3 Credit Hours

Survey of the traditional arts of the cultures of Black Africa, the Pacific and the Americas (focusing primarily on the period before the European conquest). Sculpture, painting, pottery, textiles, architecture, and human adornment will all be examined.

Same as ARTH 162

Satisfies General Education Requirement through the 2021-2022 academic catalog: (AH)

3 Credit Hours

Multidisciplinary approach to the African American experience through the Civil War period which examines such issues as traditional African societies, the institution of slavery, the development of African American culture, the beginnings of African American protest tradition, and the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (SS) (GCUS)
Satisfies General Education Requirement through the 2021-2022 academic catalog: (SS)

3 Credit Hours

Multidisciplinary approach to the African American experience from the Civil War through the Civil Rights era which focuses on such topics as African American rural and urban societies, the African American church and education and African American intellectual and protest movements.

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (SS) (GCUS)
Satisfies General Education Requirement through the 2021-2022 academic catalog: (SS)

3 Credit Hours

Survey of modern African literature. Course explores the major genres and emphasizes comparative, cross-cultural, and cross-national approaches. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ENGL 225

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (AH) (GCI)
Satisfies General Education Requirement through the 2021-2022 academic catalog: (AH)
(RE) Prerequisite(s): ENGL 102*, ENGL 112*, ENGL 132*, or ENGL 298*

3 Credit Hours

Survey of the major genres in Caribbean literature. Course makes cross-cultural and cross-national comparisons; general overview of themes and styles. Major authors may include Naipaul, Rhone, Brathwaite, Hodge, Mais, Lovelace, and Marshall. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ENGL 226

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (AH) (GCI)
Satisfies General Education Requirement through the 2021-2022 academic catalog: (AH)
(RE) Prerequisite(s): ENGL 102*, ENGL 112 *, ENGL 132*, or ENGL 298*

3 Credit Hours

Using history, devising techniques, movement, and music; students will learn universal performance practices based in the Black American experience. The class will culminate in a performance piece solely written by the students. This class is open to students of all backgrounds and acting levels: beginner to advanced.

Same as THEA 230

3 Credit Hours

Black American literature as a literary tradition. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ENGL 233

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (AH) (GCUS)
Satisfies General Education Requirement through the 2021-2022 academic catalog: (AH)
(RE) Prerequisite(s): ENGL 102*, ENGL 112 *, ENGL 132*, or ENGL 298*

3 Credit Hours

Multidisciplinary approach to the study of African traditions, cultures, religions, political economies, pre-colonial democracies, and states from the first through the 16th century. Writing-emphasis course.

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (GCI)
Satisfies General Education Requirement through the 2021-2022 academic catalog: (CC)

3 Credit Hours

Multidisciplinary approach to the study of African traditions, cultures, religions, political economies, pre-colonial democracies, and states from the first through the 16th century. Writing-emphasis course.

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (GCI)
Satisfies General Education Requirement through the 2021-2022 academic catalog: (CC)

3 Credit Hours

Multidisciplinary study of Africa and its incorporation into the world economy between the 16th and the 20th century. Includes the rise of nationalism, post-colonial dependency, contemporary problems, and current liberation struggles in various areas of the continent. Writing-emphasis course.

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (GCI)
Satisfies General Education Requirement through the 2021-2022 academic catalog: (CC

3 Credit Hours

History of the rise and fall of racial slavery in the United States. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as HIUS 300

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (GCUS)

3 Credit Hours

This course engages with a wide-variety cultural material, including literature, films, television series, music, and studio art, to consider how horror, thriller, and sci-fi challenge and explore the social construction of race and its societal impacts. Students will critically examine materials from the early-twentieth century to the present-day related to contexts such as enslavement, scientific racism, and legal injustice with attention to how these and related topics appear in horror, sci-fi, and thriller. Additionally, students will consider questions regarding perspective and affect. Potential materials include works by W. E. B. Du Bois, Misha Green, Jordan Peele, Daniel Glover, Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, and Tiya Miles.

Same as ENGL 311

3 Credit Hours

This course begins with the African context and imposition of chattel slavery. To that extent, the course examines social, cultural and historical factors affecting the health status of African Americans to the present era. It explores a variety of health-related issues, including the interplay between environment, biology and culture, and popular health practices; folk and popular health practices; structured inequality and oppression; lifestyle, beliefs and values; and the organization and delivery of health care. In particular, the course will explore how various forces (e.g., environmental, structural, social and political states of anti-Black racism-based trauma) have impacted the quest for African American health and well-being. Additionally, the course takes a sociohistorical perspective to engage students in learning about how various systems, institutions, and experiences impact Black health. Some of the more pertinent issues, events, and experiences to be discussed include: the Tuskegee Experiment, Henrietta Lacks, and the realities of “Medical Apartheid,” which reveal some historical grounding for contemporary issues, such as the Flint water crisis, environmental justice, access to healthy foods, and generational trauma. Each of these contribute to the health and vibrancy of African American families and communities.

3 Credit Hours

Traces the roots of Gospel music from 18th century English hymnody up through the blues to contemporary popular music.

Same as MUSC 314

3 Credit Hours

An overview of anthropological perspectives on people of African descent and the impact of an African presence on societies in the Americas. The sociocultural experiences of U.S. African Americans and their counterparts elsewhere in the hemisphere are situated in the context of a broader diaspora. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ANTH 315

(RE) Prerequisite(s): ANTH 130* or ANTH 137*, or AFST 201* and AFST 202*, or SOCI 110*, or GLBS 250*.

3 Credit Hours

Anthropological approaches to key aspects of Caribbean history, sociocultural pluralism, racial and class stratification, patterns of economic development, and local and national-level political processes. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ANTH 319

(RE) Prerequisite(s): ANTH 130* or ANTH 137*, or AFST 201* and AFST 202*, or SOCI 110*, or GLBS 250*.

3 Credit Hours

This course explores Black education in the United States, with a primary focus on Black youth and their K-12 educational experiences in public educational settings (e.g., schools and community-based organizations). The course investigates the historical, political, sociological, and psychological issues that impact the educational trajectories, opportunities, and outcomes for Black youth. The approach will be threefold. First, the course will explore what Dr. Carter G. Woodson has articulated as the “miseducation” of Black people, thus identifying how educational sites, teaching, and practices can impact students’ attitudes and efforts as well as the resources that are available to them. Second, the course will explore how Blacks have been agentic in their educational efforts, from developing schools and education programs to teaching and educational practices that contribute to their successes. Third, the course will examine the family-community-education nexus and how these connections matter to Black educational experiences.

3 Credit Hours

Examines the role of ethnic and racial identity in the literature of the United States. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ENGL 331

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (AH) (GCUS)
(RE) Prerequisite(s): ENGL 102*, ENGL 112 *, ENGL 132*, or ENGL 298*

3 Credit Hours

Black American literature and aesthetics since 1899 with emphasis on cultural evaluations and the principles of being American. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ENGL 333

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (AH) (GCUS)
Satisfies General Education Requirement through the 2021-2022 academic catalog: (AH)
(RE) Prerequisite(s): ENGL 102*, ENGL 112 *, ENGL 132*, or ENGL 298*

3 Credit Hours

Survey of the major works and issues in contemporary African literature. Special emphasis placed on the refashioning of the English language and genre conventions to carry an identifiably African experience; focus may be on fiction and drama, autobiography and memoir, in addition to applicable theory and critical terms. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ENGL 335

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (GCI)
(RE) Prerequisite(s): ENGL 102*, ENGL 112*, ENGL 132*, or ENGL 298*

3 Credit Hours

Survey of the major works of Caribbean literature; emphasis on poetry, drama, prose fiction, applicable theory, and critical terms. Major authors may include Brodber, Rhone, Lamming, Brathwaite, Naipul, Walcott, Selvon, Kincaid, and Marshall. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ENGL 336

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (GCI)
(RE) Prerequisite(s): ENGL 102*, ENGL 112 *, ENGL 132*, or ENGL 298*

3 Credit Hours

Social sources of racial and ethnic cleavages and social, economic, and political consequences. Emphasis on race and ethnicity in the United States. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as SOCI 343

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (GCUS)

3 Credit Hours

Focus on diverse religious histories of African Americans from the earliest years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade; transmission of African cultures to the New World to the present. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as HIUS 346

3 Credit Hours

Historical and critical examination of the formation and development of African American religious thought and institutions in America.

Same as REST 352

3 Credit Hours

Selected people, themes, movements, or problems touching on how religion in North America has been shaped by racial and ethnic diversity and conflict. Focus on African Americans and their relation to others such as Native Americans, Latino/as, and Asian Americans. Variable Content. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as REST 353

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (AH) (GCUS)
Repeatability: May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.

3 Credit Hours

This course examines the literature and unique lived experiences of African American men as they seek personal, political, and creative expression. Additionally, this course centers on the ways in which Black boys and men negotiate and navigate the ways they are (re)positioned in U.S. society. The critical lens used in this course reevaluates the making and unmaking of Black maleness/Black manhood, ‘constructed’ gender norms and sites of ‘irreconcilable Blackness’ reflected in the lives of Black men. Incorporated are several genres and the voices of a range of Black men across various walks of life; students will be engaged in readings from autobiographies and narratives to critical assessments of Black men’s lived experiences and sense making.

Same as SOCI 354 and WGS 354

3 Credit Hours

The Rastafarian religion is perhaps the most important new religious movement to come out of the contemporary Caribbean region. In this course we survey the distinctive history, practices and beliefs of a globalizing religious movement that embodies the intersectionality of race and religion, popular culture and music, and the struggle for authenticity and freedom.

Same as REST 356

3 Credit Hours

This course is designed to explore African American intellectual thought and discourse from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Students will examine the lives and though of a variety of individuals from a diverse set of backgrounds—from thinkers, writers, and artists to social critics, theorists, philosophers, and social scientists. Emphasis will be placed on situating and examining their ideas and sensibilities within their broader historical contexts. Some of the major themes of the course include liberatory ideologies and desires for self-determination, race and racism, equality, and justice as well as self-expression, group solidarity, and activism. The overarching goal of this course is to understand how African American intellectuals have contributed to understanding issues facing African American communities, people within the U.S., and people around the globe.

3 Credit Hours

Survey of Sub-Saharan Africa from earliest times to colonialism’s onset. Uses variety of case studies and perspectives to highlight larger historical processes across the continent. Interdisciplinary focus. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as HIAF 371

3 Credit Hours

Survey of Sub-Saharan Africa from onset of colonialism to present. Uses variety of case studies and perspectives to highlight larger historical processes at work across the continent. Interdisciplinary focus. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as HIAF 372

3 Credit Hours

Investigates Africa’s diverse religious traditions (indigenous, Christian and Islamic), their past and present interactions, as well as their transformations in diasporic contexts. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as REST 373

3 Credit Hours

Examines history of the civil rights movement in the United States from Reconstruction to the present. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as HIUS 374

3 Credit Hours

Social, cultural, political, and economic history of black women in the United States from the earliest importation of slaves from Africa and the Caribbean to the present. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as HIUS 376

3 Credit Hours

African American history to the Civil War era. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as HIUS 379

3 Credit Hours

19th- and 20th-century African American history. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as HIUS 380

3 Credit Hours

South African history from the pre-colonial period through post-apartheid era. African state formation, resistance to European colonization, impact of industrialization, evolution of modern resistance movements, first democratic elections. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as HIAF 381

3 Credit Hours

Aspects of African history. Content varies. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as HIAF 383

3 Credit Hours

Introduces music and related cultural expressions of the African diaspora connecting Africa, the Americas (especially North America) and Europe. Introduces interdisciplinary social theories, evaluates critical debates, and explores several case studies of African and African American music and performance.

Same as MUCO 413

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (GCUS)
Comment(s): Students who have taken MUCO 310 cannot receive credit for MUCO 413*.

3 Credit Hours

This course introduces the development, structure, and functioning of Black American politics from the latter 19th century to present. The class explores the construction of blackness, black racial identification, black consciousness, black intragroup relations, black intergroup relations, black political thought, black ideologies, black political preferences, black struggles for political incorporation and representation, the relationship(s) of African Americans to the American political system, and the political development of African Americans. The course builds on a breadth of literature from history, psychology, sociology, and most importantly, political science.

Same as POLS 415

3 Credit Hours

Comparative studies of African and African American societies in such areas as education, religion, and social stratification. Includes the respective views African Americans and Africans have of each other and the concept of Pan-Africanism. Writing-emphasis course.

3 Credit Hours

This course explores the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class as it pertains to African American women. This class explores Black feminist theory across time (from the nineteenth century to the present-day) and genre (nonfiction, novels, poetry, music, and media) with a particular emphasis on contemporary criticism. Students will critically examine a variety of material on the positionality and priorities of African American women and cover topics including, but not limited to, family, political activism, self-care, intellectualism, and womanism. Such material include work by Anna Julia Cooper, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, and Tressie McMillan Cottom. Africana Studies.

Same as ENGL 425 and WGS 425

3 Credit Hours

This course explores literary depictions of the relationships between Black and Indigenous peoples in the United States. Students will critically examine literary texts and historical documents from the nineteenth century to the present-day related to contexts such as colonialism, enslavement, forced displacement, and empowerment movements with attention to the experiences of Black and Indigenous peoples. Additionally, students will engage with key topics that intersect Africana and Indigenous Studies such as indigeneity, sovereignty, and reparations. Potential texts include works by W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, Olivia Ward Bush-Banks, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, bell hooks, and Tiya Miles.

Same as ENGL 430

3 Credit Hours

Topics vary depending on instructor but are broadly related to the continent of Africa and the social, cultural, and political development of the continent and its impact on the diaspora.

Repeatability: May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.

3 Credit Hours

Issues related to people of African descent in the Caribbean. Special consideration is given to the African diaspora.

Repeatability: May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.

3 Credit Hours

Topics vary depending on instructor but are broadly related to people of African descent in North America.

Repeatability: May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.

3 Credit Hours

Critical examination of patterns of poverty and inequality in developing areas of the world, and review of major theories of development. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as SOCI 442

Comment(s): SOCI 342 is recommended before taking this class.

3 Credit Hours

Content varies according to particular genres, authors, or theories from 1845 to the present, including Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance, Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks, writing by black women, international black literature in English, and black American autobiography.

Same as ENGL 443

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (EI)
(RE) Prerequisite(s): ENGL 102*, ENGL 112 *, ENGL 132*, or ENGL 298*

3 Credit Hours

The objective of this course is to introduce students to the major sociological, historical, and cultural perspectives on African American masculine identity, paying special attention to race and ethnicity. For some, race and/or ethnicity is an inescapable fact of life. For others, race and/or ethnicity is virtually invisible and does not seem to affect their daily experiences. Students will be engaged with critical texts that range from slave narratives and autobiographies to speeches, writings and other contemporary works in a quest to investigate African American masculine identity at different historical points. For instance, we will attempt to answers questions such as: How has masculinity been defined and displayed throughout the African American experience? What forces have impacted these definitions and perceptions? And, how do African American men communicate, recall, and make meaning from these experiences? Upon successful completion of this course, students should be familiar with the social and cultural importance that identity plays in everyday life and how African American men have navigated how they are (re)positioned within American society.

Same as SOCI 444 and WGS 444

3 Credit Hours

Topics vary, but include a variety of problems, issues, and individuals from the field of African American studies.

Repeatability: May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.

3 Credit Hours

Traces political dynamics on the continent from the pre-colonial era to the present. Focuses on African political development, and especially its economic, social, environmental, cultural, and demographic determinants. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as POLS 452

3 Credit Hours

Examines racial/ethnic disparities in criminal offending and victimization, as well as different experiences with law enforcement, judicial, and correctional agencies. Emphasis on social justice.

Same as SOCI 452

3 Credit Hours

This course will provide students with the building blocks to enable them to read and critique scholarly work in Africans studies as well as to conceptualize and develop their own research proposal. This course provides an overview of social research methods by studying ways researchers formulate research questions, design a research project, collect data, measure aspects of social life, and interpret results. Students will survey and investigate the influences of various methodological approaches and concerns in the discipline; determine their intellectual uses and applications; discuss some of the strengths, benefits, drawbacks, and criticisms of these methods, particularly as they relate to contemporary thinking about local, national, and international Black experiences; and deploy these methodologies in their individual research proposals/projects.

3 Credit Hours

Art traditions of the eastern and southern regions of Africa. Sculpture, painting, pottery, textiles, architecture, and human adornment will be examined. Some ancient Stone and Iron Age traditions will be examined, but the main emphasis will be on the diverse ethnic and regional art traditions practiced in the area from the 19th century to the present. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ARTH 461

3 Credit Hours

Historical art traditions of sub-Sahara Africa. Topics to be covered include prehistoric rock paintings, art from archaeological sites and ancient kingdoms. The time period covered ranges from the first and second millennia BC for some of the early terracotta sculpture and rock paintings, the 11th through 19th centuries AD for the later ancient kingdoms. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ARTH 462

3 Credit Hours

Examines the aesthetic, philosophical, and religious patterns of the African descendants of Brazil, Surinam, the Caribbean, and the United States. Emphasis will be placed on the full range of art forms, including the sculptural and performance traditions, as well as architecture, textile, basketry, and pottery art forms. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ARTH 463

3 Credit Hours

Traces the artistic and social legacy of African American art from the eighteenth century to the present day. Specifically, this class will focus on the ways in which artists used creativity to confront, deny, or complicate understandings of racial identity and racism. Examines broad scope of artistic production including painting, sculpture, photography, multi-media, fiction writing, and video art. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as ARTH 470

Satisfies Volunteer Core Requirement: (GCUS)

3 Credit Hours

Origins and development of the civil rights movement throughout the 20th century, with special emphasis on civil rights litigation of the 1930s-1950s and key events of the years 1954-1965. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as SOCI 472

3 Credit Hours

Introduction to the history, theory, research, and practice of African American psychology with a focus on the psychological, social, and educational realities of African Americans.

Same as PSYC 476

(RE) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 110* or PSYC 117*.
Registration Restriction(s): Minimum student level – junior.

3 Credit Hours

Evaluates the benevolent and historical influence of three major institutions, the church, the family, and the school, upon the African American struggle to survive. Includes political, economic, and social factors utilized by black people in developing coping strategies and mechanisms. Writing-emphasis course.

3 Credit Hours

Aspects of African history. Content varies. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as HIAF 484

3 Credit Hours

Focuses on historical and contemporary social, economic, and political factors in American society as they relate to the black woman. Writing-emphasis course.

Same as WGS 484

1-6 Credit Hours

Repeatability: May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.
(RE) Prerequisite(s): AFST 201* and AFST 202*.
Registration Permission: Consent of instructor.

1-6 Credit Hours

Repeatability: May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.
(RE) Prerequisite(s): AFST 201* and AFST 202*.
Registration Permission: Consent of instructor.

1-6 Credit Hours

Repeatability: May be repeated. Maximum 6 hours.
(RE) Prerequisite(s): AFST 201* and AFST 202*; or AFST 235* and AFST 236*.
Registration Permission: Consent of instructor.