INTRO TO AFRICAN-AMER STUDIES

Prerequisites: Students need to register for a section of AFAS UN1010, the required discussion section for this course. From the arrival of enslaved Africans to the recent election of President Barack Obama, black people have been central to the story of the United States, and the Americas, more broadly. African Americans have been both contributors to, and victims of, this “New World” democratic experiment. To capture the complexities of this ongoing saga, this course offers an inter-disciplinary exploration of the development of African-American cultural and political life in the U.S. but also in relationship to the different African diasporic outposts of the Atlantic world. The course will be organized both chronologically and thematically, moving from the “middle passage” to the present so-called “post-racial” moment—drawing on a range of classical texts, primary sources, and more recent secondary literature—to grapple with key questions, concerns, and problems (i.e. agency, resistance, culture, etc.) that have preoccupied scholars of African-American history, culture, and politics. Students will be introduced to a range of disciplinary methods and theoretical approaches (spanning the humanities and social sciences), while also attending to the critical tension between intellectual work and everyday life, which are central to the formation of African-American Studies as an academic field. This course will engage specific social formations (i.e. migration, urbanization, globalization, etc.), significant cultural/political developments (i.e. uplift ideologies, nationalism, feminism, Pan-Africanism, religion/spirituality, etc.), and hallmark moments/movements (i.e. Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights movement, etc.). By the end of the semester, students will be expected to possess a working knowledge of major themes/figures/traditions, alongside a range of cultural/political practices and institutional arrangements, in African-American Studies.

• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Nyle Fort
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• 4 points

Major Debates in African-American Studie

MAJ DEBATES AF-AM STUDIES

Prerequisites: Students must register for discussion section, AFAS UN1003. This course will focus on the major debates in African-American Studies from the role of education to the political uses of art. The class will follow these debates historically with attention to the ways in which earlier discussions on migration and emigration, for example, were engaged with the specific historical conjuncture in which they took place as well as in the myriad ways in which earlier debates continue to resonate today. There will be a mix of primary documents and secondary sources and commentary.

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Jafari S Allen
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• 4 points

INTRO-AFR-AMER STUDIES - DISC

At each discussion section meeting, one or more students will be responsible for leading the section in a general discussion about that week's readings. They will present the key ideas within the assigned readings, making connections with information from previous readings and lectures from class. Each student's initial presentation should be about 10 minutes in length, and accompanied by a one or two page outline or short paper. If more than one student is assigned to a particular week, they should meet together prior to class to determine which topics or readings each individual will present. All grades are based  on individual performances, not by the group as a whole.

• F 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
• R 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• M 11:10 a.m.-noon
• M 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• R 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• F 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Nyle Fort
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• 0 points

AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSIC

This course focuses on a central question: how do we define “African-American music”? In attempting to answer this question, we will be thinking through concepts such as authenticity, representation, recognition, cultural ownership, appropriation, and origin(s). These concepts have structured the ways in which critics, musicians and audiences have addressed the various social, political and aesthetic contexts in which African-American music has been composed (produced), performed (re-produced) and heard (consumed).

• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Kevin Fellezs
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

Senior Pro Seminar

SENIOR PRO SEMINAR

This course is a seminar for seniors to either write a formal proposal for a capstone project or to begin the research process for a Senior Thesis, which will be written in the Spring semester. This interdisciplinary course provides the necessary structure needed to complete either goal. This will be an interactive class in which students are required to participate and actively engage in each meeting.

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Anthony Johnson
  Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

TOPICS IN THE BLACK EXPERIENCE

Please refer to Institute for African American and African Diaspora Studies Department for section-by-section course descriptions.

• R 10:10 a.m.-noon
• R 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Edwidge Danticat
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Isabel Ferreira Dos Reis
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• Instructor: Jafari S Allen
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• 4 points

AFR-AMER RESEARCH-WRITING

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Vivaldi Jean-Marie
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• 4 points

Recent Critical Works in Black Literary

Crit Wrk in Blk Lit & Cul

In recent years scholars of Black Literary and Cultural Studies have created an excited and innovative body of work that challenges traditional methods and forms of critical writing.  Students in this graduate seminar will read a selection of these works in an effort to identify major methodological, theoretical, and critical concerns and trends in the field. We will also read two creative works, one an edition of a recently discovered novel that was found and edited by one of our scholars and the other a critically acclaimed novel written by another and the work of a third author that blurs the boundaries between creative, critical and theoretical.  These have been chosen to demonstrate the scholarly practice theorized in the critical work, and the ways that the critic/creative writer engages similar concerns in different forms.  Finally, one class will be devoted to the critical work of a recent Pulitzer Prize winner, whose academic training and practice have greatly informed her writing for a broader audience.  Readings will be supplemented by visits from some of the authors as well as our own visit to archives at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Farah Griffin
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info
• 4-6 points

AF-AM: PRO SEMINAR

This course introduces students to central questions and debates in the fields of African American Studies, and it explores the various interdisciplinary efforts to address them. The seminar is designed to provide an interdisciplinary foundation and familiarize students with a number of methodological approaches. Toward this end we will have a number of class visitors/guest lecturers drawn from members of IRAAS's Core and Affiliated Faculty.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Megan French-Marcelin
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• 4 points