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UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

AFROAM 101. Introduction to Black Studies, 3 credits (course taught remotely)                   
Professor Jimoh
TuTh 2:30-3:45 p.m. 
Interdisciplinary introduction to the basic concepts and literature in the disciplines covered by Black Studies. Includes history, the social sciences, and humanities as well as conceptual frameworks for investigation and analysis of Black history and culture.

AFROAM 118. Survey of Afro-American Literature II, 4 credits  (AL,DU)
Professor Smethurst
Lecture: MW 11:15-12:05 p.m.        Discussion Sections: F 11:15 a.m. or F 12:20 p.m.
Introductory level survey of Afro-American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the present, including Du Bois, Hughes, Hurston, Wright, Ellison, Baldwin, Walker, Morrison, Baraka and Lorde. 

AFROAM 133. African-American History: Civil War-1954, 4 credits  (HS,DU)
Professor Losier
Lecture: MW 2:30-3:20 p.m.            Discussion Sections: F 1:25 p.m. or or F 2:30 p.m.  
Major issues and actions from the beginning of the Civil War to the 1954 Supreme Court decision. Focus on political and social history: transition from slavery to emancipation and Reconstruction; the Age of Booker T. Washington; urban migrations, rise of the ghettoes; the ideologies and movements from integrationism to black nationalism.  

AFROAM 151. Literature & Culture, 4 credits  (AL,DU)
Professor Rusert
Lecture: MW 10:10-11:00 a.m.        Discussion Sections: F 10:10 a.m. or F 11:15 a.m.
Relevant forms of Black cultural expressions contributing to the shape and character of contemporary Black culture; the application of these in traditional Black writers. Includes West African cultural patterns and the Black past; the transition-slavery, the culture of survival; the cultural patterns through literature; and Black perceptions versus white perceptions. 

AFROAM 156. Revolutionary Concepts in Afro-American Music II, 4 credits  (AT,DU)
Instructor: Bianki Torres
TuTh 4:00-5:15 p.m.
This course will examine the development of African American music during the twentieth century into the twenty-first century. Literature and history will be examined alongside documentaries and footage of famous performers in conjunction to their historical period and the cultural and political events of the time. The Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Arts Movement, post-Civil Rights era, and the Black Lives Matter Movement will encompass the scope of this course. Therefore, we will be reading works from Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, among others, while surveying the varied styles, productions, and receptions of artists such as Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Odetta, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Curtis Mayfield, Betty Davis, Donna Summer, Prince, Bad Brains, Beyonce, and many more. In addition, the course will consider the diasporic reaches of “Afro-Latinidad” (bachata, salsa, etc.) and Caribbean influences such as reggae and dub.

AFROAM 170. The Grassroots Experience in American Life and Culture I, 4 credits (HS,DU)
Instructor: Tatiana Rodriguez
TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m.
This course combines instruction in research techniques in a variety of Humanistic and Social Science disciplines, and hands-on experience with those techniques, with substantive materials focusing on the long struggle of minority populations for full participation in American cultural and public life.

AFROAM 197B. Taste of Honey: Black Film in the 1950s, 1 credit
Professor Bracey and Willie Pope
Thursdays 6:00-8:30 p.m., Malcolm X Cultural Center 
This course is a part of the Afro-American Studies Department partnership with the Center for Multicultural Advancement and Student Success (CMASS) and the Malcolm X Cultural Center (MXCC) enrichment programming initiative. The purpose of this class is to raise awareness of and exposure to different cultural backgrounds that will enhance student personal development while promoting a better understanding of our diverse community.  This course will take you on an historical journey exploring the roles of African American men and women, highlighting their contributions and struggles in the American movie industry. Students will learn about the groundbreaking movies, roles and actors who helped pave the way for a future generation while breaking down racial barriers to tell the story of the African American experience. A selection of movies will explore a variety of topics,such as, race, gender and stereotypes while reflecting on how these characteristics have been portrayed. We will introduce you to a sampling of movies made during the decades from the 1960s to the early 2000s. 

AFROAM 234. Literature of the Harlem Renaissance, 4 credits (AL,DU)
Professor Tracy
MW 12:20-1:10 p.m.
Exploration of the cultural explosion also termed the New Negro movement, from W.E.B. Du Bois through the early work of Richard Wright. Essays, poetry, and fiction, and the blues, jazz, and folklore of the time examined in terms of how Harlem Renaissance artists explored their spiritual and cultural roots, dealt with gender issues, sought artistic aesthetic and style adequate to reflect such concerns. Readings supplemented by contemporary recordings, visual art, and videos.

AFROAM 236. History of the Civil Rights Movement, 4 credits (HS,DU) 
*On-line: Contact UMassUlearn.edu
Instructor: Cecile Yezou
This course examines the Civil Rights Movement from the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision in 1954 and through the rise and decline of Black Power.  We will investigate the lives and influence of major movement leaders, as well as major organizations of the period including SCLC, SNCC, CORE, and the NAACP; and the collective efforts of ordinary citizens who did extraordinary things. We also will pay attention to the Civil Rights Movement in the South, as well as the North and West; the work of gender and sexuality; and different philosophical and tactical strands of the movement, including nonviolent demonstrations and black nationalism.

AFROAM 238. Arts and Cultural Identity, 3 credits
Professor Bracey
TuTh 4:00-5:15 p.m.
Explores the arts as they are used to express cultural identity.  It will examine various genres of art by artists of color and their application of cultural and social issues to their work.  Using the exhibits and performances presented in the Augusta Savage Art Gallery, the curator will draw on those presentations for discussions and critiques of the arts as reflective of culture and as historical record.  The course will include readings by and about artists, video viewings, the creation of arts projects, and discussions about the relationship of creativity to cultural expression. 

AFROAM 265. The Blues Came Down Like Dark Night Showers of Rain
Professor Tracy
Tuesdays 1:00-3:30 p.m., NAH 401 
A comprehensive exploration of the African American musical genre known as the blues, including definitions; African and African American roots; social, psychological, and spiritual uses; common and uncommon themes and images; music and lyric structures; regional and chronological stylistic variations; and employment in African American literature. Includes live performances and a wide variety of recordings, films, and videos. No prior knowledge of the blues or reading knowledge of music required.  

AFROAM 293C. Race, Sexuality, and the Law in Early America, 3 credits
Professor Kerth
TuTh 10:00-11:15 a.m.
What is race? What is sexuality? And how did early American history shape the legal structures that would come to define racial and sexual identities and possibilities? In this course, students will examine how African, European, and Native American ideas about race and sexuality influenced the development of colonial, early Republican, and antebellum America, with a special focus on the evolution of American legal frameworks undergirding racial and sexual hierarchies.  Topics covered include initial encounters between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans; the birth and evolution of racial slavery; interracial sex and marriage; citizenship and belonging; and legal and extra-legal violence.

AFROAM 293G. From Environmental Racism to Climate Justice, 3 credits
Professor Losier
MW 11:15-12:30 p.m., NAH Theater Room (03)
This course explores the emergence of the modern environmental justice movement in the United States during the 1980s and 90s, with a key focus on its impact on the more recent emergence of a worldwide struggle for climate justice. It will note how the EJ movement coined the term “environmental racism” and made calls for unique approaches to knowledge production, participatory democracy, and environmental sustainability. More specifically, this course focuses on the emergence of a broad network of grassroots organizations – “a movement of movements” – that reoriented what the environment and what justice are understood to mean amongst Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities over the past four decades.  This course will also pay particular attention to the ways in which these ideas around the environment and justice continue to shape the development of climate activism, both in the United States and around the world, with a key focus on how those involved in this activism have also come to understand themselves as part of a broad network of grassroots struggles highlighting the local impacts of climate change. From here, this course will examine key facets of today’s climate movement, including the fight pipelines, the struggle against disaster capitalism, the conceptualization of the Anthropocene, and how growing debates around militarism, decolonization, ecosocialism, and industrial sabotage. 

AFROAM 293J. Black Women, Representation, and Power in Africa and the African Diaspora, 3 credits
Professor Covington-Ward
MW 9:05-10:20 a.m., NAH Theater Room (03)
This course explores histories, cultures, and contemporary socio-political issues of relevance to women of African descent across the geographical spectrum of the Pan-African world: Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, and North America.  What representations and stereotypes do others have of Black women? And how do Black women challenge misrepresentations and define themselves? The course begins by exploring ideas of feminism, black feminism, and womanism/Africana womanism as relevant ideologies for women of African descent. The course then uses novels, ethnographies, journal articles, and videos from Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the United States and other countries to examine issues of identity, cultural representation, and self-definition for Black women. Topics covered include colonialism, sex tourism, skin-bleaching and colorism, intersectionality and the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, stereotypes of Black women, reproductive justice and Black maternal mortality, Black girl’s games, and women in Hip-Hop, etc.

AFROAM 297A. Black Springfield: Revisited, 3 credits
Professor Shabazz
TuTh 1:00-2:15 p.m., NAH Theater Room (03)
African American urban studies is a vibrant area of intellectual inquiry. This course will acquaint you with a variety of disciplinary tools for studying African American life in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, our urban neighbor just 25 miles away. We will start with a broad survey of the city's history that began when William Pynchon and a company of Puritan men from Roxbury, founded Springfield in 1636 at the confluence of three rivers. Pynchon established a trading and fur-collecting post and enslaved Africans became a vital part of its labor force. Springfield officially became a city in May of 1852, but by then slavery had ended and the city had developed a reputation as a Underground Railroad depot thanks to antislavery freedom fighters like Thomas Thomas, Eli Baptist, and John Brown. Springfield's location at the crossroads of New England is the most significant reason for its economic progress as an industrial city. In 2010, Springfield was a city of 156,060 that was 22.3% Black or African American, and 4.7% from Two or More Races (1.5% White and Black or African American). Latin@s of any race made up 38.8% of the population (33.2% Puerto Rican). It is a multicultural community, and is the regional center for banking, finance, and courts. Field trips to important sites, interviews with Ms. LaJuana Hood, founder of Springfield's Pan African Historical Museum USA, as well as other important culture bearers, will be special facets of the course. Community engaged research will be emphasized.

AFROAM 297D. African American Film, 3 credits
Instructor: Christian Woods
TuTh 11:30-12:45 p.m., NAH Theater Room (03)
This course focuses on the cinematic representations of African Americans in film from the 1890s to the present day. What were the dominant racial and gender images of African Americans that emerged during the slavery era? Why did such images achieve such popularity in film? How did black filmmakers engage with and refute dominant cultural and Hollywood images of African Americans while creating a cinematic language specific to African American experiences? What transformations have occurred in the images of African Americans in film since World War II, and especially since the 1960s?

AFROAM 326. Black Women in U.S. History, 4 credits (HS,DU)
Professor Parker
TuTh 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Using historical texts, film, television, and music, this course examines the history of African American women from slavery to the present. It will pay special attention to the convergence of race, gender, and class in shaping the black female experience; African American women’s activism against racial, gender, and economic injustices; and sex and sexuality.

AFROAM 331. Life of W.E.B. Du Bois, 3 credits
Professor Bracey
TuTh 2:30-3:45 p.m., NAH Theater Room (03)
An examination of the life and thought of arguably America’s greatest intellectual activist and one of Massachusetts’ native sons is the focus of this course. Students will conduct microfilm research in the W.E.B. Du Bois Special Collections and University Archives.

AFROAM 345. Southern Literature, 4 credits (AL,DU)
Professor Smethurst
MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.
This course offers an introduction to Southern Black Literature through a sampling of classic texts and more recent prose and poetry. In addition to surveying a rich canon of literature that has its origins in the antebellum slave narrative tradition, we will also study: (1) networks, alliances, and patterns of migration connecting the U.S. South and the Global South (especially the Caribbean); (2) black queer and trans life in the South; (3) recent film and television set in the Deep South; (4) structures and experiences of dispossession and poverty. We will also look at media coverage and scholarship to explore struggles happening in the South right now, especially movements around armed self-defense/community policing; cooperative farming and economic self-determination; disaster capitalism and environmental dispossession in places like the Gulf Coast and in Puerto Rico; the toppling/removal of Confederate statues and fight against white supremacist organizations and activities.

GRADUATE COURSES

AFROAM 591G. Black Ecologies, 4 credits  (Undergrad/Graduate)
Professor Rusert
Wednesdays 12:00-2:30 p.m., NAH 302
This seminar roots ecological catastrophe in the history of the Atlantic slave trade. We will read a number of works that illuminate the specific relationship between environmental degradation and the world that slavery made. We will be also interested in tracing how race, gender, and poverty are being mobilized as weapons of dispossession and extraction on the frontiers of capitalist exploitation today. Other topics will include: ecological thought in black critical theory; alternative models of sustainability and stewardship; black eco-poetics and climate fiction; environmental justice movements; new solidarities in climate activism. Readings will draw from a range of fields, including black critical theory; feminist, queer, and trans studies; disability studies; literary studies; and diaspora studies. 

AFROAM 630. Critical Race Theories, 4 credits  (course taught remotely)
Professor Jimoh
Tuesdays 4:00-6:30 p.m. 
Participants in this seminar, Critical Race Theories, will examine the general foundational ideas and concepts shaping today’s now proliferating scholarly enquiries that operate under the term critical race theories. While the basis for today’s critical race theories developed from Critical Legal Studies and Critical Race Theory in legal scholarship, many scholars from a variety of disciplines have transformed for their own contexts the insights that have informed legal scholarship in this area.  An understanding of the entrenched racial structures in the United States and their basis in the social contract informing much of Western culture is especially useful for reading and analyzing a substantial portion of African American literature. Seminar participants will read early documents (The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America The Constitution of the United States of America, The Bill of Rights, Emancipation Proclamation, the Reconstruction Amendments) together with texts by historical figures, philosophers, and others who have shaped or have responded to systems of race in the United States (Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Banneker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others) texts on theories of race (Smedley, Frederickson, Eze and others), and legal as well as literary, political, and philosophical critical race theorists (Bell, Crenshaw, Gotanda, Austin, Mills, Baldwin, Neal, Fuller, Du Bois, among others).

AFROAM 691C. Historiographical Methods in Afro-American Studies, 4 credits
Professor Kerth
Thursdays 1:00-3:30 p.m., NAH 302
This course will introduce you to some of the basics of what it means to read, think, and write as an historian.  We will explore what historians do and why as well as the "objectivity question," the development of African American history as an academic discipline, and one or two current controversies.  We also will learn how to locate and use the resources of the Du Bois Library such as microforms, government documents, the papers of W.E.B. Du Bois, on-line indices and collections, as well as those of such important national repositories such as the Library of Congress, the Moorland-Spingarn Collection at Howard University and the Schomburg Center of the N.Y. Public Library.

AFROAM 693G. Gender in the Civil Rights Movement, 4 credits
Professor Parker
Thursdays 4:00-6:30 p.m., NAH 302
In the 1950s and 1960s, as civil rights activists challenged Jim Crow, a system that was as much gendered as it was raced, they wrestled with historic assumptions about race and gender in American society. This course explores this and seeks to answer several major questions: What was the “gendered geography of Jim Crow”? How did race and gender shape the course of the Civil Rights Movement? What was the interplay between race, gender, and sexuality in this struggle? How did the mid-twentieth century Black Freedom Movement reinforce and challenge traditional notions of womanhood and manhood? While the Civil Rights Movement is the central focus of the course, we also will consider other mid-century liberatory movements (such as Black Power, Women’s Liberation, and Gay Liberation Movements and the Sexual Revolution) that were influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and grappled intensely with race, gender, and sexuality in ways that have had major and lasting implications for Black gender relations and politics.