Students in Africana Studies acquire critical tools to examine the histories, politics, cultures, and economies of Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe. Africana Studies courses engage methods and theories from multiple disciplines including history, sociology, anthropology, literature, religion, and music. Race has been a power social construction, and Africans and people of African descent have shaped and transformed ideas about identity, belonging, health, gender, ethnicity, “blackness” and “whiteness” all over the world. All students are welcome to pursue Africana Studies.
Courses
AFST 110
Intro To Africana Studies
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies
Interdisciplinary introduction to the study, research, and interpretation of historical, cultural, social and political knowledge of African American, African, and Caribbean peoples examining contemporary black identities, politics, and culture, particularly focusing on the role and place of blacks in modern American cities through exploration of international migrations, race relations, and 20th-century cultural movements, including civil rights, social protest music, art and literature. Addresses the cultural, historical, political, economic, and psychological consequences of the dispersal of Africans from their ancestral continent to the United States and the Caribbean and the impact of the cultures of West and central Africa in the United States and the Caribbean, through oral narratives, music, art, festivals, foodways, clothing, hairstyles, dance, and religious belief systems. Introduces literary and political movements including Pan-Africanism, black feminism, Negritude, Harlem Renaissance, and other activities reflecting shared theories, ideologies and political movements of Africans, African Americans and Caribbean blacks.
ARAB 101
Elementary Arabic 1
Common Area: Language Studies
This course, designed for students with no previous study of Arabic, introduces the students of the script system of Arabic language, ensures the acquisition of basic speaking, listening, reading and writing in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and an introduction to the Arab culture around the world. Five class hours weekly. One and one-quarter units.
ARAB 201
Intermediate Arabic 1
Common Area: Language Studies
This course reviews and expands the fundamentals of the language through oral and written expression accompanied by readings and culture. Prerequisite: ARAB 102 or equivalent. Five class hours weekly. One and one-quarter units.
HIST 137
American Slavery, American Freedom
Common Area: Historical Studies
Examines the intertwined origins and development of American slavery and American freedom, racial ideology and democracy, and the combustible interaction that created the central contradiction of antebellum America: a republican nation professing equality that was also an enormous slave holding society. Also examines the ways in which historians work and make arguments, and students will be asked to critically examine both primary and secondary documents.
HIST 196
African Colonial Lives
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies or Historical Studies
This course analyzes the colonial experience of African people in sub-Saharan Africa, from the late 19th century and throughout the twentieth century. European colonialism in Africa transformed customs, traditions, and social organizations, introduced new boundaries between peoples and erased others through the institutionalization of racism and the creation of new ethnicities. The history, theory, and practice of colonialism (and neocolonialism) are presented in this course through historical documents, scholarly writing, literature, and film. The course also explores the long-term economic, psychological, and cultural effects and legacies of colonialism on the colonized.
HIST 198
Modern Africa Since 1800
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies or Historical Studies
A survey of Africa's complex colonial past, examining dominant ideas about colonial Africa and Africans' experiences during colonialism, including important historical debates on Africa's colonial past and the legacy of colonialism; pre-colonial Africa's place in the global world; resistance and response to the imposition and entrenchment of colonialism; and the nature of colonial rule as revealed in economic (under) development, ethnicity and conflict, and the environment.
MUSC 218
Jazz Improvisation 1
Common Area: Arts
Introduces students to the fundamentals of jazz harmony and improvisation. Topics include chord and scale construction, harmonic progression, symbols used in improvisation, jazz scales and modes. These theoretical concepts are applied to the analysis and performance of standard jazz tunes. A portion of the class is devoted to performance and improvisation.
POLS 110
Race and Ethnicity Politics
Common Area: Social Science
This course will cover a broad range of topics that examines the ways in which race intersects with the American political system including but not limited to: the social and legal construction of race, the effects of political redistricting, voting right among minority groups, immigration, the factors that influence voter mobilization among minority groups, the intersection of race and gender, race in the context of public policy, as well as race in the context of media and news coverage.
RELS 103
Race and Religion
Common Area: Studies in Religion
This course explores the intersection of race and religion. Given the ambiguity in their constructions and articulations throughout history, it is a challenging yet ultimately worthwhile endeavor to trace their historical and contemporary contours in cultural, social, political, and economic spheres. Though they are often thought of as separate, this course assumes that race and religion are intimately and intricately intertwined. Thus, we will ask such questions as: What is religion? What is race? How have and do religious traditions coöpt race and racism as effective tools for their structure, organization, and propagation, and vice versa? This interdisciplinary course will ask students to form critical theoretical perspectives on race and religion, and to take up the above questions as they arise in the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and American indigenous religious traditions. Spanning 15th c. Europe to modern North America, the course will also explore questions related to gender/sexuality, indigeneity, sovereignty, capitalism, nationalism, and identity.
RELS 107
Islam
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies or Religious Studies
Examination of Islamic religious beliefs and practices from the origins of Islam to the present. Particular stress is placed on Islamic religious ideals, institutions and personalities. Central topics include: Islamic scripture and traditions, prophecy, law, rituals, theology and philosophy, sectarianism, mysticism, aesthetic ideals, art and architecture, pedagogy, and modern reinterpretations of the tradition. Also explores wider issues of religious identity by looking at the diversity of the Islamic tradition, tensions between elite and popular culture, and issues of gender and ethnicity.
THEA 171
Hip Hop/Breaking 1-2
Common Area: Arts
An introductory breaking technique course for beginners who have no prior dance experience. Students learn foundational exercises, improvisation and movement combinations. The course will emphasize the cultural and historical roots of the form along with key artists who have contributed to its evolution.
THEA 191
Afro-Haitian Dance
Common Area: Arts or Cross-Cultural Studies
This course is an introduction to movements from the African Diaspora, focusing on traditional Haitian Folkloric dances and the distinct rhythms and characters of Nago, Mayi, Ibo, Banda, Yanvalou and Kongo. Through videos, discussion, technique and embodied practice, students gain an appreciation of the rich cultural heritage of Afro-Haitian dance and its unique connection to modern dance.