Course Schedule

AFAS 150B1 – Contemporary Afro Brazil

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 1 Individuals & Societies/150 · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

This course challenges historical and contemporary popular culture perceptions of Brazil as a tourist haven and paradise replete with festivities and beautiful beaches while also reinforcing an interdisciplinary and multiple perspective approach to the study of Afro-Brazilian people's history, cultures, arts, music, dance, cinema, cuisines, and sports, and the protracted systemic discrimination and exclusion from political and economic rights, as well as the racial and educational inequalities and disparities that Brazilians of African descent have experienced over the years.

AFAS 160A1 – Traditions and Societies of the World - The Africana Experience

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 1 Traditions and Cultures/160 · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

This course will introduce students to the fundamental issues and concepts in the Africana experience in Africa and the United States from a humanist and interdisciplinary perspectives. Principal topics of discussion will be drawn from areas of history, philosophy, political-economy, literature and the arts, religion and society.

AFAS 160D1 – Introduction to African American Literature

Gen Ed: Tier 1 Traditions and Cultures/160 · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity, US · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

Introduction to African American literature will explore the linguistic and cultural roots and traditions of literary writing by African Americans in three centuries of American history focusing on select readings in poetry, drama, non-fiction, and fictional prose. The overall goal of the course is to introduce students to different perspectives of American history, through an Africana lens, and apply the different genres, contexts, and content of literary production by African American writers from the 1700s to the late 20th century, to an overall critique of American Culture.

AFAS 200 – Introduction to Africana Studies

Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

Course provides a comprehensive understanding of the African American experience as grounded in the humanities. A broad investigation of Africana history and culture and its subsequent evolution in the United States.

AFAS 208 – History of Africa

Cross Listed · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Building Connections

This course is an introduction to the history of an enormous continent, Africa. Because of the size of the geography, population and time covered, one of the main purposes of this course is to pave the way to the upper division regional and thematic classes. We will move our way through African history both temporally and thematically. Lectures will introduce key themes and ideas and in section you will discuss historical evidence for African communities, cultures and ideas. This course is suitable to those who know nothing of Africa, and to those who are considering taking an upper division lecture classes or seminar in African history or Africana Studies.

AFAS 209 – African American History (1440-1877)

Cross Listed

This course evaluates the early experiences of peoples of African descent in North America. The culture of African captives, their daily lives under different slave regimes, slave resistance, free blacks, and emancipation are the main subjects addressed in this class.

AFAS 218 – Introduction to Hip-Hop Dance

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Arts · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity, US · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Artist

When you think of hip-hop, you often think of gangsters, thugs, pimps, drugs, crime, wealth, violence ,and misogyny. Students taking this course will be expected to take the artist perspective to dig deeper into the historical underpinnings of where this contemporary art form comes from as well as its evolution and proliferation nationally and beyond(globally). This beginning level class combines practical movement practices based on actual hip-hop dance styles with straight lectures and lively discussions that help students to be critical, analytical, logical, questioning, reflective and evaluative thinkers This holistic approach which combines theory and practice, will furnish learners with the relevant cultural, historical, and practical knowledge of hip-hop dance and cultures in general. Similarly, in order to fully examine and acquire the different hip-hop dance and movement styles, skills, techniques, vocabulary, and cultures emanating from particular historical and evolutionary periods and geographic regions in the USA and globally, the course will adopt ahistorical-geographical approach. The ultimate objective is to challenge and encourage students to take on the lens of the artists and independently create final dance projects where they dig deeper and get immersed in to the core values, knowledge, theories, world views, concepts, and ideas specific to the Africana Studies discipline. Students are not required to have prior dance knowledge to enroll in this class and will participate at their ability levels. To demonstrate the student's mastery of disciplinary content, methodologies, skills, knowledge and value systems, the class will culminate with an independently conceived practical performance, or a digital project accompanied by a critical/analytical write up.

AFAS 220 – Introduction to African American Studies

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Individuals and Societies

Introductory survey of the literature, history, culture and social issues affecting Black Americans.

AFAS 255 – African American Politics

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity, US · Gen Ed Attribute: Writing · Gen Ed: Building Connections

This course focuses on the participation or, lack thereof, of African Americans in the politics and political processes of the United States of America. Since the participation of African Americans in the nation's politics in critical number did not start until the mid-1960s, our specific focus will be on the period following the Civil Rights Struggles of the 1960s till the present. To better understand this period however, there is the need to familiarize ourselves with the historical and political developments of the nation in the preceding era including the founding of the nation in 1776. We will focus on how African Americans history of oppression, including their exclusion from formal political science theorizing, has engendered an African American politics that is unique across such measures as political culture, political socialization, media sources, and voting behavior.

AFAS 280 – Brazilian Identity: Class, Race, and Citizenship

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Individuals and Societies · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed Attribute: Writing · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Social Scientist

This course takes representations and experiences of citizenship in modern Brazil as the springboard for the study of cross-cultural membership in society. How are understandings and experiences of citizenship bound up with the definition and institutionalization of race/ethnicity, class, and gender? This broad question will be examined in specific areas in Brazil such as public health, urban and rural development, environment, education, law, politics, and pop culture. The course covers theoretical readings and case studies from different geographical areas. Instructional materials are interdisciplinary, drawing mainly on the fields of History, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science, and Geography.

AFAS 302 – Africana Studies Research Approaches

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis

This course is designed to provide students with skills in conducting social science research in the field of Africana Studies. The course will consist of discussions of the role of knowledge, the various methods by which knowledge is acquired, and the manner that interpretations of knowledge occur.

AFAS 303 – Black Womanist Writers

Cross Listed

This course examines the lives and writings of Black women from selected ethnicities such as Caribbean, Canadian, Latin American and African American who, despite geography, form bridges to meet and develop a dialogue which enlightens us.

AFAS 304A – The Social Construction of Race: Whiteness

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Individuals and Societies · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

In constructing this course, the recognition of Whiteness/Blackness is not solely a reactionary response to challenges from persons of color; it is also a reflection of the need to provide a narrative of Whiteness/Blackness that intends an understanding of the notion of Whiteness/Blackness as a racial category and the implications of this categorization and association. For example, naming Whiteness displaced it from the unmarked, and unnamed status that is itself an effect of dominance. Within the particular disciplines of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, Whiteness, Blackness and Race have come to be earnest subjects of study. Being White or Black in the 21st Century, however, is far from straightforward. It is riddled with ambiguity and marked by a general sense of racial angst as to what it means to be White or Black. This course will attempt to respond to the question: What does it mean to be Black/White in our global climate?

AFAS 310 – Afro-Latin American Literature

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

A bio-critical discussion/study of writers of African decent/extraction from Latin America.

AFAS 314 – Caribbean Literature and Culture (West Indies)

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

The course examines how literature captures the multifaceted social, cultural, and political life of the Caribbean region.

AFAS 329 – Cultures and Societies of Africa

Cross Listed · Writing Emphasis Course

Introduction to African prehistory, social anthropology, ecology, religions, ancient and modern state formation, slavery, urbanization, and contemporary issues.

AFAS 335 – Rap, Culture and God

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity, US · Gen Ed: Building Connections

This course is a study of popular culture and religion in African-American and Latin@ communities, with a focus on the place of rap music in the cultural identity of these traditions. The class will begin with a study of some major themes in cultural studies concerning identity, class, race, and gender in addition to a study of the role of religion in Black and Latin@ communities. We will consider the approaches and self-understandings of identity and culture in rap music with special attention to the voices of protest, resistance, and spirituality among rap artists.

AFAS 342 – Writers, Women and the Gods

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities

In order to conceptualize the way gender and ethnicity has shaped women's lives in the public and private domain students will "hear" the voices of African American women in ethnography, history and literature as we discuss the Africana concepts of life, health, beauty and family. The experiences of these women, as expressed in literature have become "formidable" presences in African American culture and history. The self-expression and self-definition, expressed by African American women's voices have generated social and political changes in American history that have also impacted the dominant Euro-American culture of American society.

AFAS 348 – The South Since the Civil War

Cross Listed

From the Civil War to the present.

AFAS 352 – Slavery in Latin America

Cross Listed

A broadly comparative introduction to slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean. Exploration of slavery, the use of slave labor, and the daily lives of slaves and slave owners in different settings and different cultures.

AFAS 371 – Hip-Hop Cinema

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Arts · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity, US · Gen Ed Attribute: Writing · Gen Ed: Building Connections

This course provides a strong foundation in the history and development of hip-hop cinema from Africana Studies, Cinema and Cultural Studies perspectives. Major films, theories, and movements are studied in their historical, social, and cultural context, with a particular focus on the aesthetics of visual language and cinematic techniques. Interdisciplinary analysis will allow for viewing hip hop and cinema in revolutionary but academic ways.

AFAS 373 – US & Francophone Hip-Hop Cultures

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity, US · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Artist

Examination of the historical, ethical, social, and political impacts and perspectives of hip-hop artistic practices and works on communities and societies in the United States and in the French-speaking world. Taught in English.

AFAS 374 – Dynamics of Protest in Africa and the Diaspora

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Writing · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Building Connections

This course investigates how the dynamics of resistance and repression have shaped protest in Africa and the diaspora since the slave revolt in Saint-Domingue that produced modern-day Haiti (1791-1804). In the years since, uprisings have occurred that actively renegotiated freedoms, rights, and ideas of citizenship for peoples of African descent with a grounding in the French-speaking world. This course looks at a range of materials from historical documents, poetry, song, films, and fiction to deepen our understanding of how historical progress has been shaped by the dynamic interplay between resistance and repression.

AFAS 376 – Global Soccer

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Individuals and Societies · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Social Scientist

While the British invented "football" (as soccer is known around the world), the French were key players in structuring it worldwide. This interdisciplinary course is about the emergence and growing notoriety of soccer in France, the French - speaking world, and as a worldwide global phenomenon through explorations in the following areas: cultural and global studies, philosophy, history, institutions, anthropology, sociology, and language. The course presents several important themes that allow to understand the popularity and identification of the populations with soccer worldwide, as well as the human values it represents: olympism, pacifism, imperialism, colonialism and post - colonialism , national identities, race, politics, gender, and globalization.

AFAS 377 – Digital Africana Studies: Experiencing the Harlem Renaissance

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity, US · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

Dive into the Harlem Renaissance, a whirlwind of African American artistry and intellect in the Roaring Twenties! This electrifying era, sparked in Harlem, NY, was more than just a cultural movement - it was a redefinition of African American identity through music, art, literature, and thought. Imagine streets pulsating with jazz and blues, where writers, musicians, and artists forged a new legacy in the aftermath of WWI. It was a time when black pride soared, exemplified by significant parades and the rise of influential organizations like the NAACP and the Urban League. Discover why Harlem, the heart of this cultural revolution, was not just a neighborhood, but a vibrant, black metropolis. Join us in exploring this groundbreaking chapter in American history, where every lecture feels like stepping into a scene of unbridled creativity and resilience!

AFAS 463 – Doing Business In /With Africa: A Cultural Perspective

Going into the 21st century, Africa, (along with Asia and Latin America), is often referred to as one of the emerging markets of the world. This recognition has cast Africa as occupying the last frontier market of modern international business and global capitalism. AFAS 463 Doing Business In/ With Africa is designed to provide cultural grounding and competency in Africa for students and professionals interested in conducting business and/or working with government agencies and non-profit organizations in Africa. Its focus, therefore, is the cultural aspect of the international business environment of Africa.

AFAS 467 – Race and Ethnic Relations

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis

Social processes involved in minority groups in terms of race, caste, class, ethnicity, politics, and religion.

AFAS 493 – Internship

Engagement: Community Partnership · Engagement: Diversity and Identity

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of training and practice in actual service in a technical, business, or governmental establishment.

AFAS 498 – Senior Capstone

A culminating experience for majors involving a substantive project that demonstrates a synthesis of learning accumulated in the major, including broadly comprehensive knowledge of the discipline and its methodologies. Senior standing required.

AFAS 498H – Honors Thesis

Honors Course · Writing Emphasis Course

An honors thesis is required of all the students graduating with honors. Students ordinarily sign up for this course as a two-semester sequence. The first semester the student performs research under the supervision of a faculty member; the second semester the student writes an honors thesis.

AFAS 563 – Doing Business In /With Africa: A Cultural Perspective

Going into the 21st century, Africa, (along with Asia and Latin America), is often referred to as one of the emerging markets of the world. This recognition has cast Africa as occupying the last frontier market of modern international business and global capitalism. AFAS 463 Doing Business In/ With Africa is designed to provide cultural grounding and competency in Africa for students and professionals interested in conducting business and/or working with government agencies and non-profit organizations in Africa. Its focus, therefore, is the cultural aspect of the international business environment of Africa. Graduate-level requirements include a 12-15 page proposal on a business or diplomatic venture in any African country. The proposal must demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of the cultural environment of the country that will host the venture. A Business/Diplomatic Proposal 20 minute Presentation.

AFAS 150B1 – Contemporary Afro Brazil

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 1 Individuals & Societies/150 · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

This course challenges historical and contemporary popular culture perceptions of Brazil as a tourist haven and paradise replete with festivities and beautiful beaches while also reinforcing an interdisciplinary and multiple perspective approach to the study of Afro-Brazilian people's history, cultures, arts, music, dance, cinema, cuisines, and sports, and the protracted systemic discrimination and exclusion from political and economic rights, as well as the racial and educational inequalities and disparities that Brazilians of African descent have experienced over the years.

AFAS 160A1 – Traditions and Societies of the World - The Africana Experience

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 1 Traditions and Cultures/160 · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

This course will introduce students to the fundamental issues and concepts in the Africana experience in Africa and the United States from a humanist and interdisciplinary perspectives. Principal topics of discussion will be drawn from areas of history, philosophy, political-economy, literature and the arts, religion and society.

AFAS 200 – Introduction to Africana Studies

Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

Course provides a comprehensive understanding of the African American experience as grounded in the humanities. A broad investigation of Africana history and culture and its subsequent evolution in the United States.

AFAS 218 – Introduction to Hip-Hop Dance

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Arts · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity, US · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Artist

When you think of hip-hop, you often think of gangsters, thugs, pimps, drugs, crime, wealth, violence ,and misogyny. Students taking this course will be expected to take the artist perspective to dig deeper into the historical underpinnings of where this contemporary art form comes from as well as its evolution and proliferation nationally and beyond(globally). This beginning level class combines practical movement practices based on actual hip-hop dance styles with straight lectures and lively discussions that help students to be critical, analytical, logical, questioning, reflective and evaluative thinkers This holistic approach which combines theory and practice, will furnish learners with the relevant cultural, historical, and practical knowledge of hip-hop dance and cultures in general. Similarly, in order to fully examine and acquire the different hip-hop dance and movement styles, skills, techniques, vocabulary, and cultures emanating from particular historical and evolutionary periods and geographic regions in the USA and globally, the course will adopt ahistorical-geographical approach. The ultimate objective is to challenge and encourage students to take on the lens of the artists and independently create final dance projects where they dig deeper and get immersed in to the core values, knowledge, theories, world views, concepts, and ideas specific to the Africana Studies discipline. Students are not required to have prior dance knowledge to enroll in this class and will participate at their ability levels. To demonstrate the student's mastery of disciplinary content, methodologies, skills, knowledge and value systems, the class will culminate with an independently conceived practical performance, or a digital project accompanied by a critical/analytical write up.

AFAS 220 – Introduction to African American Studies

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Individuals and Societies

Introductory survey of the literature, history, culture and social issues affecting Black Americans.

AFAS 306 – African-American Autobiographies: Women and Their Histories

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Individuals and Societies

Students will gain insight into the historical and cultural factors that have created, and continue to perpetuate gender and ethnic inequity. Students will come to understand African American writers, particularly women, as historical agents and self-defined individuals. While the course will emphasize the multiple roles of African American women, as portrayed autobiographically it also incorporates the historical struggles of those around them. It is my goal that through the course material students will see how African Americans are constantly recreating themselves in the face of adversity.

AFAS 310 – Afro-Latin American Literature

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

A bio-critical discussion/study of writers of African decent/extraction from Latin America.

AFAS 314 – Caribbean Literature and Culture (West Indies)

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

The course examines how literature captures the multifaceted social, cultural, and political life of the Caribbean region.

AFAS 342 – Writers, Women and the Gods

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities

In order to conceptualize the way gender and ethnicity has shaped women's lives in the public and private domain students will "hear" the voices of African American women in ethnography, history and literature as we discuss the Africana concepts of life, health, beauty and family. The experiences of these women, as expressed in literature have become "formidable" presences in African American culture and history. The self-expression and self-definition, expressed by African American women's voices have generated social and political changes in American history that have also impacted the dominant Euro-American culture of American society.

AFAS 345 – Caribbean Politics

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Individuals and Societies

This course provides an introduction to the politics of Caribbean states, from 1960 to the present. 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.

AFAS 371 – Hip-Hop Cinema

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Arts · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity, US · Gen Ed Attribute: Writing · Gen Ed: Building Connections

This course provides a strong foundation in the history and development of hip-hop cinema from Africana Studies, Cinema and Cultural Studies perspectives. Major films, theories, and movements are studied in their historical, social, and cultural context, with a particular focus on the aesthetics of visual language and cinematic techniques. Interdisciplinary analysis will allow for viewing hip hop and cinema in revolutionary but academic ways.

AFAS 373 – US & Francophone Hip-Hop Cultures

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity, US · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Artist

Examination of the historical, ethical, social, and political impacts and perspectives of hip-hop artistic practices and works on communities and societies in the United States and in the French-speaking world. Taught in English.

AFAS 376 – Global Soccer

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Individuals and Societies · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Social Scientist

While the British invented "football" (as soccer is known around the world), the French were key players in structuring it worldwide. This interdisciplinary course is about the emergence and growing notoriety of soccer in France, the French - speaking world, and as a worldwide global phenomenon through explorations in the following areas: cultural and global studies, philosophy, history, institutions, anthropology, sociology, and language. The course presents several important themes that allow to understand the popularity and identification of the populations with soccer worldwide, as well as the human values it represents: olympism, pacifism, imperialism, colonialism and post - colonialism , national identities, race, politics, gender, and globalization.