African American studies is an interdisciplinary program designed to enrich knowledge of the experience of African Americans from the past to the present, both within and beyond the United States. Attention is given to "race" as a critical tool of analysis for explaining the allocation of economic resources, the formation of personal and group identity, and the changing nature of political behavior. Study of African American experiences provides insight into secular cultural practices, intellectual traditions, religious doctrines and practices, and social institutions with attention to issues of class, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

The chair of African American studies provides a list of courses offered each year. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program, students should 1) consult regularly with the chair or a faculty advisor in African American studies to ensure that their program has both breadth and depth and 2) devise programs of study approved by the chair or a faculty advisor by the fall semester of the junior year.

Thesis advisors should be chosen by each student, in consultation with the chair, according to the subject matter of the thesis.

Cross-listed Courses. Note that unless otherwise specified, when a department/program references a course or unit in the department/program, it includes courses and units cross-listed with the department/program.

Major Requirements. Students must complete eleven courses and a thesis. Required courses for the major include Introduction to African American Studies (African American Studies 140A), Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry (Interdisciplinary Studies 250), a junior-senior seminar, at least one course that has an experiential component, and a senior thesis (African American Studies 457 and/or 458). Moreover, students must take four courses/units that emphasize race as a critical tool of analysis, feminist histories and analyses, research methods and modes of inquiry, and black life outside the United States. To fulfill each of these requirements courses may be chosen, with the guidance of a faculty advisor and the approval of the chair, from African American Studies or from the list of approved electives that follows the course descriptions.

Pass/Fail Grading Option. There are no restrictions on the use of the pass/fail option within the major.

Courses

AA/AC 119. Cultural Politics. This course examines the relationship of culture to politics. It introduces the study of struggles to acquire, maintain, or resist power and gives particular attention to the role culture plays in reproducing and contesting social divisions of class, race, gender, and sexuality. Lectures and discussion incorporate film, music, and fiction in order to evaluate the connection between cultural practices and politics. Not open to students who have received credit for Political Science 119. Normally offered every year. J. McClendon.

AA/EN 121X. Music and Metaphor: The Sounds in African American Literature. While African American musical traditions command attention on stages across the world, they have a unique home in African American literature. This course explores folk, sacred, blues, jazz, and hip hop music as aesthetic and sociopolitical resources for African American authors. Course texts may include poetry, drama, fiction, criticism, and theory. Authors include Sterling Plumpp, Toni Morrison, Jayne Cortez, Albert Murray, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Larry Neal, and Ralph Ellison. This course is the same as First-Year Seminar 287. Enrollment limited to 25. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 121X or English 121X. Offered with varying frequency. K. Ruffin.

AAS 140A. Introduction to African American Studies. This course examines African American history and culture through four themes: fragmentation, exclusion, resistance, and community. Particular attention is given to the diversity of cultures in the African diaspora in the Americas. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every year. C. Nero, Staff.

AA/RH 162. White Redemption: Cinema and the Co-optation of African American History. Since its origins in the early twentieth century, film has debated how to represent black suffering. This course examines one aspect of that debate: the persistent themes of white goodness, innocence, and blamelessness in films that are allegedly about black history and culture. Historical and cultural topics examined in film include the enslavement of Africans, Reconstruction, and the civil rights movement. Particular attention is given to films in the interracial male-buddy genre. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 160 or Rhetoric 160. Normally offered every year. C. Nero.

INDS 165. African American Philosophers. This course focuses on how African American philosophers confront and address philosophical problems. Students consider the relationship between the black experience and traditional themes in Western philosophy. Attention is also given to the motivations and context sustaining African American philosophers. Recommended background: African American Studies 140A or African American Studies/American Cultural Studies 119. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and philosophy. Enrollment limited to 40. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 165. Offered with varying frequency. J. McClendon.

AA/WS 201. African American Women and Feminist Thought. African American history, like European American history, omits the struggles and contributions of its women. Using historical perspectives, the individual and collective experiences of African American women are examined. Particular attention is given to developing knowledge and understanding of African American women's 1) experiences of enslavement, 2) efforts at self-definition and self-sufficiency, 3) social and political activism, and 4) forging of Afra-American/multicultural/womanist/feminist thought. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 201 or Women and Gender Studies 201. Normally offered every other year. Staff.

AA/EN 212. Black Lesbian and Gay Literatures. This course examines black lesbian and gay literatures in English from Africa, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Students are introduced to critical and historical approaches for analyzing literature about black queer sensibilities. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. C. Nero.

AA/TH 225. The Grain of the Black Image. A study of the African American figure as represented in images from theater, movies, and television. Using the metaphor of "the grain" reduced by Roland Barthes and Regis Durand to "the articulation of the body . . . not that of language," this course explores issues of progress, freedom, and improvement, as well as content versus discontent. Students read critical literature and the major classic plays by Hansberry, Baraka, Elder, and others, and view recent movies and television shows. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for Theater 225. Normally offered every year. W. Pope.L.

AA/TH 226. Minority Images in Hollywood Film. African American scholar Carolyn F. Gerald has remarked, "Image means self-concept and whoever is in control of our image has the power to shape our reality." This course investigates the ideological, social, and theoretical issues important in the representation of racial and ethnic minorities in American film from the Depression to the civil rights movement. It examines the genres, stereotypes, and gender formations associated with film images of Native Americans, Asian Americans, and African Americans. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for Theater 226. Normally offered every year. W. Pope.L.

INDS 239. Black Women in Music. Angela Davis states, "Black people were able to create with their music an aesthetic community of resistance, which in turn encouraged and nurtured a political community of active struggle for freedom." This course examines the role of black women as critics, composers, and performers who challenge externally defined controlling images. Topics include: black women in the music industry; black women in music of the African diaspora; and black women as rappers, jazz innovators, and musicians in the classical and gospel traditions. Cross-listed in African American studies, music, and women and gender studies. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 239, Music 239, or Women and Gender Studies 239. Normally offered every other year. Staff.

INDS 240. Theory and Method in African American Studies. This course addresses the relationship between political culture and cultural politics within African American studies. Particular attention is paid to the contending theories of cultural criticism. Cornel West, Molefi Asante, Patricia Hill Collins, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Maramba Ani, and Henry Louis Gates Jr. are some of the theorists under review. Recommended background: African American Studies/American Cultural Studies 119 or significant work in political science, American cultural studies, or African American studies. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and philosophy. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 50. Not open to students who have received credit for American Cultural Studies 240 or Political Science 240. Offered with varying frequency. J. McClendon.

AA/MU 249. African American Popular Music. When Americans stared at their black-and-white television sets in the early 1950s, they saw only a white world. Variety shows primarily spotlighted the talent of white performers. Change came slowly, and during the late 1950s American Bandstand introduced viewers to African American artists. Over the last two decades, however, the emergence of music videos has created the need for a critical and scholarly understanding of the emerging forces of African American music. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 249 or Music 249. Normally offered every other year. Staff.

INDS 250. Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry. Interdisciplinarity involves more than a meeting of disciplines. Practitioners stretch methodological norms and reach across disciplinary boundaries. Through examination of a single topic, this course introduces students to interdisciplinary methods of analysis. Students examine what practitioners actually do and work to become practitioners themselves. Prerequisite(s): African American Studies 140A or Women and Gender Studies 100, and one other course in African American studies, American cultural studies, or women and gender studies. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 40. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 250, American Cultural Studies 250, or Women and Gender Studies 250. Normally offered every year. E. Rand.

AA/AN 251. History, Agency, and Representation in the Making of the Caribbean. One anthropologist writing about the Caribbean asserts: "Nowhere else in the universe can one look with such certainty into the past and discern the outlines of an undisclosed future." Caribbean social systems bore the full impact of Western imperial expansion yet have adjusted to it in resilient and creative ways. The course surveys and interprets aspects of Caribbean life, and the ways in which they have been represented, drawing on a variety of sources-historical, ethnographic, literary, and visual. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for Anthropology 250. Normally offered every year. C. Carnegie.

AA/DN 252. Twentieth-Century American Dance II. This course focuses on a variety of contemporary questions in dance, including the following: What is the "body image" that grows out of our culture's view of the body? How do cultural diversity and cultural blending influence contemporary dance? How are gender roles and sexuality finding expression through movement? Discussions center on the ways choreographers and dancers confront these issues. Most works are seen on video, but students also attend live performances. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for Dance 252 or Theater 252. Normally offered every other year. Staff.

INDS 262. Ethnomusicology: African Diaspora. This introductory course is a survey of key concepts, problems, and perspectives in ethnomusicological theory drawing upon the African diaspora as a cross-cultural framework. This course focuses on the social, political, and intellectual forces of African culture that contributed to the growth of ethnomusicology from the late nineteenth century to the present. Cross-listed in African American studies, anthropology, and music. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 262, Anthropology 262, or Music 262. Normally offered every other year. Staff.

AA/WS 266. Gender, Race, and Science. Examines the intersections of gender and race in the norms and practices of modern science. Using methods drawn from philosophy, history, sociology, and anthropology, the course investigates: 1) participation in the sciences by white women and people of color; 2) the formation of scientific concepts of racial and sexual difference; and 3) the influence of gender and race on key scientific categories such as nature, objectivity, and experimentation. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for Women and Gender Studies 266. Normally offered every other year. R. Herzig.

INDS 291. Exhibiting Cultures. This course examines the politics of exhibiting cultures. Each week the course analyzes specific exhibitions of cultural artifacts, visual culture, and the cultural body as a means to evaluate the larger issues surrounding such displays. These includes issues of race, colonialism, postcolonialism, and curatorial authority in relation to the politics of exhibiting cultures. A field trip to analyze an exhibition is a critical part of the students' experience in the course. Students are required to lead a discussion of the readings, participate in discussions, write a research paper deconstructing an exhibition, and work with a group to design their own theoretical exhibition. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and art. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

INDS 339. Africana Thought and Practice. This seminar examines in depth a broad range of black thought. Students consider the various philosophical problems and the theoretical issues and practical solutions offered by such scholar/activists as W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Claudia Jones, C. L. R. James, Leopold Senghor, Amilcar Cabrah, Charlotta Bass, Lucy Parsons, Walter Rodney, and Frantz Fanon. Recommended background: a course on the Africana world, or a course in philosophy or political theory. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and philosophy. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Not open to students who have received credit for American Cultural Studies 339 or Political Science 339. Offered with varying frequency. J. McClendon.

AAS 360. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Normally offered every semester. Staff.

AA/HI 390E. African Slavery in the Americas. Of the millions of immigrants who arrived in North and South America during the colonial period, the majority came not from Europe but from Africa. They came not for freedom but as human property, facing a lifetime of bondage for themselves and their offspring. Far from being the "peculiar institution" that whites in the U.S. South called it, slavery existed throughout the Americas before its abolition in the nineteenth century. By reading contemporary scholarship and examining such primary sources as music, letters, autobiographies, and material artifacts, students gain a sense of the ways Africans and African Americans survived and influenced an institution that sought to deny their humanity. Enrollment limited to 15. Normally offered every other year. J. Hall.

AA/RH 391C. The Harlem Renaissance. This course examines the New Negro Movement and the extraordinary creativity in the arts and in other aspects of intellectual life by African Americans in the 1920s and 1930s. Although this cultural phenomenon was national in scope, most scholars agree that New York City, and Harlem in particular, was its epicenter. Topics include racial, gender, and cultural identities in literature, theater, the performing and visual arts; the formation of black queer culture; and the role in promoting the arts by political organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Prerequisite(s): one of the following: English 250, Rhetoric 275, or History 243. Enrollment limited to 15. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 390A. Offered with varying frequency. C. Nero.

AA/EN 395Z. African American Literature and the Bible. The Bible is unmatched in its influence on African American literary and cultural traditions. No other book has inspired such a broad scope of oral and written work. From explorations of the Exodus narrative to the Gospel writers' parables of Jesus, this course examines the way Hebrew and Christian biblical texts have inspired African American artists. Beginning with oral traditions such as spirituals and sermons, students then consider the Bible's role in scribal literacy and political discourse, and conclude with its impact on contemporary writers. Students combine interpretation of biblical texts and course readings with literary/cultural theory and criticism. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English or African American studies course. Enrollment limited to 15. Written permission of the instructor is required. Offered with varying frequency. K. Ruffin.

AAS 457, 458. Senior Thesis. The research and writing of an extended essay or report, or the completion of a creative project, under the supervision of a faculty member. Students register for African American Studies 457 in the fall semester and for African American Studies 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both African American Studies 457 and 458. Normally offered every year. Staff.

Short Term Units

INDS s18. African American Culture through Sports. Sports in African American life have served in a variety of ways to offer a means for social, economic, cultural, and even political advancement. This unit examines how sports have historically formed and contemporaneously shape the contours of African American culture. Particular attention is given to such questions as segregation, gender equity, cultural images, and their political effects for African American athletes and the black community. In addition to the required and recommended readings, lectures, and discussions, videos and films are central to the teaching and learning process. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and philosophy. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. Not open to students who have received credit for American Cultural Studies s18 or Political Science s18. Offered with varying frequency. J. McClendon.

AA/AR s20. Religious Arts of the African Diaspora. This unit examines the religious arts of the African diaspora. The arts related to the religious traditions of Candomblé, Lucumí (Santería), Rastafarianism, Vodun, and Kongo-derived religions are explored through a multidisciplinary lens. Contemporary visual culture is discussed in addition to arts created for the purpose of worship or memory, such as sculptural figures, altars, garments, and yard shows. A short trip to New York City to visit sites of these arts is an integral part of the unit. In exploring these arts of the diaspora, the unit considers and challenges constructions of race, ethnicity, and Africanicity from insiders' and outsiders' perspectives. Enrollment limited to 15. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s20. Offered with varying frequency. A. Bessire.

INDS s21. Writing a Black Environment. This unit studies the response of black writers and intellectuals of the Spanish-speaking world to issues related to the natural environment. In countries and regions of Afro-Hispanic majority the presence of the oil industry has brought serious challenges to notions of economic progress, human rights, and national sovereignty, as well as individual and communal identity. Writers from Esmeraldas, Ecuador, and Equatorial Guinea chronicle the contradictory discourses present in their societies between modernity, tradition, the idea of progress, and the degradation of the ecosystem. Recommended background: Spanish 202. Cross-listed in African American studies, environmental studies, and Spanish. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies s21, Environmental Studies s21, or Spanish s21. Offered with varying frequency. B. Fra-Molinero.

AA/AN s28. Cultural Production and Social Context, Jamaica. Although Jamaica's artistic and popular culture enjoys international acclaim, it is at the same time often misunderstood. This unit affords students an opportunity to investigate a range of Jamaican cultural practices within the context of the specific social, historical, and political matrices in which they are generated and received. This unit begins with a preliminary introduction/orientation in Lewiston. In Jamaica, regular seminar meetings are supplemented by guest speakers and visits with writers and artists. In addition, each student carries out an individual research project using both textual and ethnographic methods of inquiry. Recommended background: previous course on the Caribbean or in African American studies. Enrollment limited to 15. Written permission of the instructor is required. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies s21. Offered with varying frequency. C. Carnegie.

AAS s50. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. Staff.

Elective Courses

ACS 237. Multicultural Education.
ACS 348. Race and Ethnicity in America.

ANTH 155. Cinematic Portraits of Africa.
ANTH 335. The Ethnographer's Craft.
ANTH s24. Service-Learning in the Local Community.

ART 288. Visualizing Race.

ED/SO 242. Race, Cultural Pluralism, and Equality in American Education.

ENG 250. The African American Novel.
ENG 395B. Dissenting Traditions in Twentieth-Century American Literature.

HIST 243. African American History.
HIST 261. American Protest in the Twentieth Century.
HI/WS 267. Blood, Genes, and American Culture.
HIST 390P. Prelude to the Civil Rights Movement.
HIST 390W. The Civil Rights Movement.

INDS 240. Cultural Politics in African American Studies.

MUS 247. Jazz and Blues: History and Practice.

POLS 229. Race and Civil Rights in Constitutional Interpretation.
POLS 235. Black Women in the Americas.

REL 247. City upon the Hill.
REL 255. African American Religious Traditions.
REL 365B. W. E. B. Du Bois and American Culture.

RHET 275. African American Public Address.
RHET 386. Language and Communication of Black Americans.

SOC 120. Race, Gender, Class, and Society.
SOC 205. Research Methods for Sociology.