The Courses

(All courses carry 3 credits unless otherwise noted.)

AFROAM 101. Introduction to Black Studies
Interdisciplinary introduction to the basic concepts and literature in the disciplines covered by Black Studies. Includes history, the social sciences, and humanities as well as conceptual frameworks for investigation and analysis of Black history and culture.

AFROAM 117. Survey of Afro-American Literature (4 credits)
The major figures and themes in Afro-American literature, analyzing specific works in detail and surveying the early history of Afro-American literature. What the slave narratives, poetry, short stories, novels, drama, and folklore of the period reveal about the social, economic, psychological, and artistic lives of the writers and their characters, both male and female. Explores the conventions of each of these genres in the period under discussion to better understand the relation of the material to the dominant traditions of the time and the writers' particular contributions to their own art.  (Gen.Ed. AL, U) 

AFROAM 118. Survey of Afro-American Literature II (4 credits)
Introductory level survey of Afro-American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the present, including DuBois, Hughes, Hurston, Wright, Ellison, Baldwin, Walker, Morrison, Baraka and Lorde. (Gen. Ed. AL, U) 

AFROAM 132. African-American History 1619-1860 (4 credits)
The main aim of this course is to make you familiar with some of the most important developments and issues in African American history until the Civil War. We will focus on the black experience under slavery and the struggle for emancipation. Topics include the Atlantic slave trade, evolution of African American communities and culture, the free black community, the distinct experience of black women, and the black protest tradition. The format of the course is lecture supplemented by class discussions.  (Gen.Ed. HS, U) 

AFROAM 133. African-American History Civil War-1954 (4 credits)
Major issues and actions from the beginning of the Civil War to the 1954 Supreme Court decision. Focus on political and social history: transition from slavery to emancipation and Reconstruction; the Age of Booker T. Washington; urban migrations, rise of the ghettoes; the ideologies and movements from integrationism to black nationalism. (Gen. Ed. HS, U) 

AFROAM 151. Literature & Culture (4 credits)
This course focuses on African American cultural expressions contributing to the shape and character of contemporary African American (and U.S.) culture and how these forms have influenced and been represented by African American writers. The course uses African American literature and culture of the 1960s and 1970s in their many manifestations, especially poetry, criticism, theater, music, and the visual arts as an entry into the concerns listed above. A particular focus of the course will be the ways in which domestic and international political movements, such as Civil Rights, Black Power, anti-colonial, and non-aligned intersected with black cultural efforts, deeply influencing the formal and thematic choices of African American artists. (Gen.Ed AL,U)

AFROAM 161. Introduction to Afro-American Political Science
Survey of the politics of the Black community in the U.S. The history of Black political development, major theories which explain Black political life, social, economic, psychological and institutional environment from which Black politics flows. Attention paid to 1988 presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson and its relevance to the 2008 election of Barack Obama.  (Gen.Ed. SB, U)

AFROAM 197A. Taste of Honey: Black Film, Part I (1 credit) *Fall offering
AFROAM 197B. Taste of Honey: Black Film, Part II (1 credit) *Spring offering

AFROAM 234. The Harlem Renaissance   (4 credits)
Exploration of the cultural explosion also termed the New Negro movement, from W.E.B. Du Bois through the early work of Richard Wright. Essays, poetry, and fiction, and the blues, jazz, and folklore of the time examined in terms of how Harlem Renaissance artists explored their spiritual and cultural roots, dealt with gender issues, sought artistic aesthetic and style adequate to reflect such concerns. Readings supplemented by contemporary recordings, visual art, and videos. (Gen.Ed. AL, U)

AFROAM 236.  History of the Civil Rights Movement  (4 credits)
Examination of the Civil Rights Movement from the Brown v. Topeka decision to the rise of Black power. All the major organizations of the period, e.g., SCLC, SNCC, CORE, NAACP, and the Urban League. The impact on white students and the anti-war movement.  (Gen.Ed. HS, U)

AFROAM 250. African American Short Stories
Students in this course will receive an introduction to the African American short story and to the major themes, issues, concepts, as well as the literary techniques and forms prevalent in African American literature.

AFROAM 252. African American Image in American Writing
Examination of a representative sampling of poetry, prose and/or drama by American writers -- black and white, male and female -- depicting African-American characters and issues related directly to the lives of African Americans.  Texts chosen from the works of such authors as Jefferson, Poe, Stowe, Melville, Douglass, Delany, Dunbar, Eliot, Faulkner, Hurston, Wright, Baldwin, Styron, Baraka, and Morrison.  We will analyze and interpret material in light of issues of race, gender, class, politics, historical time frame, and artistic aesthetic, in order to characterize the depictions of African-Americans in the works, and to understand what those depictions reflect about individual writers, about segments of American society, and about American society as a whole.

AFROAM 264. Foundations of Black Education in the U.S. (4 credits)
The education of blacks from Reconstruction to 1954.   Includes public schools, colleges, and non-school education.  The involvement of religious associations, philanthropic organizations, the Freedman’s Bureau, the Black church, and the Federal Government will also be discussed.  (Gen. Ed. HS, U)

AFROAM 295P. Policing, Protest and Politics: Queers, Feminists, and BlackLivesMatter# (Same as WGSS 295P)
Over the past year few years, a powerful social movement has emerged to affirm to the country and world that Black Lives Matter. Sparked by the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Stanford, Florida, and Zimmerman's acquittal as well as the police killings of other black men and women, including Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, and Freddie Gray, this movement challenges police violence and other policing that makes black communities unsafe as well as social constructions of black people as inherently dangerous and criminal. Police violence against black people and the interrelated criminalization of black communities have a long history, older than the US itself. There is a similarly long and important history of activism and social movements against police violence and criminalization. Today, black people are disproportionately subject to police surveillance and violence, arrest, and incarceration. So, too, are other people of color (both men and women) and queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people of all races but especially those of color. This course will examine the history of policing and criminalization of black, queer, and trans people and communities and related anti-racist, feminist, and queer/trans activism. In doing so, we will interrogate how policing and understandings of criminality - or the view that certain people or groups are inherently dangerous or criminal - in the US have long been deeply shaped by race, gender, and sexuality.

AFROAM 326. Black Women in U.S. History
The history of African American women from the experience of slavery to the present. Emphasis on the effect of racist institutions and practices on women. The ways in which women organized themselves to address the needs of African Americans in general and their own in particular. The achievements of such leaders as Mary Church Terrell, Harriet Tubman, Ella Baker, and Mary McLeod Bethune as well as lesser known women. (Gen.Ed. HS, U)

AFROAM 330. Songbirds, Blueswomen and Soulwomen
The focus for this course is the cultural, political, and social issues found in the music and history of African American women performers. The primary emphasis in the course will be on African American women in Jazz, Blues, and Soul/R&B, but students also will study African American women composers as well as Spiritual-Gospel and Opera performers.

AFROAM 344. Black Speculative Fiction
Examination of the development of black speculative fiction in the nineteenth and twentieth century, including science fiction, fantasy, gothic literature, magical realism, the detective novel, and/or related genres. Topics of discussion may include slavery and colonialism; diaspora; science, technology, and the environment; race and the paraliterary; utopianism and dystopianism; blackness and metaphysics; Afrofuturism.

AFROAM 365. Composition: Style & Organization
Expository writing focusing primarily on argumentative and narrative essays. Discussion and practice of logic—inductive and deductive reasoning—as it relates to the argumentative essay form. Topics as thesis on main idea, organization, style, unity, supporting evidence, avoiding logical fallacies, and basic writing mechanics, including constructing sentences, paragraphing, transitions, and correct grammar.

AFROAM 395F.  Peer Leadership Development (Spring semester)
This is the 1st part of a two-semester two-course sequence that is designed to prepare second and third-year students to mentor entering first year students. This course will help older students focus on developing leadership and outreach skills which will enable them to strengthen their own academic achievement as well as prepare them to help others.  This two-semester course sequence begins with upper class students in the spring semester; the course will prepare them to work with incoming new students in the subsequent fall semester.The spring semester course is divided into two segments.  The first segment of this course will enable second and third year students to develop leadership skills for themselves which will enable them to have a better understanding of how to assist first year students in forming effective study groups, mediation, studying for exams, time management, and library skills.  Students will also learn how to act as mentors, by working with middle and high school students. Students will interact with these young people one on one as well as within groups.  The second half of the spring semester course will focus on various topics that affect the ALANAI community. Topics will include racism, sexism, STDs, drugs in our society, male and female relationships, dropping out of school, stress management, and ALANAI leaders in the past and present. Students will be assigned an office space in order to interview potential 1st year students over the phone as part of the admission outreach program and to establish initial contact with their fall semester mentees who have accepted the offer of admission to the university.

AFROAM 395G. Peer Leadership and Facilitation (Fall semester)
This is the second part of a two-semester course that is designed to help upper-class (junior and senior) students’ focus on developing leadership and outreach skills. The course will enable upperclassmen to work directly with newly entering first semester’s students and to help them facilitate the transitional process from high school to college. Students in the class will serve as Peer Leaders to assist first year students form effective study groups; learn how to study for exams and how to manage their time more effectively. 

AFROAM 494DI. Du Bois Senior Seminar (for Juniors and Seniors)
This course is an upper-division course that provides a structured context for students to reflect on their own learning in their General Education courses and the courses they have taken in the AFROAM major. In the course we will attempt to connect skills and knowledge from multiple sources and experiences and apply theory to practice in various real world settings; engaging diverse and even contradictory points of view; and, understanding issues and positions contextually as students prepare to write their senior thesis.  This course satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for students in the AfroAm major.

AFROAM 597B. Black Springfield  (Undergraduate/Graduate)
We will start with a broad survey of the city's history that began when William Pynchon and a company of Puritan men from Roxbury, founded Springfield in 1636 at the confluence of three rivers. Pynchon established a trading and fur-collecting post and enslaved Africans became a vital part of its labor force. Springfield officially became a city in May of 1852, but by then slavery had ended and the city had developed a reputation as a Underground Railroad depot thanks to antislavery freedom fighters like Thomas Thomas, Eli Baptist, and John Brown. Springfield's location at the crossroads of New England is the most significant reason for its economic progress as an industrial city. In 2010, Springfield was a city of 156,060 that was 22.3% Black or African American, and 4.7% from Two or More Races (1.5% White and Black or African American). Latin@s of any race made up 38.8% of the population (33.2% Puerto Rican).

AFROAM 597D. The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois  (Undergraduate/Graduate)
This course will focus on the contributions of W.E.B. Du Bois to the study of the sociology of African Americans and race relations in the U.S. We will be examining such works as The Philadelphia Negro, the Atlanta University Studies, reports for various government agencies and selected essays. The course also will address Du Bois' influence on the work of other sociologists such as E. Franklin Frazier, St. Clair Drake, Oliver Cox and William Julius Wilson.  The course is open to both graduate and upper-level undergraduate students.

AFROAM 597M. Third World Marxism    (Undergraduate/Graduate)
This seminar has two goals first, to introduce students to the views of Karl Marx on non-European societies, and second to explore how Marx's general theories have been adopted and modified to address the circumstances of non-white peoples. The primary focus will be on writings produced in the western hemisphere by African Americans such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Cedric Robinson, Angela Davis and Harold Cruse; West Indians such as C.L.R. James, Sylvia Wynter, and Walter Rodney. We also will include writings by influential Latin American marxists such as Jose Carlos Mariategui. For the sake of comparison, some attention will be given to the development of marxist traditions in China and in Africa. This will be a reading seminar with heavy emphasis on class participation, including the leading of at least one class discussion.