General

• AAAD–A 500 Introduction to African American and African Diaspora Studies, Part I (3 cr.) Through an interdisciplinary approach, students are introduced to the major works concerning the historical, cultural, and intellectual experiences of Africans in the Diaspora, and the research, methodological, and theoreti­cal questions raised therein in preparation for study in AAADS Part II.

• AAAD–A 503 Introduction to African American and African Diaspora Studies, Part II (3 cr.) As the second half of the sequence in the year-long introductory course on Introduction to African American and African Diaspora Studies, this course focuses specifically on the research methods, theoretical issues, and approaches to publishing in the discipline.

• AAAD–A 554 Comparative Ethnic Studies (4 cr.) This colloquium provides an introduction to Ethnic Studies, focusing on thein­terdisciplinary study of race and ethnicity in the U.S. and the Americas, past and present. Emphasis will be placed on border crossing, visual representation, literature, nationalism, migration, political transformation, and mass culture.

• AAAD–A 555 Caribbean, African American. and African Leadership, 1957-2000 (3 cr.) Course will deal with aspects of Caribbean, African-American, and African leadership that influenced the struggles for decolonization and civil rights in the Caribbean, United States, and Africa.

• AAAD–A 590 Special Topics in African American and African Diaspora Studies (3 cr.) Intensive study and analysis of selected Afro-American problems and issues of limited scope, approached within an interdisciplinary format. Topics will vary, but will ordinarily cut across departmental concentration areas.

• AAAD–A 591 Black Intellectual Traditions (4 cr.) Surveys the evolu­tion of "racial" ideas and ideologies among African Americans. Participants will discuss how black intellectuals have engaged in dialogue and debate about strategies for coping with injustice, while formulating diverse concepts of justice, salvation, artistry, and positive black identity.

• AAAD–A 690 Core Readings in African American and African Diaspora Studies (4 cr.) Preparation for the comprehensive master's examination. Colloquium in which students will read and critically examine, both in oral presentations and in written assignments, core texts which reflect the complexity and pluralism of African American and African Diaspora Studies.

• AAAD–A 695 Research and Master's Thesis Colloquium (3 cr.) This in­teractive seminar utilizes a collaborative team approach within an interdisciplinary framework to address issues and questions students have concerning fieldwork, compiling data, and interpreting historical and cultural primary and secondary sources.

• AAAD–A 696 Interdisciplinary Research Methods (4 cr.) This course examines seminal texts and critical issues in African American and African Diaspora Studies by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the humanities, literature, social sciences, arts, and performance in such locales like the U.S., the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Ghana, France, and Japan.

• AAAD–A 697 Special Topics in AADS (4 cr.) This course conducts an intensive study an analysis of selected historical and contemporary issues relating to the experiences of Blacks in the Diaspora. Course strategies emphasize critical methodology and analyti­cal writing.

• AAAD–A 698 Field Study Seminar (4 cr.) Development of the final master's project. A critical paper, a thesis-length documentation of a field study, or a substantial record of creative activity is required.

• AAAD–A 708 Transnational Method: Historiography, Theory, Practice (4 cr.) This course will examine transnational academic study from a theoretical-methodological perspective by reviewing historiographic roots of transnationalism and also by reflecting on the theoretical imperatives that emerge in recent scholarship concerning the African Diaspora.

• AAAD–A 709 Qualitative and Ethnographic Methods in AAADS (4 cr.) This course provides a survey of qualitative research methods, with an emphasis on using ethnographic and theoretical approaches to establish interdisciplinary perspectives.

Literature

• AAAD–A 501 Seminar in the Harlem Renaissance (4 cr.) Study of the major historical figures of the period designated by cultural historians as the Harlem Renaissance (ca. 1919-29), with emphasis on the sociopolitical reasons for the proliferation of art, music, and literature during this significant decade, with examination of the causes and lasting influences on contemporary black culture.

• AAAD–A 502 Seminar on Wright, Baldwin, and Ellison (4 cr.) A close critical study of selected works by Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison to assess their relationship with Harlem Renaissance emphases, contemporary American writing, and the black arts movement. The relationship of these men and their works to relevant sociopolitical issues such as McCarthyism, the liberation of African nations, and the civil rights campaigns of the early 1960s will also be examined.

• AAAD–A 561 Afro-American Autobiography (3 cr.) A survey of autobiographies written by black Americans in the last two centuries. The course emphasizes how the autobiographers combine the grace of art and the power of argument to urge the creation of genuine freedom in America.

• AAAD–A 571 Black Literature for Teachers (3 cr.) A survey of black American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the present with opportunities for research into teaching materials. This course is designed primarily for teachers. Credit not given for this course toward Ph.D. minor.

• AAAD–A 579 Early Black American Writing (3 cr.) Afro-American writing before World War II with emphasis on critical reactions and analyses. Includes slave narrative, autobiography, rhetoric, fiction, and poetry.

• AAAD–A 580 Contemporary Black American Writing (3 cr.) The black experience in America as it has been reflected since World War II in the works of outstanding Afro-American writers: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama.

• AAAD–A 583 Blacks in American Drama and Theatre, 1767-1945 (3 cr.) Image of blacks as reflected in American drama from 1767 to 1945. Selected dramas of both white and black playwrights, such as Isaac Bickerstaffe, William Wells Brown, Eugene O'Neill, and Richard Wright, who depicted blacks on the stage.

• AAAD–A 584 Blacks in American Drama and Theatre, 1945-Present (3 cr.) Image of blacks as reflected in American drama from 1945 to the present. Emphasis on the contributions of black playwrights, such as Lorraine Hansberry, Langston Hughes, Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Ted Shine, and Ed Bullins.

• AAAD–A 585 Seminar in Black Theatre (3 cr.) Contributions of blacks to the theatre in America. Reading and discussion of selected dramas and critiques with opportunities for involvement in the oral interpretation of one or more of the plays.

• AAAD–A 678 Early Black American Poetry, 1746-1910 (3 cr.) A literary and historical survey of general trends and individual accomplishments in early Afro-American poetry, ranging from narrative folk poems, the formalist poetry of Jupiter Hammon and Phillis Wheatley, and the popular poetry of Frances E. W. Harper and Paul Laurence Dunbar to early modern poetry.

• AAAD–A 679 Contemporary Black Poetry (3 cr.) An examination of black poetry from Dunbar to the present, emphasizing the emergence, growth, and development of black consciousness as a positive ethnic identification.

• AAAD–A 680 The Black Novel (3 cr.) Analysis of the Afro-American novel from the Harlem Renaissance to the present: genesis, development, and current trends. Emphasis on traditions arising out of the black experience and on critical perspectives developed by black critics and scholars.

• AAAD–A 689 Independent Project in Black Literature (3 cr.) Designed to meet individual interests of students by providing opportunities for research on a chosen topic and by encouraging nontraditional approaches or settings in the application of concepts developed in formal classes.

• AAAD–A 692 Pro-Seminar in Writings and Literature in African American and African Diaspora Studies (3 cr.) Introduces graduate students to interdisciplinary and globalized approaches to Africans in the Diaspora and the Americas, as well as the canons, paradigms, theories, methods, and seminal-thinker biographies of the field.

Arts

• AAAD–A 541 Third World Cinemas (3 cr.) Historically contingent, culturally inflected, and formally innovative, Third World films are a major current in world cinema. This course surveys the cinematic traditions, practices, and thematic concerns of Third World cinemas. Emphasizing the political and cultural significations of cinema, select narrative fiction and documentary films are examined. Subjects under study include filmic approaches to colonialism and postcoloniality, cinematic formations and social processes, and the legitimizing and oppositional practices of film.

• AAAD–A 542 Postcolonial Metropolitan Cinemas (3 cr.) Study of selected films from the 1980s to the current period by diasporic/"exilic" and European filmmakers, constituting an emerging cinematic formation in contrast to Hollywood and mainstream European cinemas. Emphasizing distinctive styles and cinematic practices, the films under study are framed by the de-territorializing process of globalization and examine shared thematic concerns of transnational migration, the emigre experience, and postcoloniality.

• AAAD–A 594 Issues in African American Music (3 cr.) A chronological overview of the primary genres of African American music, from slavery to present. Emphasis placed on understanding the separate identities of individual genres and examining those processes by which they are interrelated and are cultural objects for appropriation. Credit given for only one of AAAD-A594, FOLK-E694, or FOLK-F694.

• AAAD–A 687 African American Popular Music (3 cr.) An examination of African American popular music from 1945-2000. Organized topically, this course will examine the production of this tradition as a black cultural product and its transformation into a mass marketed commodity for mainstream and global consumption. Credit given for only one of AAAD-A687 or FOLK-E697.

• AAAD–A 694 Pro-Seminar on Performing, Visual, and Material Arts in African American and African Diaspora Studies (3 cr.) Introduces students to interdisciplinary and globalized approaches to Africans in the Americas and the Diaspora as well as the canons, paradigms, theories, methods, and seminal-thinker biographies of the field.

• AAAD–A 699 Independent Project in Black Music (3 cr.) Designed to meet individual interests of students by providing opportunities for in-depth research on a chosen topic and by providing settings for the creative and practical application of concepts developed in formal class settings.

History, Culture, and Social Issues

• AAAD–A 504 Black Paris: Migration and Cosmopolitanism in the City of Light (3 cr.) Independent field study and supervised research on the topic of Black Paris—the lived artistic, cultural, intel­lectual, and social experiences of African-derived groups (i.e., African Americans, Africans, and Afro-Caribbeans) in the City of Light—as it pertains to their specific areas of interest. Students are also encouraged to attend A304. 

• AAAD–A 550 Black Atlantic (4 cr.) An interdisciplinary and comparative study of historical, cultural, and political issues related to Africa and the African Diaspora (the Americas and Europe). 

• AAAD–A 552 History of the Education of Black Americans (3 cr.) Education of black Americans and its relationship to the Afro-American experience. Trends and patterns in the education of black Americans as they relate to the notions of education for whom and for what.

• AAAD–A 556 Race and Culture in the African Diaspora (4 cr.) This course provides an introduction to research on race and culture in the African Diaspora by exploring such issues as nationalism, transportationalism, popular culture, material culture, class, masculinity, feminism, hybridity, representation, performance, commodification, and identity.

• AAAD–A 557 Race and Politics in the African Diaspora (4 cr.) This course introduces students to theories, methodologies, and scholarship on the relationship between race and politics in the African Diaspora by examining central themes relating to the state, citizenship, public policy, racial ideologies, and de jure and de facto segregation.

• AAAD–A 558 The African Diaspora in Latin America and the Carib­bean (4 cr.) This course examines how Brazilians of African descent construct their identities through cultural and political practices by examining similarities and differences between racial identity and race relations in Brazil and the U.S. within the context of social mobilization, cultural affirmation, religious practices, and everyday life.

• AAAD–A 565 The Black Press in African and the Diaspora (4 cr.) This seminar is geared toward graduate students, but can be opened to upper-level undergraduates. A comparative over­view of the Black Press in Africa and the Diaspora, this course introduces students to the histo-political nuances of the Press during colonial and postcolonial times, as well as to its role in the American civil rights period.

• AAAD–A 592 Readings in Black Popular Culture (3 cr.) Interrogates the historical and social deployment of blackness in the popular imagination and its manifestations in racially coded perfor­mances. We take a historical stance on black expressive culture and proceed using critical and theoretical texts, aiming at culturally saturated forms, including music, oral “texts,” film, and sport.

• AAAD–A 602 Variations on Blackness: Part I (4 cr.) Intensive reading program. Students will also develop a research proposal and work to grasp the global comparative complexities of race-making.

• AAAD–A 603 Variations on Blackness: Part II (4 cr.) Students will de­velop a research project based on their proposals from part I of this course.

• AAAD–A 605 Race and the Global City, Part I (4 cr.) This course will examine the unique demographic, political, and economic characteristics of major cityscapes and will discuss the various locations from interdisciplinary perspectives using various fields in the humanities, literature, and film.

• AAAD–A 606 Race and the Global City, Part II (4 cr.) This course will examine the unique demographic, political, and economic characteristics of major cityscapes and will discuss the various locations from interdisciplinary perspectives using various fields in the humanities, literary and cultural studies, and historical studies.

• AAAD–A 620 Transforming Divided Communities and Societies (3 cr.) Investigation of divided societies and of strategies for trans­forming such communities. Students will consider societies (both past and present) divided by race, ethnicity, gender, class, caste, tribe, or religion, and will study responses such as civil rights, affirmative action, reparation policies, and reconciliation tribunals.

• AAAD–A 669 Independent Project in Black Social Issues (3 cr.) De­signed to meet individual interests of students by providing opportunities for research on a chosen topic and by encourag­ing nontraditional approaches or settings in the application of concepts developed in formal classes.

• AAAD–A 691 Pro-Seminar on Cultural and Historical Studies in African American and African Diaspora Studies (3 cr.) Introduces graduate students to interdisciplinary and globalized approach­es to Africans in the Americas and the Diaspora, as well as the canons, paradigms, theories, methods, and seminal-thinker biographies of the field.

• AAAD–A 693 Pro-Seminar on Social and Behavioral Sciences in African American and African Diaspora Studies (3 cr.) This pro-seminar introduces graduate students to interdisciplinary and globalized approaches to Africans in the Americas and the Diaspora, as well as the canons, paradigms, theories, methods, and seminal-thinker biographies of the field.

• AAAD–A 702 Comparative Social Movements in the African Diaspora (4 cr.) This course focuses on the varied diasporic experience, analyzing how struggles of race, identity, and nation in specific time periods, locales, and cultural contexts in the U.S., Latin Americas, Europe, and Africa have contributed to the develop­ment of social and political movements in the Diaspora.

• AAAD–A 703 Black Feminisms (4 cr.) This course examines the inter­locking experience of black women in the Diaspora and the foundational issues that have shaped their sense of womanism and African feminism. Using classical literary and biographi­cal texts and narrative writings of black women, the analysis emphasizes contemporary issues by also interrogating popular culture media through film and music to criticize the rhetoric of sisterhood. 

• AAAD–A 704 African Americans and Continental Africans: Ties that Bind (4 cr.) In old and modern times alike, continental Blacks (or Africans) and Diaspora Blacks have been considered kith and kin. This course—with its wide range of readings and research sources—is designed to help graduate students under­stand the nuances of these histo-political connections.

• AAAD–A 705 African and African American Leadership in the 20th and 21st Centuries (4 cr.) Since arriving in the Americas, Africans have had to confront the need for leadership and the develop­ment of strategies to liberate Black bodies in order for Black people to act as their own agents of change. This course exam­ines the historical and cultural dialogues among Black leaders in the African Diaspora to analyze how Blacks reestablished themselves in the new world.

• AAAD–A 710 Rural Blacks in the African Diaspora (4 cr.) This course examines the experiences of Blacks in rural areas throughout the African Diaspora to investigate how long-term systemic political, social, and economic struggles have impacted the development of rural African peoples and their communities in such places as the southern U.S., South Africa, Guyana, and Ireland.

• AAAD–A 711 Blackface and Blackness in Global Context (4 cr.) This course explores blackface and other performances and appro­priations of blackness in the African Diaspora, emphasizing the ways in which ideas of minstrelsies have continued by white and black performers as seen through media, culture raciali­dentity formations, and racialized agency through entertain­ment.

• AAAD–A 720 Comparative Study of Black Women in the Rural African Diaspora (4 cr.) This course examines the social and economic struggles of rural Black women in the African Diaspora by fo­cusing on family, life, work rules, health, leadership, and agency through self-constructed identity and ideas of womanism.