Africana Studies

The program in Africana Studies provides a cross-culturally and historically comparative framework to study the rich connections and exchanges among African people, their descendants, and the various "new worlds" in which they have made and are making their lives. A particular strength of Carleton's Africana Studies program is the opportunity to explore these issues on the African continent as well as in numerous African diasporas--of varying historical depth--in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Africana Studies combines area studies and ethnic studies foci on the cultural, literary, political, social, and intellectual responses to slavery, colonialism, missionization, and racialization throughout Africa and its many diasporas.

Students can pursue their intellectual interests in Africa and its diasporas through on-campus courses and off-campus studies programs (including programs offered through Carleton's departments of History and Environmental Studies), and through a rich variety of courses in nearly all curricular exploration divisions. Through multidisciplinary training, students are encouraged to develop their analytic, research, and literary skills; they acquire the intellectual tools to critique and correct the distortions and silences about Africans and their descendants in both academic canons and public discourse.

The Africana Studies major thus prepares students for lifetime engagement in scholarship as well as in fields such as law, public policy, education, public health, social work, and the arts. Toward this end, and in addition to coursework, students are encouraged to take advantage of the rich array of speakers, exhibits, co-curricular, and extracurricular activities related to Africans and their diasporas.

Students majoring in Africana Studies create their own program of study by choosing courses in a structured and reflective manner from a variety of disciplinary departments, complementing some core Africana Studies courses. In developing their program, students should talk to the department about courses that have particularly high African, African Diaspora, and/or African American Studies content. They are particularly encouraged to choose these courses from among the list of relevant courses. Courses marked AFSTPERT can complement the major, but do not count toward the required nine courses plus comprehensive exercise without special permission of the Program Director. Because of the complexities of creating a meaningful program from a wide array of departmental offerings, students interested in majoring should draw up a program of study that has breadth and depth in consultation with the Director of Africana Studies before declaring their major.

Requirements for the Africana Studies Major

The Africana Studies major requires 63 credits; courses cannot double count for two requirements.

  • Interdisciplinary Course (6 credits). Each student must complete one interdisciplinary 6-credit course which, in part, specifically discusses Africana Studies as an interdisciplinary field:
    • AFST 100 Sports, the Black Experience, and the American Dream
    • AFST 100 Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
    • AFST 113 Introduction to Africana Studies
    • AFST 115 Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 120 Race and Racism Outside the U.S. (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 220 Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 230 Black Diaspora, Politics of Place (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 325 Slavery in the Africana Imagination
  • Survey Courses (18 credits). Each student must take three of the following 6-credit courses:
    • AFST 100 Sports, the Black Experience, and the American Dream
    • AFST 100 Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
    • AFST 113 Introduction to Africana Studies
    • AFST 120 Race and Racism Outside the U.S. (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 210 Historiographies of Slavery (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 215 Contemporary Theory in Black Studies
    • ARTH 140 African Art and Culture (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 117 African American Literature (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 238 African Literature in English
    • HIST 126 African American History II
    • HIST 181 West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 183 History of Early West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 184 Colonial West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 220 From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
    • HIST 284 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia
    • SOAN 108 In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter (not offered in 2023-24)
  • Distribution Courses (30 credits). Each student should take 30 credits of distribution that are essential to Africana Studies. Among these distribution courses, students must choose at least one 6-credit course each from among the three disciplinary groups: Humanistic Inquiry, Social Inquiry, and Literary and Artistic Analysis; at least four of the distribution courses must be at the 200-level or above and at least one at the 300-level. The 300-level course should be completed in one of the two disciplines in which the student writes his/her comprehensive exercise; in this course the student must produce a substantial paper or project in Africana Studies. In addition, majors are highly encouraged to take the AMST 345 junior methods course, GWSS 200, or a methods course in one of the academic disciplines that contribute to Africana Studies. Courses cannot double count for two requirements.
    Literary and Artistic Analysis
    • CAMS 219 African Cinema: A Quest for Identity and Self-Definition
    • DANC 266 Reading The Dancing Body (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 205 “Passing Strange”: Shakespeare’s Othello and its Modern Afterlives
    • ENGL 230 Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present
    • ENGL 233 Writing and Social Justice (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 238 African Literature in English
    • ENGL 252 Caribbean Fiction (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 258 Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 350 The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 352 Toni Morrison: Novelist
    • FREN 245 Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean (not offered in 2023-24)
    • FREN 308 France and the African Imagination
    • MUSC 126 America's Music
    • MUSC 130 The History of Jazz (not offered in 2023-24)
    • MUSC 131 The Blues From the Delta to Chicago (not offered in 2023-24)
    • MUSC 140 Ethnomusicology and the World's Music
    • MUSC 232 Golden Age of R & B (not offered in 2023-24)
    • MUSC 334 Marvin Gaye (not offered in 2023-24)

    Humanistic Inquiry
    • AFST 115 Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 130 Global Islam and Blackness (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 210 Historiographies of Slavery (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 325 Slavery in the Africana Imagination
    • AMST 225 Beauty and Race in America
    • GWSS 265 Black Feminist Thought (not offered in 2023-24)
    • GWSS 289 Pleasure, Intimacy, Violence (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 125 African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 127 Early Africa in the Global Context
    • HIST 128 Southern Africa to the Minerals Revolution
    • HIST 180 Modern Africa, 1800-Present
    • HIST 181 West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 184 Colonial West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 218 Black Women's History
    • HIST 219 Black Revolutions in the Atlantic World (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 220 From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
    • HIST 224 Disease, Health, and Healing in African History
    • HIST 225 Migrant Labor and Masculinities in Southern African History
    • HIST 228 Civil Rights and Black Power
    • HIST 230 Black Americans and the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 281 War in Modern Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 282 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: African Diaspora in Arabia
    • HIST 283 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Thinking Historically in the Present
    • HIST 284 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia
    • HIST 285 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Critical Historical Research
    • HIST 383 Africa's Colonial Legacies (not offered in 2023-24)
    • PHIL 228 Freedom and Alienation in Black American Philosophy (not offered in 2023-24)
    • PHIL 260 Philosophy of Race
    • RELG 212 Black Religious Thought
    • RELG 220 Justice and Responsibility (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RELG 227 Liberation Theologies (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RELG 236 Black Love: Religious, Political, and Cultural Discussions
    • RELG 267 Black Testimony: Art, Literature, Philosophy

    Social Inquiry
    • AFST 220 Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 330 Black Europe
    • EDUC 138 Multicultural Education
    • EDUC 225 Issues in Urban Education (not offered in 2023-24)
    • EDUC 245 School Reform: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
    • EDUC 338 Multicultural Education
    • GWSS 250 Politics of Reproductive Justice (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 218 Schools, Scholarship and Policy in the United States (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 266 Urban Political Economy (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 273 Race and Politics in the U.S.
    • POSC 275 Black Political Thought
    • POSC 302 Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
    • POSC 366 Urban Political Economy (not offered in 2023-24)
    • PSYC 384 Psychology of Prejudice
    • SOAN 108 In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SOAN 151 Global Minnesota: An Anthropology of Our State (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SOAN 214 Neighborhoods and Cities: Inequalities and Identities
    • SOAN 225 Social Movements
    • SOAN 256 Africa: Representation and Conflict (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SOAN 310 Sociology of Mass Incarceration (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SOAN 314 Contemporary Issues in Critical Criminology (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SOAN 326 Ecology and Anthropology Tanzania Program: Cultural Anthropology of East Africa
    • SOAN 395 Ethnography of Reproduction

    Additional Distribution Electives: Arts Practice
  • Senior Seminar/Capstone Experience (3 credits)

This 3-credit course gives Africana Studies majors and minors the opportunity to apply what they have learned by preparing for and presenting at the annual National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) conference. Under the guidance of Africana Studies faculty members, students will interrogate the origins and institutionalization of Africana Studies, revise an Africana Studies-themed research paper completed in a previous course into a conference paper, and prepare and submit a paper proposal for NCBS. At NCBS, students will present their own research and engage with the work of Africana Studies scholars at panels, plenaries, and workshops. Afterward, they will write a short assessment of the conference and their experience in Africana Studies at Carleton.

  • Comprehensive Exercise AFST 400 (6 credits)

The comprehensive exercise is a substantial (approximately 34-40 page) research paper on a topic within African, African American, and/or African Diaspora studies, grounded in two complementary disciplines, advised by two faculty members chosen from these two disciplines. The student should have completed a 300-level course in one of these two disciplines. The comps process begins with a proposal in fall term of the senior year, and ends with a final written thesis and oral presentation early in spring term.

Other Courses Pertinent to Africana Studies

  • ARTH 160 American Art to 1940 (not offered in 2023-24)
  • CLAS 220 From the Horn to Melqart’s Pillars: African Perspectives in the Ancient Mediterranean (not offered in 2023-24)
  • ECON 240 Microeconomics of Development
  • EDUC 340 Race, Immigration, and Schools (not offered in 2023-24)
  • ENGL 234 Literature of the American South (not offered in 2023-24)
  • FREN 246 Contemporary Senegal (not offered in 2023-24)
  • HIST 125 African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War (not offered in 2023-24)
  • HIST 126 African American History II
  • HIST 220 From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
  • HIST 228 Civil Rights and Black Power
  • HIST 304 Black Study and the University (not offered in 2023-24)
  • MUSC 136 History of Rock (not offered in 2023-24)
  • POSC 122 Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
  • POSC 241 Ethnic Conflict
  • RELG 122 Introduction to Islam

Africana Studies Minor

The Africana Studies minor is designed to complement a student's disciplinary major through an interdisciplinary specialization on the contexts and experiences of Africans and their many diasporas. Combining area studies and ethnic studies foci, the Africana Studies minor provides students the opportunity to explore the rich connections and exchanges among African people, their descendants, and the global locales--in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East--in which they have made and are making their lives. Students can do this through both on-campus courses and off-campus studies programs. In their senior year Africana Studies minors draw connections among these courses through an interdisciplinary reflective capstone experience.

Fostering interdisciplinary critical thinking, the Africana Studies minor prepares students for lifetime engagement in scholarship as well as in fields such as law, public policy, education, public health, social work, and the arts. Toward this end, and in addition to coursework, students are encouraged to take advantage of the rich array of speakers, exhibits, co-curricular, and extracurricular activities related to Africans and their diasporas.

Requirements for the Africana Studies Minor

The Africana Studies minor requires 39 credits (seven courses) as follows. Courses cannot double count for two requirements.

One core interdisciplinary (6-credit) course which, in part, specifically discusses Africana Studies as a coherent field of study:

  • AFST 100 Sports, the Black Experience, and the American Dream
  • AFST 100 Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
  • AFST 113 Introduction to Africana Studies
  • AFST 115 Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America (not offered in 2023-24)
  • AFST 120 Race and Racism Outside the U.S. (not offered in 2023-24)
  • AFST 220 Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered in 2023-24)
  • AFST 230 Black Diaspora, Politics of Place (not offered in 2023-24)
  • AFST 325 Slavery in the Africana Imagination

Two survey courses (12 credits) that introduce the "state of the field" of African and/or African Diaspora studies within specific disciplines:

  • AFST 100 Sports, the Black Experience, and the American Dream
  • AFST 100 Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States
  • AFST 113 Introduction to Africana Studies
  • AFST 120 Race and Racism Outside the U.S. (not offered in 2023-24)
  • AFST 210 Historiographies of Slavery (not offered in 2023-24)
  • AFST 215 Contemporary Theory in Black Studies
  • ARTH 140 African Art and Culture (not offered in 2023-24)
  • ENGL 117 African American Literature (not offered in 2023-24)
  • ENGL 238 African Literature in English
  • HIST 126 African American History II
  • HIST 181 West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade (not offered in 2023-24)
  • HIST 183 History of Early West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
  • HIST 184 Colonial West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
  • HIST 220 From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
  • HIST 284 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia
  • SOAN 108 In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter (not offered in 2023-24)

Three distribution courses (18 credits) that combine depth and breadth in the field. Each student should take 18 credits chosen from at least two of the following disciplinary groups: Literary and Artistic Analysis, Humanistic Inquiry and Social Inquiry. Two of the three distributional courses must be at the 200-level or above. At least one of the distribution courses should be a 300-level course in which the student produces a substantial paper or project in Africana Studies encompassing African, African American and African Diaspora Studies. In rare cases, a student can petition to write a substantial paper in a 200-level course (i.e., be released from the 300-level course requirement), if that course is highly relevant to their own focus.

  • Literary/Artistic Analysis
    • CAMS 219 African Cinema: A Quest for Identity and Self-Definition
    • DANC 266 Reading The Dancing Body (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 205 “Passing Strange”: Shakespeare’s Othello and its Modern Afterlives
    • ENGL 230 Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present
    • ENGL 233 Writing and Social Justice (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 238 African Literature in English
    • ENGL 252 Caribbean Fiction (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 258 Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 350 The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 352 Toni Morrison: Novelist
    • FREN 245 Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean (not offered in 2023-24)
    • FREN 308 France and the African Imagination
    • MUSC 126 America's Music
    • MUSC 130 The History of Jazz (not offered in 2023-24)
    • MUSC 131 The Blues From the Delta to Chicago (not offered in 2023-24)
    • MUSC 140 Ethnomusicology and the World's Music
    • MUSC 232 Golden Age of R & B (not offered in 2023-24)
    • MUSC 334 Marvin Gaye (not offered in 2023-24)
  • Humanistic Inquiry
    • AFST 115 Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 130 Global Islam and Blackness (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 210 Historiographies of Slavery (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 325 Slavery in the Africana Imagination
    • AMST 225 Beauty and Race in America
    • GWSS 265 Black Feminist Thought (not offered in 2023-24)
    • GWSS 289 Pleasure, Intimacy, Violence (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 125 African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 127 Early Africa in the Global Context
    • HIST 128 Southern Africa to the Minerals Revolution
    • HIST 180 Modern Africa, 1800-Present
    • HIST 181 West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 184 Colonial West Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 218 Black Women's History
    • HIST 219 Black Revolutions in the Atlantic World (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 220 From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film
    • HIST 224 Disease, Health, and Healing in African History
    • HIST 225 Migrant Labor and Masculinities in Southern African History
    • HIST 228 Civil Rights and Black Power
    • HIST 230 Black Americans and the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 281 War in Modern Africa (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 282 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: African Diaspora in Arabia
    • HIST 283 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Thinking Historically in the Present
    • HIST 284 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Heritage in Africa and Arabia
    • HIST 285 History, Culture, and Commerce Africa and Arabia Program: Critical Historical Research
    • HIST 383 Africa's Colonial Legacies (not offered in 2023-24)
    • PHIL 228 Freedom and Alienation in Black American Philosophy (not offered in 2023-24)
    • PHIL 260 Philosophy of Race
    • RELG 212 Black Religious Thought
    • RELG 220 Justice and Responsibility (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RELG 227 Liberation Theologies (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RELG 236 Black Love: Religious, Political, and Cultural Discussions
    • RELG 267 Black Testimony: Art, Literature, Philosophy
  • Social Inquiry
    • AFST 220 Color, Class, and Status in Black America (not offered in 2023-24)
    • AFST 330 Black Europe
    • EDUC 138 Multicultural Education
    • EDUC 225 Issues in Urban Education (not offered in 2023-24)
    • EDUC 245 School Reform: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
    • EDUC 338 Multicultural Education
    • GWSS 250 Politics of Reproductive Justice (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 218 Schools, Scholarship and Policy in the United States (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 266 Urban Political Economy (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 273 Race and Politics in the U.S.
    • POSC 275 Black Political Thought
    • POSC 302 Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
    • POSC 366 Urban Political Economy (not offered in 2023-24)
    • PSYC 384 Psychology of Prejudice
    • SOAN 108 In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SOAN 151 Global Minnesota: An Anthropology of Our State (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SOAN 214 Neighborhoods and Cities: Inequalities and Identities
    • SOAN 225 Social Movements
    • SOAN 256 Africa: Representation and Conflict (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SOAN 310 Sociology of Mass Incarceration (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SOAN 314 Contemporary Issues in Critical Criminology (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SOAN 326 Ecology and Anthropology Tanzania Program: Cultural Anthropology of East Africa
    • SOAN 395 Ethnography of Reproduction
  • Additional Distribution Electives:

Senior Seminar/Capstone Experience (3 credits)

This 3-credit course gives Africana Studies majors and minors the opportunity to apply what they have learned by preparing for and presenting at the annual National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) conference. Under the guidance of Africana Studies faculty members, students will interrogate the origins and institutionalization of Africana Studies, revise an Africana Studies-themed research paper completed in a previous course into a conference paper, and prepare and submit a paper proposal for NCBS. At NCBS, students will present their own research and engage with the work of Africana Studies scholars at panels, plenaries, and workshops. Afterward, they will write a short assessment of the conference and their experience in Africana Studies at Carleton.

Minors are highly encouraged to take the AMST 345 junior methods course.

Africana Studies Courses

AFST 100 Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States Racial categories such as "black" and "white" are social constructions that change across national boundaries. In the U.S. "black" and "white" have historically been defined by ancestry, and have been mutually exclusive. But how are these categories defined elsewhere? In this course, we consider how blackness and whiteness are defined and constructed in non-U.S. contexts. We examine a range of topics that will help us to understand not only racial categories, but also the meanings and narratives that accompany them and the way that these play into racial inequalities. Course topics include skin color stratification, colorblindness, ethnicity and nationhood, migration and citizenship, media representations, segregation, and transnationalism and globalization. 6 credits; AI, IDS, WR1; Fall; Daniel Williams
AFST 100 Sports, the Black Experience, and the American Dream With an emphasis on critical reading and writing in an academic context, this course will examine the role of sports in American politics and social organizations. The course pays attention to the African American experience, noting especially the confluence of race and sports. What can sports tell us about freedom, equality, and the pursuit of happiness? How has the Black community contributed to our appreciation of these American virtues? We will read short texts and biographies, and we will watch movies such as King Richard and The Blind Side. Students will produce short writing exercises aimed at developing their critical thinking and clear writing. 6 credits; AI, WR1; Fall; Chielo Eze
AFST 101 Ecology and Anthropology Tanzania Program: Elementary Swahili Elementary Swahili introduces students to the communicative use of Swahili, emphasizing communicative competence in real contexts. Ninety percent of instruction is conducted in the target language. Vocabulary and grammar are taught in context. Instruction pays attention to the cultural information in relevant contexts of communication. The main learning/teaching styles used include role plays, prepared presentations, interactive lectures, classroom conversations, and dramatization. In addition to the class textbook, authentic source materials are used, such as pictures, songs, short stories, poems and essays. Student assessment is continuous, and includes classroom participation, homework, written exams and oral exams. Prerequisite: Participation in Ecology & Anthropology in Tanzania. 7-8 credits; NE; Fall; Anna B Estes
AFST 113 Introduction to Africana Studies This course focuses on the histories, ideas, experiences, and dreams that have shaped the lives of people of African descent. Then and now perspectives will define our exploration of incarceration and freedom; migration and emigration; separatism versus integration; race and class; art and politics. Discussion topics and seminal ideas will be drawn from texts including the following: the anthology Call and Response (on key debates in Black studies); the historical memoir Lose Your Mother (chronicling a journey along the Atlantic slave route); a work of fiction Middle Passage (that tells a story of enslavement, revolt, and redemption). 6 credits; HI, IDS, WR2; Winter; Chielo Eze
AFST 115 Black Heroism in the Diaspora and Early America This course examines motifs of Black Heroism throughout the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and Early America. We take an interdisciplinary and Black Studies approach to topics like slave life and marronage, freedom suits, military enlistment, and more. The course material will include fiction like Frederick Douglass' The Heroic Slave as well as theoretical texts like Neil Roberts' Freedom as Marronage. The aim of the course is to provide a look at the multifaceted lives of Black people in the diaspora and early America with an emphasis on complex and quotidian resistance to domination. 6 credits; HI, WR2, IDS; Not offered 2023-24
AFST 120 Race and Racism Outside the U.S. In this course, we examine the ways that race structures difference and inequality in non-U.S. contexts with varying degrees of racial “diversity.” As a construct fundamentally grounded in white supremacy through encounters between Europe and its “Others,” race from its inception has been a global construct for organizing and stratifying human difference. Yet the specific ways that race is constructed varies across societies, with ethnicity and other related concepts of difference substituting for race. Foundational to this course will be how the notions of blackness and whiteness figure into the creation of racial categories, boundaries, and inequalities. Course topics include skin color stratification, “colorblindness,” ethnicity and nationhood, migration and citizenship, media representations, anti-blackness as a global phenomenon, transnational and global flows of racial ideas and categories, and social movements for racial justice. 6 credits; NE, WR2, IS; Not offered 2023-24
AFST 130 Global Islam and Blackness This course will introduce students to key trends and moments in Islamic thought and activism in Africa and the black diaspora. It explores the historical construction of the categories of “race” and “religion” through a focus on Islam and blackness. We will analyze how blackness and Islam, and their relationship, has been conceptualized and presented by non-Africans, as well as the history of Islam in Africa and in the black diaspora. We will explore the construction of blackness within Islamic history and cultures, highlighting the notion of the Moor in medieval times and the Nation of Islam in U.S. history. 6 credits; SI, WR2, IS; Not offered 2023-24
AFST 210 Historiographies of Slavery This survey course explores how Black enslaved and ex-enslaved people narrated their experiences of chattel slavery, and its immediate aftermath, in America. Stretching beyond a focus on only traditional historical slave narratives, this course adopts an interdisciplinary approach to slavery that utilizes philosophy, literature, and media studies. Reading and media for the course may include Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, selections from William Still's The Underground Railroad and the WPA Slave Narrative Collection, the film 12 Years a Slave and the miniseries Roots, and Zora Neale Hurston's Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo." 6 credits; HI, WR2, IDS; Not offered 2023-24
AFST 215 Contemporary Theory in Black Studies This course examines the major theories of the Africana intellectual tradition. It introduces students to major concepts and socio-political thoughts that set the stage for Africana Studies as a discipline. With the knowledge of the historical contexts of the Black intellectual struggle and the accompanying cultural movements, students will examine the genealogy, debates and the future directions of Black Studies. Students are invited to take a dedicated dive into primary scholarship by focusing on foundational thinkers to be studied such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Frantz Fanon, Steve Biko, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and bell hooks, among others. 6 credits; HI, WR2, IDS; Fall; Chielo Eze
AFST 220 Color, Class, and Status in Black America As a racial category and identity, "Black" is often treated in a homogenous, monolithic way, obscuring the internal diversity and inequality within the black population in the U.S. In this course, we consider the inequalities within black communities and the black population living in the U.S., historically and through to the present. "Colorism," or skin tone stratification, represents one status linked to class and ranking in society; but does colorism matter more than other statuses to class? Class differences are in fact profound within black communities, and they are correlated to multiple social statuses--skin tone, immigrant status, national origin, and even political orientation. We will examine how these status, color, and class interact, and how they shape class relations and tensions, lived experience, and notions of authenticity ("blackness") in everyday life and popular culture. Course topics include the Black middle class; education; neighborhood segregation; gender and sexuality; and media representations and popular culture. 6 credits; NE, WR2, QRE, IDS; Not offered 2023-24
AFST 230 Black Diaspora, Politics of Place Central to diasporic identity formation and imagination is the simultaneous belonging to a multiplicity of places. For black diasporic subjects, struggles against oppression and for new political futures inspire transgression against normative political boundaries. This class explores the role of place and politics in the making of the black diaspora in Europe and the Americas. It emphasizes the intellectual and political connections and the sense of shared identity and destiny. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this course will offer a global history of race, identity, and politics through the lens of the black diaspora. 6 credits; HI, IS; Not offered 2023-24
AFST 325 Slavery in the Africana Imagination Through the lens of former slaves and their descendants in America, this course explores ways in which the slave and neo-slave narratives attend to the larger existential question of what it means to be free. The corollary notions of race, gender, identity, solidarity, among others, will also be considered. In addition, this class will investigate the ways in which the re-inscription of slavery, in contemporary literature, has impacted the development of the Africana literary tradition in terms of content, genre, and form. This course adopts an interdisciplinary approach to slavery that utilizes philosophy, literature, and media studies. 6 credits; HI, WR2, IDS; Spring; Chielo Eze
AFST 330 Black Europe This course examines the history and experiences of people of African descent and black cultures in Europe. Beginning with early contacts between Africa and Europe, we examine the migration and settlement of African people and culture, and the politics and meaning of their identities and presence in Europe. Adopting a comparative perspective, we consider how blackness has been constructed in various countries through popular culture, nationalism, immigration policy, and other social institutions. We further consider how religious, gender, and immigrant identities inform notions of blackness. We conclude by examining contemporary Black European social movements. 6 credits; SI, WR2, IS; Winter; Daniel Williams
AFST 398 Africana Studies Capstone This three-credit course gives Africana Studies majors and minors the opportunity to reflect on their learning in Africana Studies and to prepare to apply this knowledge to future endeavors. In this capstone course, the student creates a portfolio of their work in Africana Studies and writes a five-ten page reflective essay tying these papers together. This course gives students an opportunity to seriously reflect about the courses they have taken and the work they have produced within and related to their AFST major/minor, and to draw connections among them. Prerequisite: A major or minor in AFST; preferably to be taken in the senior year. 3 credits; NE; Winter; Chielo Eze
AFST 400 Integrative Exercise The comprehensive exercise is a substantial (approximately 34-40 page) research paper on a topic within African, African American, and/or African Diaspora studies. The student should have completed a 300-level AFST course, or a 300-level course that counts toward the AFST major. The comps process begins with a Comps Topic Development Worksheet during spring term of the junior year, a comps topic intention form followed by a proposal in fall term of the senior year, and ends with a final written thesis and oral presentation early in spring term. 1-6 credit; S/NC; Fall, Winter, Spring; Daniel Williams