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,DU) 

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,DU) 

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,DU) 

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,DU) 

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,DU)

AFROAM 155 Revolutionary Concepts in Afro-American Music I 
Introduction to history of Black music from its African origins to the end of the 19th century.

AFROAM 156 Revolutionary Concepts in Afro-American Music II (3 credits) 
This course will examine the development of Afro-American music during the twentieth century with an especial focus on links to the Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts Movement.  In particular, the class will survey the variegated styles and productions of artists, including Bessie Smith, Eubie Blake, James P. Johnson, Ma Rainey, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Lightnin’ Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, Mary Lou Williams, Charlie “Bird” Parker, Max Roach, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Smith, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, Randy Weston, Nina Simone, Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Booker T. & the MGs, Nikki Giovanni, Sun Ra, the Chicago Art Ensemble, Sonia Sanchez, Albert Ayler, Leon Thomas, Jayne Cortez, The Watts Prophets, The Last Poets, and Gil Scott-Heron.  (Gen. Ed. AT,DU)

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.  

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,DU)

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,DU)

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 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,DU)

AFROAM 326 Black Women in U.S. History (4 credits)
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,DU)

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 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 391J Race & American Consumer Culture
This course examines the deeply intertwined relationship between race and American consumer culture—the economy of buying and selling—in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Race was central to the emergence of American consumer culture and, conversely, consumer culture significantly impacted race and the experiences of diverse groups including African Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans, and white ethnic groups.  This course engages historical and literary texts, film, advertisements, music, and even Twitter to investigate the buying and selling of blackness and whiteness, the racialized commodification of groups and cultures, efforts to create a classless, racially-exclusive consumer culture, the segmentation of the mass market, consumer activism, the process of Americanization, the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, and Black Lives Matter.  This course will also pay special attention to the ways consumer culture shaped interracial encounters, and racial, ethnic, and gender, and class identities.

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 591B Black Radical Thought    (Undergraduate/Graduate)
This course will focus on contributions to Marxist intellectual and political traditions by African and African-descended thinkers. We will read and discuss works by major figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, Walter Rodney, Amilcar Cabral, Angela Davis, Aime Cesaire, Franz Fanon.  We also hope to introduce you to a selection of perhaps lesser known figures such as Babu, Achille Mbembe, George Padmore, Claudia Jones, Harry Haywood, James Boggs, Muhammad Ahmad.  The course will require extensive reading, informed participation in class discussion, and a final paper.

AFROAM 597A Afro-Caribbean Studies (Undergraduate/Graduate)
Afro-Caribbean Studies is an advanced introduction to the history, culture, and politics of people of African descent in the Caribbean basin suitable for both graduate students and upper-level undergraduates. After a broad synopsis of the region’s history, the course has a focus on the politics of select Caribbean states, from 1900 to the present; viz., Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica. It will discuss major issues that affect the Caribbean region, namely, migration, poverty, regional economic cooperation and political integration, democratic institutions, and U. S. foreign policy towards the region. Also, the course will examine the history and role of the diverse religious components of the Caribbean basin from Indigenous practices to Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism and the emergence and development of African belief systems and practices such as Santeria, Espiritismo, Vodou and Rastafarianism from the 18th century to the present. Music and other expressive arts is an additional focal area of the class.