AAS 550BADVANCED READINGS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES
Ekeh-Henry-Griffler-Lulat-Pappas-Pitts-Williams
Prerequisite:  Permission of Instructor
Individualized, intensive reading program providing the student, under faculty guidance, an opportunity to investigate the literature on a specialized topic. Meetings will be arranged. Grading will normally be based on one or two essays on the topics covered.
Day/Time:  Arranged
Clemens 732
1-6 credits/Tut.

AAS 561:  African Americans in the City—L. Williams
Dual-listed with AAS 461 & Crosslisted with HIS 586
This seminar explores the social, political, and economic development, as well as the transformation of African American urban experiences from the early 19th century to the late 20th century.  Emphases will be placed on the social conditions of urban life, the impact of economic policies, geographical location, labor, migration, family and institutional development, and responses to new forms of social control.  The course explores the relationship between racial identification and community formation, and assesses the impact of notions of community solidarity.  It also examines the impact of class and gender on community formation. The readings for this course include historical accounts, fiction, and other social science treatises, as well as films.  This approach will allow students to examine the ways in which different disciplines address urbanization. Students are expected to attend each session, actively participate in the discussion, and lead minimally one class.  Short papers on each week’s topic should be presented at the beginning of each class session.  Ideally students should circulate the papers prior to the class meeting. All students will prepare a research project that explores themes developed during the course of the semester.
Day/Time:  Tuesday 3:00-5:40
Alumni 88
3 credits/Reg. #466411

AAS 562:  Law Public Policy and Politics—J. Pitts
The American political system since slavery has been consistently tested by the struggles of African Americans for freedom, justice and equal participation. The construction of race, class and gender differences have affected this struggle, creating deep social and political conflicts that have resulted in legal and public policies that have been anti-democratic and unjust to the promise of freedom and equality. This course will focus upon the legal, political and public policies that have impacted African Americans in the United States beginning with the Colonial period through the 19th century and the Civil War. Next the important period of Black Reconstruction will be explored followed by the development of Jim Crow laws, segregation and the civil rights struggles of the 1950’s and 60’s. Lastly, the current debates about the relevance of affirmative action, diversity and a colorblind society will be highlighted. By exploring the historical and contemporary legal and political contexts for the development of these policies the student is expected to gain a deeper understanding of the social, cultural and economic conditions African Americans must face, change and overcome in participating in a truly free and democratic society. 
Day/Time:  Thursday 3:00-5:40
Clemens 219
3 credits/Sem.
Reg. #148621

AAS 564:  Liberation Struggles of the African Diaspora—K.  Griffler
Dual-listed with AAS 425 & Crosslisted with HIS 420
This seminar focuses on the movements of people of African descent in search of freedom from colonialism, racial oppression, slavery and apartheid.  Using a comparative approach, it traces evolving programs and conceptions of the freedom struggle across generations and regions.  Topics include the Haitian Revolution, the African American Civil Rights Movement, and anti-colonial movements of Africa and the Caribbean.  Taking a central struggle from each of the main areas of the African Diaspora—Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States, the course is intended to identify major trends and themes in the liberation struggle of people of African descent over the past two centuries.  In doing so, it both fosters a diasporic understanding of the African American experience and connects the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s to past struggles of people of African descent, including struggles against enslavement and colonialism.  It provides an opportunity for in-depth study of the major thinkers of Black liberation, together with the notions of liberation and freedom from racial oppression. 
Date/Time:  Tues./Thurs.  2:00-3:20
Alumni 90
3 credits/Sem.
Reg. #382954

AAS 572—AFRICA AND THE SLAVE TRADE—P. Ekeh
Crosslisted HIS 574A & CRC 550
This course is designed to examine the history of the international slave trade from Africa by Arab traders (c. 950-1850) and European nations and merchants (1450-1850). It will search for the international origins of the African slave trade from the larger historical context of the changes in the Old and New Worlds, including the strengthening of Western Europe and of Tsarist Russia and the relative weaknesses of Africa. It will evaluate the ideological and intellectual justification of the slave trade in Islam, Christianity and in secular Western scholarship. The course will also assess the social, political, economic, and psychological impact of the slave trade on Africa and Africans and trace the links between the slave trade and the origins of European imperialism in Africa.
Day/Time:  Thursday 3:00-5:40
Clemens 215
3 credits/Sem.
Reg. #458568

AAS 584—APPLIED VISUAL AESTHETICS OF BLACK CINEMA—J. Pappas
This course will examine the film makers and their productions to engage in a dialectic discourse using major aesthetic elements, time, space, motion, color, and sound to show how Black film makers develop these elements in articulating screen messages.  The course will also look at different modes of signifying while using different uses of African American symbolism.  The underlying assumption of this course is to establish a clear understanding of the principles of media aesthetic and their prudent use as a vehicle for viewer manipulation in articulated messages.
Date/Time:  Wednesday 3:00-5:40
Cooke 121
3 credits/Sem.
Reg. #128887

AAS 600-THESIS GUIDANCE IN AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES
Ekeh-Henry-Griffler-Lulat-Pappas-Williams
Prerequisite:  Permission of Instructor
An individualized program of faculty supervision of the student in the process of devising, designing, researching, writing and submitting a master's thesis. Meetings depend on the number of credits students take.
Day/Time - Arranged
Clemens 732 1-12 Cr. /Tut.

Last Modified: December 20, 2006