Courses

AAS Course Descriptions

AAS 100. Introduction to African American Studies. (3 h)

Introduces the history and evolution of the discipline, key scholars, ideas, and themes, and central disciplinary questions in African American Studies.

AAS 103. Introduction to Jazz. (3 h)

Survey of jazz music from its origins to the present in cultural and historical contexts.

AAS 105. Africa in World History. (3 h)

Examines the continent of Africa from prehistory to the present in global perspective, as experienced and understood by Africans themselves.

AAS 106. Atlantic World since 1500. (3 h)

Examines the major developments that have linked the civilizations bordering the Atlantic Ocean from 1500 to the present. Themes include exploration; commerce; European colonization and indigenous responses; disease; religious conversion and revivalism; mestizo and creole culture; imperial warfare; enlightenment; revolution; slavery and abolition; extractive economies; nationalism; ‘scientific racism;’ invented traditions; the black diaspora and negritude; decolonization; the Cold War; segregation and apartheid; dictatorship; neoliberalism; and globalization.

AAS 110. Introduction to Africana Philosophy. (3 h)

Introduces the history and development of Africana philosophy and explores significant issues, themes, and texts in the field.

AAS 120. Introduction to Black Women’s Studies. (3 h)

Introduces the history and development of Black Women’s Studies and explores significant themes and topics in the field.

AAS 130. Black Queer Studies . (3 h)

Examines critical topics, themes, and issues in Black Queer and Trans life, thought, and culture.

AAS 170. African Diaspora Studies. (3 h)

Survey of the key themes, topics, and linkages of the histories, cultures, politics, and ideas of continental and diasporic African communities across space and time.

AAS 200. Theories and Methods in African American Studies. (3 h)

Examines the major analytical, conceptual, methodological, and theoretical frameworks in African American Studies and interdisciplinary approaches that inform the discipline.

AAS 205. Black Cultural Studies. (3 h)

Interdisciplinary exploration of the conceptual, material, and theoretical dimensions of Black Cultural Studies and the key debates informing the politics and cultures of representation in African American and African diasporic cultural productions.

AAS 207. Black Popular Culture. (3 h)

Explores the various forms of Black popular culture and the cultural and intellectual politics the inform its reception and representation by scholars and the general public.

AAS 210. African American Intellectual Traditions. (3 h)

Explores significant gestures and schools of thought in African American intellectual history.

AAS 220. African American Cultural Criticism. (3 h)

Examines the cultural criticism of significant African American cultural critics and development and evolution of distinctive forms of African American cultural criticism.

AAS 230. Black Expressive Cultures in the Americas. (3 h)

Explores the histories and cultures of Black musical, media, and visual practices and aesthetics across African diasporic communities in the Americas.

AAS 266. The History of the Slave South. (3 h)

Examines slavery and southern distinctiveness, from the first interactions of Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans through the Civil War and Emancipation.

AAS 271. African American History to 1870. (3 h)

Examines the experiences of African-descended people from Africa to America and from slavery to freedom, with each experience – the slave trade, enslavement, and emancipation – marking a fundamental transformation in black lives.

AAS 272. African American History since 1870. (3 h)

Examines the experiences of African-descended people from the destruction of slavery to Reconstruction, from rural to urban, and from Jim Crow to Civil Rights, with each experience – emancipation, migration, and enfranchisement – marking a fundamental transformation in black lives.

AAS 280. Race, Environment, and Justice. (3 h)

Examines the confluence of issues at the intersection of race, environment, and justice in the United States and the African diaspora.

AAS 290. Black Autobiography and Memoir. (3 h)

Examines the representative text tracing the histories, themes, and trends in Black self-writing.

AAS 294. Black Art in the US and Great Britain since 1945. (3 h)

Charts the development of Black Art in the United States and Great Britain from 1945 to the present through Paul Gilroy’s notion of the “Black Atlantic” — the ways that a distinct aesthetic emerged from a fusion of West African, American, and British traditions.

AAS 300. Black Feminist Theory. (3 h)

Examines the history and evolution of Black Feminist theory with a focus on key questions, issues and thinkers that inform Black Feminist thought.

AAS 305. Mothering While Black. (3 h)

Examines the histories of Black mothers and Black motherhood in the United States from past to the present.

AAS 310. Organic Leadership: Lessons from the Black Freedom Struggle. (3 h)

Examines the ideas, models, and philosophies of leadership of select artists, activists, and intellectuals from the modern black freedom movement.

AAS 315. African American Social and Political Thought. (3 h)

Examines significant gestures, themes, and traditions in African American social and political thought.

AAS 320. Philosophy and Race. (3 h)

Examines how and in what ways race is interrogated by African American philosophers and philosophers of African descent with critical attention to issues of identity, ethics, and politics.

AAS 322. Critical Theories of Race. (3 h)

Explores conceptions of race informed by Critical Race Theory and other forms of critical thought.

AAS 324. Race and the Modern World. (3 h)

Interdisciplinary examination of the intersections of ideas, institutions, ideologies, and practices that have defined race and processes of racialization in the modern era.

AAS 330. Politics of Black Religion. (3 h)

Examines the complex intersection of politics and Black religion with particular consideration to how political ideas, theories, and movements are influenced by the knowledges, rituals, traditions, and practices of Black religion.

AAS 340. Ethics of Black Power. (3 h)

Examines the ethical dimension of Black Power and the cultural, ideological, and political movements influenced by theories and politics of Black Power.

AAS 341. Africans in the Atlantic World. (3 h)

Explores Africans’ experience in the Atlantic world (Africa, Europe and the Americas) during the era of the slave trade by examining their encounters with Indians and Europeans and their adjustment to slave traders in West Africa.

AAS 350. Politics of Black Liberation. (3 h)

Explores the histories, concepts, and ideas of Black political movements that make explicit claim to enacting liberatory politics.

AAS 355. Africana Political Philosophy. (3 h)

Critical examination of the political philosophy of significant Africana thinkers and traditions.

AAS 370. Special Topics in Arts, Aesthetics, and Expressive Cultures in African American Studies. (1-3 h)

African American Studies topics of special interest. May be repeated for credit if topic varies.

AAS 375. Black Lives. (3 h)

Explores both the lived experience and the historical reality of African Americans. Black lives are profoundly shaped by their group experience, influenced in no small part by the role of racism. The biographical approach individuates historical figures struggling to fashion identity. Topics include character development, intimacy, gender roles, public and private personas, self-deceptions or defenses, and personal perceptions of biases. The craft of writing biography is taught throughout the semester.

AAS 376. Civil Rights and Black Consciousness Movements. (3 h)

A social and religious history of the African-American struggle for citizenship rights and freedom from World War II to the present.

AAS 378. Race, Memory, and Identity. (3 h)

Explores the collective memory and identity of American-Indian and African-American communities and their response to historical trauma in their cultural imagination, spirituality, and political and social activism.

AAS 380. Special Topics in Ethics, Politics, and Society in African American Studies. (1-3 h)

Explores the collective memory and identity of American-Indian and African-American communities and their response to historical trauma in their cultural imagination, spirituality, and political and social activism.

AAS 387. Black Radical Tradition. (3 h)

Examines the key concepts, texts, theories, and thinkers in the Black Radical Tradition.

AAS 390. Special Topics in History, Culture, and Theory in African American Studies. (1-3 h)

African American Studies topics of special interest. May be repeated for credit if topic varies.

AAS 391. Themes in Africana Philosophy. (3 h)

Select topics and themes in Africana philosophy.

AAS 392. Seminar in African American Studies. (3 h)

Offered by members of the African American Studies faculty on a topic of their choice. May be repeated for credit if topic varies.

AAS 396. Independent Study in African American Studies. (1-3 h)

Independent research projects in African American Studies which extend study in a particular course or explores new areas of interest. A maximum of 3 hours may apply to the African American Studies major or minor. By prearrangement.

AAS 397. Directed Reading in African American Studies. (1-3 h)

Reading in an area of African American Studies not otherwise available. A maximum of 3 hours may apply to the African American Studies major or minor. By prearrangement.

AAS 399. African American Studies Atelier. (3 h)

Capstone seminar for African American Studies majors to develop original research projects engaging key theoretical, methodological, and conceptual issues in the discipline.