. In recent years, however, Baldwin has increasingly been recognized as a transnational figure and for his invaluable contributions to the discourse of globalization. Indeed, Baldwin’s “geographical imagination,” one informed by critical racial literacy, led him to anticipate many of the central insights of contemporary Queer Studies, Whiteness Studies, as well as Africana philosophical thought. Note: Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: ENGL 3015, GSWS 3015)
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester
Reading the relationship between Blackness and Americanness through texts from the African diaspora, this course takes W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of double-consciousness and places it into a global conversation about Black experiences. “Black” and “American” are frequently viewed as “warring ideals,” implying that they are separate entities. However, they are also simultaneously lived and discussed as interwoven subjectivities that mutually shape and define the complex experience of being Black American. Using ethnographic, biographical, and fictional texts and media from the US, Caribbean, and Africa, the course explores how these broad concepts are defined, represented, and deconstructed. This multi-sited, multi-genre analysis pays close attention to the diversity of lived experiences, cultural representations, and political ideologies that fit under the umbrella of “American Blackness(es),” highlighting the ways the concept is defined from both inside and outside the US. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: Anthropology. (Same as: ANTH 3018)
Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester
Seminar. What makes a work of literature black? Is it the fact that its author can be clearly identified in racial terms, its subject matter, or its main characters? What if only one of these things can be determined, but not the others? How have the passing of Jim Crow segregation, the election of the first African American president, and changing racial norms impacted the coherence and legibility of the African American literary tradition? Students engage scholarly debates on these matters, as well as analyze past and present works of literature that aid us in examining some of the key assumptions that have (re)defined the field, including questions of literary mode, genre, and style. Possible authors include Toni Morrison, Percival Everett, Colson Whitehead, Debra Dickerson, among others. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 3019)
Interdisciplinary examination of ideas and expressions of blackness by black people in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present. Shifts focus from “what” is blackness to “where” and “when” is blackness. Students analyze the fluidity of blackness and the implications for the production of ideologies, discourses, and identities of black people. Materials for analysis may include primary and secondary written texts, film, video, and audio by James Baldwin, Beyoncé, Julie Dash, Martin Luther King Jr., Saidiya Hartman, Nina Simone Hortense Spillers, and Ida B. Wells.
Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester
As the field of Africana studies, and particularly slavery studies, has expanded, scholars raise a plethora of new questions and concerns regarding theories and methods in documentation of Black life and Black archival creation, preservation, and promotion. This advanced seminar explores fundamental questions about the concept of the archive, as well as past and current archival practices. Students will analyze conventional and unconventional scholarly and artistic repositories of Black life. Concepts of witnessing, testimony, (collective) memory, “living” archive, ethics, collection, ownership, and access will be explored. Materials for analysis may include music, film, literature, existing institutional archives, and ongoing digital recovery projects. Scholarly writings may include Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Zora Neale Hurston, James Scott, Jessica Marie Johnson, Saidiya Hartman, and Jacques Derrida.
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester
Examines recent literary and filmic narratives of slavery. Some scholars claim these texts heal readers of psychic pain while also facilitating a deep connection to long departed ancestors. For others, these works only nurture the “ledger of racist slights” that diasporic blacks continue to catalogue to the present day, all the while distracting each of us from cultivating a more hopeful stance with respect to our collective present. This course maps a critical space beyond the binary of either “therapeutic” or “prohibitive” claims to engage questions of racialized experience, feeling, identification, and desire. Authors and texts may include: Birth of a Nation, Octavia Butler, John R. Gordon, Yaa Gyasi, Toni Morrison, and Colson Whitehead. This course originates in English and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENGL 3033)
A research course for majors and interested non-majors that culminates in a single 25-30 page research paper. With the professor’s consent, students may choose any topic in Civil War or African American history, broadly defined. This is a special opportunity to delve into Bowdoin’s rich collections of primary historical source documents. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 3140)
What are the historical origins of our modern system of mass incarceration? This research seminar explores the relationship between race and justice from the end of the Civil War through the early twentieth century. We will begin by framing our concerns in light of recent scholarship on the phenomenon (such as Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow), and then dig into the archives ourselves to craft 25-30 page research papers on aspects of the problem. Our sources will include Congressional documents, the Department of Justice Peonage Files, records of the NAACP, and other major collections. Students will benefit from prior coursework in African American history or Africana Studies. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: US. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 3142)
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester
Examines African American Music as a multi-genre phenomenon with a focus on music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Of central concern are issues of appropriation, romanticism, lineage, expressive culture, music and identity, and music as an archive. Genres may include soul, funk, disco, hip-hop, jazz, blues, and classical music. Course will culminate with a final capstone project that can have a creative component. This course originates in Music and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: MUS 3151)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Focuses on literary texts written by women from French-speaking West African, Central African, and Caribbean countries in the 20th and 21st centuries. Themes treated—women and/in colonization and enslavement, madness, memory, alienation, womanhood, individual and collective identity, war, democracy, gender dynamics, women and tradition, women and modernism, social, cultural, racial and ethnic hierarchies—are approached from a critical discourse analysis and comparative prism contextualized by historical, cultural, political, sociological, and gender frameworks. Works studied may be by Mariama Bâ, Aminata Sow Fall, Ken Bugul, Fatou Diome (Senegal), Tanella Boni (Côte d’Ivoire), Calixthe Beyala, Léonora Miano (Cameroun); Marie Chauvet, Évelyne Trouillot, Marie-Célie Agnant (Haïti); Maryse Condé, Simone Schwarz-Bart, Gisèle Pineau (Guadeloupe); Suzanne Lacascade, Françoise Éga, and Fabienne Kanor (Martinique). This course originates in Romance Languages and Literatures and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St; Latin American Studies. (Same as: FRS 3201, GSWS 3323, LACL 3222)
Examines the politics and poetics of cultural hybridity in the context of select popular music genres in and from Africa, and critically engages with related scholarly, nationalist, and popular discourses. Musical genres covered range from early twentieth-century West African palm wine music to contemporary manifestations of hip hop across the African continent and include musical products of post-independence cultural policies and the transnational marketing niche of “Afropop.” The rise and popularity of these genres is historicized and analyzed in the context of major social, ideological, political, and economic forces that have shaped Africa over the past 100 years, including colonialism, modern urbanization, independence movements, and globalization. Course materials include writings from the fields of ethnomusicology, cultural studies, and postcolonial theory, musical audio and video recordings, and journalistic and promotional sources, as well as film documentaries. This course originates in Music and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: MUS 3205)
Enslaved Africans who fought against oppression through escaping the European plantation system in the Caribbean for freedom in the mountains are called maroons, and their act, marronnage. Except for Queen Nanny of the Jamaican Blue Mountains, only male names have been consecrated as maroons and freedom fighters (the Haitians Makandal or Toussaint Louverture, the Martinican Louis Delgrès, the Jamaican Cudjoe or the Cuban Coba). The course examines the fictitious treatment French-speaking Caribbean authors grant to forgotten African or Afro-descended women who historically fought against enslavement and colonization. The literary works are studied against the backdrop of “Douboutism,” a conceptual framework derived from the common perception about women in the French Caribbean as expressed in the Creole say “fanm doubout,” which means “strong woman.” Authors studied may include Evelyne Trouillot, Maryse Condé, Simone Schwarz-Bart, André Schwarz-Bart, Suzanne Dracius, and Fabienne Kanor. This course originates in Romance Languages and Literatures and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Gender Sexuality and Women St; Latin American Studies. (Same as: FRS 3211, GSWS 3211, LACL 3211)
Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester
Establishes circumstances, conditions, and correspondences for French texts on the Jewish and Black experience of persecution, oppression, deportation, and servitude. Reexamines the history of ideas; French, Black, and Jewish discourses; and representations of Black and Jewish people by French writers. Uses a comparative and interdisciplinary approach. Writers may include Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire, Abbé Grégoire, Abbé Prévost, Hugo, Lamartine, Loti, Proust, Apollinaire, Simenon, and Sartre. Conducted in French. This course originates in Romance Languages and Literatures and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: FRS 3228)
Aesthetics—the critical reflection on art, taste, and culture; as much as beauty, the set of properties of an object that arouses pleasure—are central to all aspects of society-building and human life and relationships. Examines the notions of aesthetics and beauty, from precolonial to contemporary times in cultures of the African, Caribbean, and Western civilizations as expressed in thought and various humanities and social sciences texts, as well as the arts, iconography, and the media. Considers the ways Africans and Afro-descendants in the American region responded to Western notions of aesthetics and beauty and posited their own. Authors studied may include Senghor, Cheick Anta Diop, Mudimbe, Gyekye Kwame, Anténor Firmin, Jean Price Mars, Damas, Suzanne Césaire, Aimé Césaire, René Ménil, Fanon, Glissant, Socrates, Plato, Diderot, Montesquieu, Baumgarten, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Ronsard, Erasmus, de Grenailles, and Hugo. This course originates in Romance Languages and Literatures and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: FRS 3213, LACL 3213)
Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester
Through an exploration of self-fashioning and performance from early modern to contemporary Iberian cultural production (Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan theater, dance, film, visual arts, music), this course will study how marginalized groups have historically constructed and negotiated their identities in response to official narratives of both exclusion and appropriation. We will examine theoretical and cultural debates surrounding race, ethnicity, gender, and identity in Spanish discourses of culture and nationhood. Topics include early to contemporary Spanish portrayals of exile, colonization, and the periphery; Roma identity and representation; and Afro-Iberian contributions to the history of music and theater. The seminar will involve active workshops with theater and dance components (no prior experience required). All discussions and assignments will be in Spanish with some theoretical perspectives in English. (Same as: HISP 3258)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
An introduction to some of the main intellectual productions from the French-speaking Caribbean from the nineteenth century to the present, such as the Haitian post-Revolution thought, Indigénisme and Spiralisme or Martinican Négritude, and Diversalité or Tout-monde. Examines theoretical and literary texts by Louis Joseph Janvier, Anténor Firmin, Jean Price-Mars, Frankétienne, René Depestre, Marie Chauvet, René Maran, Léon Gontran Damas, Bertène Juminer, Maryse Condé, Simone Schwarz-Bart, René Ménil, Aimé Césaire, Suzanne Césaire, Joseph Zobel, Frantz Fanon, Édouard Glissant, Vincent Placoly, or Patrick Chamoiseau. Questions addressed include history, memory, ethics, humanism, freedom, relation, Caribbean epistemology, dignity, justice, existence, political theory, identity, race, and cultural autonomy. This course originates in Romance Languages and Literatures and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: FRS 3219, LACL 3259)
Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester
What is decolonization? What might decolonization still be? It is hard from the vantage point of our present to appreciate the extraordinary political hope that once was the promise of decolonization. And it is harder still to think about what kind of place in our present that promise might still have. To think through this question, this seminar course takes up the anticolonial tradition as a universal and world-making body of thought and practice that once challenged the very foundations of knowledge. This course will introduce students to the classics of anticolonial thought, and we’ll think together about what kind of relevance they still carry in the present. This course originates in Arabic and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: MENA 3222)
Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Spring Semester
What kind of stories do bodies tell or conceal? How does living in a gendered and racialized body effects the stories told by women? How do bodies and their stories converge with History or complicate historical “truths”? These are some of the questions addressed in this study of contemporary writing by women from the Hispanic Caribbean and the United States Latinx/Chicana communities. Feminists of color frame the analysis of literature, popular culture and film to guide an examination of the relation of bodies and sexuality to social power, and the role of this relation in the shaping of both personal and national identities. Theorists include Alexander, Barriteau, Curiel, Mendez and Segato. Novelists include Álvarez, Buitrago, García, Indiana Hernández, and Santos-Febres. Taught in Spanish with readings in Spanish and English. This course originates in Romance Languages and Literatures and is crosslisted with: Gender Sexuality and Women St; Latin American Studies. (Same as: HISP 3226, GSWS 3226, LACL 3226)
From the first chronicles of Columbus, who believed he had arrived in "The Indies,” to the fantasies of global visitors lured by the comforts of secluded resorts, imagination has been a defining force impacting both the representation and the material lives of Caribbean people. Explores the historical trends that have shaped Caribbean societies, cultural identities, and intellectual history through a panoramic study of twentieth- and twenty-first-century fiction, essays, and films, with a focus on authors from the Hispanic Caribbean and US-Latinas of Caribbean descent. Engaging with the responses from Caribbean intellectuals to the challenges of the distorting mirror, addresses: how writers and artists have responded to the legacy of colonialism, slavery, and the plantation economy; how literature and art have depicted dominant trends in the region’s more recent history such as absolutist regimes, massive migrations, the tourist industry, and even natural disasters; how the Caribbean drawn by artists and intellectuals relates to global representations of the region. Authors include Piñera, Padura, Santos-Febres, and Chaviano. Taught in Spanish. This course originates in Romance Languages and Literatures and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: HISP 3228, LACL 3228)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
Complete a semester-long research project in United States metropolitan history. During the first weeks, students learn about some major research methodologies historians use when researching and writing history of US metropolises. Addresses how historians use demography, spatial theory, and histories of LGBT communities; financial, political, and cultural institutions; electoral politics; public policies; popular culture; African Americans; immigrants; women; workers; and capitalists to uncover the ways cities and suburbs change over time. Students design a topic, research primary historical sources, locate a historical problem relating to the topic from secondary historical sources, and develop a hypothesis addressing the question. The result is a paper of at least twenty-five pages. Choose any feasible topic on the history of modern US cities and suburbs that takes place during the twentieth century. The coursework involved is advanced, but the greatest challenge is the need for self-direction. 3000-level research course fulfills the capstone requirement for Africana studies and history majors. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: HIST 3230, URBS 3230)
This course fuses Afro-Diasporan aesthetics and cultural concepts with critical dance studies and US modern/post-modern/contemporary concert dance traditions. Students will engage with various Afro-based dance practitioners (such as Jawole Willa Jo Zollar), cultural praxes (such as Sankofa), and improvisational structures (such as Jamaican Dancehall and Haitian Yanvalou) to deepen their ability to create, rehearse, and perform original choreography, specifically for the purposes of advocating for social change and cross-cultural understanding. Using virtual, archival, digital, embodied, and scholarly research, students will learn about and generate performance material that is deeply connected to the histories, spaces, and places that we remember, take-up, and occupy. Students will also be expected to execute collaborations with each other and those within their communities as they create and perform movement for their final dance projects. This course originates in Theater and Dance and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: DANC 3242, LACL 3342)
Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Migrants, refugees, and other “displaced” people have been defined by their movement. This is particularly the case for people racialized as Black. From the trans-Atlantic slave trade to migration within colonies, centers of empire, and beyond, Afro-descent people have moved and been forcibly displaced globally. This course challenges students to view Black migrants’ experiences through modern transformations of race, nation, culture, borders, and both inclusion and exclusion into global categories of difference. Drawing on personal writings, case studies, and theoretical work on Black migration, this class will explore how race and migration are deeply informed by the forced and voluntary movement of those who are racialized as and claim identity as Black. This course originates in Sociology and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: SOC 3250)
Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester
This course is organized around a number of key legal cases dealing with the constitution of an African American identity in the United States. Beginning with the case of the Amistad and concluding with the case of Brown v. Board of Education, students are invited to analyze the impact of these cases on works of literature and film.
The history of international aid to the third world through the twentieth century. Seminar considers the imperial mission and white man’s burden, aid during modern colonialism, the post-colonial aid community, the Bretton Woods Institutions, the rise of small-scale NGO aid interventions, aid in modern warfare, and the varied contemporary impacts of aid. Readings focus on Africa, along with examples from Latin America and South Asia. Participants should have some background in the history of at least one of these regions. Each student writes an original research paper on the history of an aid project. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and Colonial Worlds. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: HIST 3360)
This course introduces students to the contours of the African Diaspora through the ever-emerging field of Black geography. Underscoring Black and environmental studies’ genealogic origins, we will examine the evolution, experimentation, and futurity of a critical geographically informed approach to environmental studies. We will examine the depth and range of experiences of people racialized as “Black”— or African-descended peoples throughout the Americas, particularly the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America, while also considering the experiences of Black people on the Continent, in Europe, and Asia. Broadly speaking, we will theorize the African diaspora as an “environment” and “region.” Thus, by exploring the spatialized lives of people in the African diaspora, their place-making efforts, and geographic thought and experiences, we will attend to the ways that the African diasporic community comes to (re)member Africa through a diverse set of relationships to the histories of capitalism, enslavement, colonialism, extraction, imperialism, capture, racism, and racialization, as well as gender, class stratification, and globalization. Attending to both the historical and contemporary geographies of Black people, students will develop critical frameworks for understanding Black diasporic experiences while also zeroing in on challenges in the field of environmental studies. Note: Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American or global literature requirement for English majors. This course originates in Environmental Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ENVS 3310)
Examines the scholarly rewriting of W.E.B. Du Bois as a central figure in the evolution of American Sociology. Investigates Du Bois’s empirical and theoretical contributions to the field, while considering the social and political factors that rendered him to the margins of the sociological enterprise for most of the 20th Century. Explores the rise of DuBoisian Sociology, a burgeoning field that draw on his scholarship and legacy to recenter the experiences of marginalized populations in scholarly discussions of race, gender, power, identity, and globalization. This course originates in Sociology and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: SOC 3315)
The course addresses connective topics in Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx studies, fields that center the historical and contemporary experiences of the African diaspora in Latin America, the Caribbean, and their transnational communities in the US Students will examine issues, dialogues, and solidarities among Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx communities across the hemisphere, such as invisibility, representation, civil rights, social and/or environmental justice; intersectionality, and digital spaces. This course originates in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: LACL 3360)
Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
Considers Dr. Guess’s (2021) concept and theory of a “rebel ecology '' by asking, more broadly, what other socioecological models exist? Weaves together a study of differing, yet often converging or synergistic traditions of Black/Womanist eco-feminism that often confront the social constructions of race, gender, class and sexuality, dominant religion as a means of social control, imperialism, capitalism and colonialism; Indigenous ecologies and perspectives on resistance to capitalist extraction, genocide, imperialism and colonialism; as well as eco-socialism, which often frames ecology in terms of a mode of production beyond or outside of capitalism and the prison industrial complex. Given ongoing struggles against the extraction of land and labor, the urgent calls raised in the 'climate strike' the COVID-19 pandemic, Black-led pandemic rebellions, and long(er) histories of land-based peoples, globally, opposing environmental degradation, broadly defined. This course originates in Environmental Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Ltn Am, Caribbean & Latinx St.' (Same as: ENVS 3917, LACL 3517)
Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester
States form the foundation of modern politics. Comparative government explores their variation; international relations examine their interaction. States can be instruments of oppression or engines of progress, and recent scholarship has focused on their strength, weakness, and failure. This capstone course explores the processes that produced the early modern state in Europe, then looks at more recent attempts to replicate state development in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The role of war in state formation and the subject of citizenship receive particular attention. This course originates in Government and Legal Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: GOV 3520)
The continent of Africa boasts some of the most rapidly growing economies in the world, but the proportion of people living in poverty remains higher than in any other region. Nearly all African states experimented with democratic reform in the last two decades, but many leaders have become adept at using political institutions to entrench their power. Most large-scale civil wars have ended, but violence remains. Explores the economic, political, and security challenges of this continent of contrasts. Topics include poverty and economic growth, the “resource curse,” democratic institutions, civil society, ethnic relations, state failure, foreign assistance, and intervention. This course originates in Government and Legal Studies and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: GOV 3570)
Explores the visual construction of race in American art and culture from the colonial period to the late twentieth century. Focuses on two racial "categories"--blackness and whiteness--and how they have shaped American culture. Using college and local museum collections, examines paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, film, and the spaces in which they have been displayed and viewed. Approach to this material is grounded in art history, but also draws from other disciplines. Artists under study include those who are well known such as Homer and Walker, as well as those who are unknown or have been forgotten. This course originates in Art History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: ARTH 3700)
This course explores the African sources of three of Herman Melville's most important books—Benito Cereno, Moby-Dick, and Redburn—that have become central to the canon of American Literature. Students will write short analytical essays as well as complete a final collaborative interdisciplinary project. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: English. (Same as: ENGL 3801)
Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester