Professors Turlish (English), Branham (Rhetoric), Taylor (English), and Kessler (Political Science); Associate Professors Creighton (History)(on leave, fall semester), Bruce (Religion), Fra-Molinero (Spanish), Eames (Anthropology)(on leave, winter semester and Short Term), Kane (Sociology), Nero (Rhetoric), and Carnegie (Anthropology), Chair; 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.

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. L. Williams.

160. 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. Some of the films include the mini-series Roots, Mississippi Burning, the four versions of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Glory, Birth of a Nation, and Rosewood. Particular attention is given to films in the interracial male buddy genre, such as The Defiant Ones, In the Heat of the Night, 48 Hours, and Lethal Weapon. C. Nero.

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. This course is the same as Music 239 and Women's Studies 239. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. L. Williams.

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. As 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. Enrollment limited to 40. L. Williams.

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): any two courses in women's studies, African American studies, or American cultural studies. This course is the same as American Cultural Studies 250 and Women's Studies 250. T. Chin.

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 1) alternative educational philosophies, practices, and pedagogies; and 2) 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 Sociology 280 and Education 280. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. Staff.

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): one of the following: English 250, Rhetoric 275, or History 243. Enrollment limited to 15. C. Nero.

399B. Junior-Senior Seminar in Ethnomusicology. This course introduces students to ethnomusicological methods by encouraging the development of critical and analytical tools of inquiry necessary for fieldwork and research. The course focuses on the social, cultural, political, and intellectual forces that shaped the growth of ethnomusicology in the United States and abroad. Students are expected to undertake an innovative research project on a theoretical approach for studying music in its cultural and historical context. Students critically examine the music, current philosophical thoughts of ethnomusicology, and their own personal interviews with musicians.

Prerequisite(s): one of the following: African American Studies/Music 249, African American Studies/Anthropology/Music 262, or Music 232. This course is the same as Music 399B. Enrollment limited to 15. L. Williams.

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

s22. Africa in Me: Cultural Transmission in Brazil. Brazil is second only to Nigeria in population of people of African descent. Brazil, along with Cuba, has the longest history of slavery in the Western world in modern times. Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, and its long history continues to have a decisive effect upon contemporary social and political institutions. This unit examines the impact of slavery in modern Brazil by examining African retentions in history, culture, and religion. This unit is the same as Spanish s22. Open to first- year students. Enrollment limited to 60. B. Fra-Molinero, C. Nero, Staff.

s50. Individual Research. Registration in this unit is granted by the program only after the student has submitted a written proposal for a full-time research project to be completed during the Short Term and has secured the sponsorship of a member of the program to direct the study and evaluate results. Students are limited to one individual research unit. Open to first-year students. Staff.

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

1. African American Studies 140A. Introduction to African American Studies.

2. Survey of African American Studies:

   English 250. The African American Novel.
   History 243. African American History.
   Rhetoric 275. African American Public Address.

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

   African American Studies/Education/Sociology 280. Education, Reform, and Politics.
   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.

4. 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.

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

   African American Studies/Anthropology/Music 262. Ethnomusicology: African Diaspora.
   Anthropology 250. Caribbean Societies: Emergence of Post- Nationalism.
   Anthropology/English s21. Cultural Production and Social Context, Jamaica.
   English 395A. Twentieth-Century Caribbean Narrative.

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

   African American Studies/American Cultural Studies/ Women's Studies 250. Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry.
   Sociology 305. Quantitative Research Methods.
   Sociology 306. Qualitative Research Methods.

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

   African American Studies/Music 249. African American Popular Music.
   African American Studies 390A. The Harlem Renaissance.
   Art/Political Science/Rhetoric 289. Hate, the State, and Representation.
   Classics 305. Africa and the Classics.
   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. Social History of the Civil War.
   History 261. American Protest in the Twentieth Century.
   History 349. Black America in the Twentieth Century.
   History 390K. Modern American Intellectual History: From Cultural Pluralism to Multiculturalism and Beyond.
   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.
   Political Science 233. African American Politics.
   Rhetoric 255. Moving Pictures: The Rhetoric of Committed Documentary.
   Rhetoric 386. Language and Communication of Black Americans.
   Sociology 345. Beliefs about Social Inequality.
   Theater 225. The Grain of the Black Image.
   Theater 226. Minority Images in Hollywood Film.
   Theater 250. Twentieth-Century American Dance I.

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