Many of the courses listed below are in the process of development. Descriptions are available only for those which actually have been taught since the inception of our program in Fall 1996. The list is updated each semester. The number in parentheses after each course listing indicates the frequency at which it is offered -- e.g. "(2)" indicates an offering every two years. Each course is worth 4 credits, except for Afro-Am 701-702, which is a 16-credit course, taught over two semesters.
This seminar will focus on the rise of slavery in the United States until its destruction during the Civil War. We shall study slavery as a political and economic institution as well as a day to day lived experience. Within this historical framework, the emphasis will be on broad themes and interpretations: for example, the construction of the concept of "race" and the debate over the origins of slavery, the nature of slave communities and culture, gender and slavery, slavery in a comparative perspective, the significance of slave resistance and the politics of slavery. The format of the course is discussion.
602. The Civil War and Reconstruction (2)
In this course we will study the revolutionary significance of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era in the United States History. The seminar will focus on the demise of slavery during the Civil War and the role of the slaves themselves in helping to make the war for the Union into a war against slavery. Similarly, we will look at African American political mobilization during Reconstruction. Topics will include military history and the black military experience, causes of southern defeat, emancipation, the political and constitutional significance of the Reconstruction amendments and legislation and the fall of Reconstruction. Recent historical literature will comprise the bulk of the readings.
603. Urbanization and Industrialization, 1880-1915 (2)
604. Black Intellectual History and Ideology (2)
This course covers most of the principal currents of black intellectual history and ideology from the early 19th through the late 20th centuries. Themes of assimilation, nationalism, black feminism, civil and political rights, religion, and international perspectives will be explored in some depth. We shall be particularly interested in the structural and thematic patterns which emerge as we study diverse ideas of African Americans ranging over a century and a half.
610. The Life and Thought of W. E. B. Du Bois (3)
A critical examination of the life and thought of W. E. B. Du Bois, paramount black scholar and activist whose massive body of scholarly work spans the period from late 19th through the mid-20th centuries. Course covers the major works of Du Bois: The Philadelphia Negro; The Souls of Black Folk; Black Reconstruction; and Dusk of Dawn. The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois, The World and Africa, and The Education of Black People, as well as selected essays by Du Bois, are also addressed. Topics include Du Bois as sociologist, historian, propagandist, and creative writer, taking into account his often shifting views on art and culture, politics, leadership, civil rights and the color line, trade unionism, Pan-Africanism, socialism, internationalism, and, of course, double consciousness, among other issues.
611. Black Political Movements in America (3)
612. Black Labor in the US and South Africa (3)
613. The History of Black Women (3)
614. Race and Class in the US Economy (3)
615. Black Religious Movements in America (3)
This course examines some of the major religious movements and religious institutions of African Americans both prior to and after the American revolutionary war. Beginning with an overview of African religions in the New World, the course focuses on the conversion experiences wrought by the Great Awakenings; the development of the "invisible institution" on slave plantations; the formation of the free black church; the institutional developments in black Christianity following Emancipation; the emergence of the Holiness and Pentecostal movements; the impact of urbanization on black religious institutions both urban and rural, including the birth of the "storefront" church; the impact of charismatic religious leadership during the Great Depression; the growing influence of Islam, beginning in the 1920s; the role of the church in the modern Civil Rights movement; and trends in African American religion in the post1960s era.
616. Race and Ethnicity in American Life (3)
The purpose of this course is to examine issues of race and ethnicity in American life from the colonial period to the present, with a particular focus on changes wrought to both by the transformation of U.S. immigration laws in 1965. We shall be concerned as much with the ways in which American identity has been defined by partisans of one particular view or another, as by the actual ways in which this identity has manifested itself. How have the social constructs of ethnicity and race been variously defined, and their interrelationship conceived? Once American racial identities were rigidly fixed, how did successive immigrant groups adapt their existing ethnic identities to socially and politically imposed racial categories? In what ways have concepts of ethnicity and race tended to promote/undermine the existence of working-class consciousness? What have been the gender manifestations of these concepts? In what ways have generational differences internal to ethnic or racial groups led to transformations of their group identities? What have been the mechanisms of solidarity/strife between "peoples of color" in their struggles against the dominant racism? And just how close are we to fulfilling (Rodney?) King's dream, anyway?
617. Critique of the Concept of Racism (3)
Most investigations of racism tend to equate it to race theory, persistent prejudice, institutionalized discrimination and/or consign it to the realms of biology, psychology or sociology. This seminar will focus on racism as an historical system in the settlement of the North American continent and the organization and development of the American nation state. For comparative purposes a brief survey will also be made of apartheid in South Africa and anti-Semitism in the Third Reich.
630. History of the South from the Colonial Period to 1900
This seminar will examine the history of the south as a distinctive region in the United Sates from the colonial period to Populism. We will not only look at the southern societies apart from the rest of the nation but also at those which divided the south internally along regional, class, race and gender lines. Topics will include the rise and fall of slavery, southern women's history, southern nationalism, the transition from slavery to capitalism, the underdevelopment of the postbellum southern economy, race relations and the agrarian revolt of small farmers at the turn of the century. The format of the seminar is discussion.
632. The Politics of Slavery and the Coming of the Civil War
This seminar will explore the significance of slavery in the growth of sectional politics in antebellum America. It will cover the rise of a distinctive slave society in the south and of antislavery in the north. We will look at early sectional differences over slavery such as the Missouri crisis and the nullification controversy. Finally, we will discuss the role of the slavery expansion issue and the breakdown of the second party system in causing the Civil War and the origins of secession. Recent historical literature will comprise the bulk of the readings for the course.
This course is an historical examination of the role of public policy in both advancing and obstructing the black struggle for civic equality in America. Beginning with the first specifically institutional effort to aid black freedmen and women, the Freedmen's Bureau, the course will explore the development of public policy occasioned by the Great Depression, the emergence of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty in the Sixties, and the contemporary racialization of social policy that has denigrated Liberalism, fragmented the Democratic Party's traditional constituency, and elevated the conservative economic and political agenda to mainstream legitimacy. Specific issues to be studied include welfare, affirmative action, jobs, poverty and the criminal justice system.
651. Black Images in Antebellum Literature (2)
652. Literature of the Harlem Renaissance (2)
An intensive study of the literature and orature associated with the Harlem Renaissance, from the philosophical underpinnings supplied by Du Bois, Johnson, Locke, Garvey, and Randolph to the varied poetic visions of Hughes, Spencer, Brown, Cullen, and McKay to the fictional explorations of Toomer, Hurston, Fisher, Larsen, Fauset, and Thurman to the inspiration supplied by blues, jazz, and folklore of the African American tradition. Journals connected with the movement and the contributions of interested patrons such as Van Vechten, Cunard, and the Spingarns will be part of the focus, as will the relation of the Harlem Renaissance to other contemporary American literary currents (realism, naturalism, and modernism.)
653. Classic Figures of 20th Century Afro-American Literature (2)
654. Contemporary Afro-American Literature (2)
Themes of love, war, assimilation, feminism, lesbianism, homosexuality, and more can be found in contemporary Afro-American Literature. The objective of this class will be to identify and analyze some of these themes (the focus changing from semester to semester) in the works of such writers as Baldwin, Ellison, Morrison, Wright, Williams, and Hines.
660. The Black Arts Movement (3)
Literature critic David Lionel Smith has described the Black Arts Movement thusly:
The Black Arts Movement (BAM), which could be dated roughly 1965-1976, has often been called the "Second Black Renaissance," suggesting a comparison to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and '30s. The two are alike in encompassing literature, music, visual arts, and theater. Both movements emphasized racial pride, an appreciation of African heritage, and a commitment to produce works that reflected the culture an experiences of black people. The BAM, however, was larger and longer lasting, and its dominant spirit was politically militant and often racially separatist.
This course will examine the Black Arts Movement in its many manifestations, beginning with a discussion of it political and cultural background: the transition from Civil Rights to Black Power in the Afro-American freedom movement of the 1960s; the impact of on African Americans of African decolonization and the spread of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movements throughout other parts of the globe; similarly, the cultural influence of African writers-especially through such vehicles as the Société Africaine de Culture and its American counterpart, the American Society of African Culture. Attention will be paid to the music, literature, theater, and the graphic arts of the period, and the aesthetic and political critiques of these artistic forms.
661. African-American Poetry (3)
An intensive survey of African American poetry from Lucy Terry to the present, focusing on how language, form, and content reflect the ways that African Americans have perceived their positions in American society and their roles as reflectors and/or shapers of African American culture. Our exploration of sources and influences will lead us to various works of African, American, and British literature as well as works of African American folklore. In addition to primary texts, we will explore secondary critical works dealing with the African American poetic tradition.
662. The Culture of the Black Church (3)
663. The Visual Arts in the Afro-American Tradition (3)
664. The Role of Music in the Afro-American Tradition (3)
665. Afro-American Popular Culture (3)
666. The Afro-American Presence in American Literature (3)
An intensive survey of the portrayals of Afro-Americans in American literature, examining how characters, themes, and ideas are portrayed when filtered through the race, gender, class, politics, historical time frame, and individual artistic aesthetic of a variety of writers.
667. Afro-American Philosophy (3)
670. African American Women Novelists Since 1945
This course will consider novels written by African American women since World War II. The principal issue the course will examine is the conception and representation of identity in these works. In other words, we will look at how these novelists pose (and sometimes answer) the basic question: is there such a thing as African American women's literature? Among the issues the we will take up in approaching this question are the manipulation of generic conventions (e.g., those of science fiction, gothic romance, historiography, and the slave narrative); the question of audience (both actual and implied); the relation of "high" culture and "popular" culture; and the impact of various political and intellectual movements (e.g., the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power/Black Arts, Second Wave Feminism, and Gay Liberation) on the formal and thematic choices of these authors. We will also use these novels to engage debates between major critical/theoretical positions (e.g., social realism, new criticism, Black aesthetic, structuralism, deconstructionism, feminism, and cultural studies) within African American literary studies since 1945.
701-702. Major Works I and II: Fifty Major Texts of Afro-American Studies [18 cr] (1)
An intensive study of fifty major works of Afro-American Studies. Two papers per week and five hours of class meetings per week. Required of all first year doctoral candidates, and open only to them. Two semesters. Offered Mondays and Wednesdays 2:30-5:00 p.m.
691C (710). Historiographical Methods in Afro-American Studies (2)
691D. Major Works III: Major Texts in Afro-American Studies Continued (1)
711. African Origins of the Afro-American Community
712. Special Topics in Afro-American History and Politics
713. The Political Economy of Race and Class in America
750. Critical Methodology and Afro-American Literature
751. Advanced Seminar in a Selected Black Author
752. African Roots of Afro-American Literature and Culture
753. Special Topics in Afro-American Literature and Culture
F98: The Blues. An intensive study of the history of the blues, this course will analyze the nature of blues music and lyrics, placing them in an African and African American social, political, and musical context and exploring the use of the blues tradition in literature. Prerequisites: Graduate students only. No reading knowledge of music required or expected.
780. Afro-American Perspectives on American Society
781. Contemporary Trends in Afro-American Thought
782. Contemporary Trends in Black Literary Criticism
783. An Ideological Critique of White Supremacist Thought
784. Radical Perspectives in the Afro-American Experience
A close study of the three major examples of practical ideological critique with background and associated literature. The three works on which the course focuses are: Edwin Wilmsen, Land Filled With Flies; Henry Louis Gates, The Signifying Monkey; and, Charles Mills, The Racial Contract. Weekly papers, seminar presentations, and final essays.
Courses in the Critical Perspectives Sub-Group may, with the permission of the Graduate Program Director, be substituted for courses in the History/Politics or Literature/Culture Tracks in satisfaction of the concentration requirements.
