African American Studies

Professors Turlish (English), Branham (Rhetoric)(on leave, winter semester and Short Term), and Taylor (English); Associate Professors Kessler (Political Science), Brinkley (Sociology and Women's Studies), Creighton (History)(on leave, winter semester), Bruce (Religion), Fra-Molinero (Spanish), Eames (Anthropology), Nero (Rhetoric), Chair, and Carnegie (Anthropology); Assistant Professors Chin (English), Hill (Political Science), Jensen (History), Williams (Music and African American Studies), and Rivers (Political Science); Mr. Pope.L (Theater)

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.

Major requirements: Students must complete eleven courses and a thesis. Students must complete either African American Studies 457 or African American Studies 458 (senior thesis). In addition students should fulfill the following requirements from the courses approved for the major: one course must have an experiential component; one course must be a junior-senior seminar.

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 programs have both breadth and depth, and 2) devise a program 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.

Courses
150. Black Culture and Black Consciousness in Diaspora. The course aims to provide an anthropological framework for understanding cultural production and meaning through time in black communities in the United States, the Caribbean, and Europe. Distinctiveness as well as commonalities in social and cultural patterning among African diaspora peoples are discussed within the context of the historical and structural conditions that created and continue to engender a diasporic black consciousness. Illustrative material is drawn from popular culture, ethnographies of black family and community life, life histories, and other sources. This course is the same as Anthropology 150 and American Cultural Studies 150. C. Carnegie.

249. African American Popular Music. When Americans stared into their black and white television sets in the early 1950s, they saw only a white world. Similarly with music, variety shows primarily spotlighted the talent of white performers. Change came slowly, and during the late 1950s American Bandstand introduced viewers to such African American artists as Dizzy Gillespie and Chubby Checker. 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, dance, and drama in the United States from the 1950s to the present. This course is the same as Music 249. Open to first year students. L. Williams.

250. Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry. Interdisciplinary 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: any two courses in women's studies, African American studies, or American cultural studies. Required of African American studies, American cultural studies and women's studies majors. This course is the same as American Cultural Studies 250 and Women's Studies 250. Staff.

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. This course is the same as Music 262 and Anthropology 262. Open to first year students. Enrollment limited to 25. L. Williams.

280. Education, Reform, and Politics. The United States has experienced nearly two centuries of growth and change in the organization of private and public education. The goals of this course are to examine alternative educational philosophies, practices, and pedagogies; and contemporary issues and organizational processes in relation to the constituencies of schools, learning, research, legal decisions, planning, and policy. The study of these areas includes K-12, postsecondary, graduate vocational schools, and home schooling. Examples of specific study areas are African American pedagogy and philosophy-practice, tracking, race and educational research, teacher effectiveness and accountability, and the elimination and reinvention of parent involvement. This course is the same as Education 280 and Sociology 280. Enrollment limited to 40. C. Brinkley.

360. Independent Study. Independent study of selected topics by individual students. Approval of the Chair is required. Students must meet periodically with the instructor and complete papers or projects. Students are limited to one independent study per semester. Written permission of the instructor is required. Staff.

390A. The Harlem Renaissance. This course examines 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. Possible topics include: the artist as iconoclast; contributions to the theater and the performing arts; racial and cultural identity in literature; the formation of a community of black critical theorists; the role in promoting the arts by political movements such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association; the visual arts and racial identity; and the New Negro Movement, campus revolts, and the "first wave" of demands for black studies in the college and university curriculum. Prerequisite(s): English 250 or Rhetoric 275 or History 243. Enrollment limited to 15. C. Nero.

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. Staff.

Short Term Units

s19. Spike Lee. Spike Lee is the most prominent filmmaker of African descent working in the United States. This unit examines his films and the responses to them from critics writing in African American studies in the areas of black film studies, black feminism, black lesbian and gay studies, afrocentrism, and black cultural studies. Possible topics include: history and biography in film; the audience for black films; black aesthetics and black nationalism; and images in film of black love, racism, homosexuality, gender, male bonding, interracial relations, and the family. This unit is the same as Rhetoric s19. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. C. Nero.

The major in African American Studies consists of eleven courses distributed as follows:

a) Introduction of African American Studies. To be announced by the Chair of African American Studies.

b) Survey of African American Studies. Three courses required from among:

Anthropology 370. Post-Emancipation Societies: African Americans in Freedom.

English 250. The African American Novel.

History 243. African American History.

Rhetoric 275. African American Public Address.

c) Race as a Critical Tool for Analysis. One course required from among:

African American Studies 280. Education, Reform, and Politics. This course is the same as Education 280 and Sociology 280.

Art 288. Visualizing Race.

English 121I. Reading Race and Ethnicity in American Literature.

Rhetoric 331. Rhetorical Theory.

Sociology 240. Race and Ethnicity in the United States.

d) Feminist Histories and Analyses. One course required from among:

Political Science 235. Black Women in the Americas.

Women's Studies 201. African American Women and Feminist Thought.

e) Africans in the Diaspora (non-United States). One course required from among:

African American Studies 150. Black Culture and Black Consciousness in Diaspora. This course is the same as American Cultural Studies 150 and Anthropology 150.
African American Studies 262. Ethnomusicology: African Diaspora. This course is the same as Anthropology 262 and Music 262.

Anthropology 250. Caribbean Societies: Emergence of Post-Nationalism.
Anthropology s21. Cultural Production and Social Context: Jamaica. This course is the same as English s21.

English 395A. Twentieth Century Caribbean Narrative.
English s21. Cultural Production and Social Context: Jamaica. This course is the same as Anthropology s21.

f) Methods and Modes of Research. One course required from among:

African American Studies 250. Methods and Modes of Inquiry. This course is the same as American Cultural Studies 250 and Women's Studies 250.

Sociology 305. Quantitative Research Methods.
Sociology 306. Qualitative Research Methods.

g) Electives. Three courses that may come from sections "b" through "e" and from among:

African American Studies 249. African American Popular Music.
African American Studies 395A. The Harlem Renaissance.
African American Studies s19. Spike Lee. This course is the same as Rhetoric s19.

Art 289. Hate, the State, and Representation. This course is the same as Political Science 289 and Rhetoric 289.

Classics 305. Africa and the Classics.

English s17. Sexual Harassment and the U.S. Senate's Thomas-Hill Hearings. This course is the same as Sociology s17.
English 395B. Dissenting Traditions in Twentieth Century American Literature.
English 395K. African American Literary and Cultural Criticism.
English s30. Feminist Literary Criticism.

German 260. Germany and Its Others.

History 144(247). Social History of the Civil War.
History 261. American Protest in the Twentieth Century.
History 349. Black America in the Twentieth Century.
History 390K. Currents in Modern American Intellectual History.
History s24. The Civil Rights Movement.

Music 246. American Music: The Experimental Traditions.
Music 247. Jazz and Blues: History and Practice.
Music s23. Drumming in West Africa: Rhythm, Texture, and Flow.
Music s26. Jazz: History and Practice.

Political Science 233. African American Politics.
Political Science 289. Hate, the State, and Representation. This course is the same as Art 289 and Rhetoric 289.

Rhetoric 225. The Grain of the Black Image. This course is the same as Theater 262.
Rhetoric 255. Moving Pictures: The Rhetoric of Committed Documentary.
Rhetoric 289. Hate, the State, and Representation. This course is the same as Art 289 and Political Science 289.
Rhetoric 386. Language and Communication of Black Americans.

Sociology 345. Beliefs About Social Inequality.
Sociology s17. Sexual Harassment and the U.S. Senate's Thomas-Hill Hearings.

Theater 225. The Grain of the Black Image. This course is the same as Rhetoric 225.
Theater 226. Minority Images in Hollywood Film.
Theater 250. Twentieth Century American Dance II.

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