AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES (Div. II)

Chair, Professor ALEX W. WILLINGHAM

Advisory Committee: Professors: DEW*, DICKERSON, A. WILLINGHAM. Associate Professors: E. D. BROWN, SINGHAM*. Assistant Professors: MUTONGI, WILDER. Senior Lecturer: E. GRUDIN.

The aim of the program of Afro-American Studies is to allow students to consolidate some of their course elections in the social sciences and humanities focusing on the history, culture, and social experience of Africans and their descendants in the Western Hemisphere.

All students enrolled as concentrators in the Afro-American Studies program are required to complete a total of five courses in the program, including a culminating senior independent study project (491 or 492) and one Winter Study Project dealing with a subject relevant to the objectives of the program. Winter Study Projects not offered by the program should be approved by the chair.

Senior projects may be done in the fall or spring semester. They will be evaluated by the project advisor and reviewed by the chair of the program. Students must propose their projects and secure an advisor by no later than the end of registration of the semester in which they are enrolled in 491 or 492. The chair may modify the requirements for the Senior Project in exceptional circumstances.

Students may select their required courses from the following:

One course in an Afro-American subject:

English 220 Introduction to Afro-American Writing

History 261 African-American History Through Emancipation

History 262 African-American History From Reconstruction to the Present

Political Science 213 Theory and Practice of Civil Rights Protest

One course in an African subject:

Anthropology 245 Theory in Africa: Topics in the Anthropological Study of Africa

History 269 A Survey of Modern African History, 1800-Present

History 270 Early African History Through the Era of the Slave Trade

History 325 South Africa and Apartheid

History 373 African Political Thought

Two additional courses selected from those listed above or from the following:

Economics 213 Economic Development in Africa

Economics 222 African Americans in the U.S. Economy: A History Since Colonial Times (Deleted 1997-98)

English 346 Southern Fiction/Southern Fictions (Deleted 1997-98)

History 225 The Caribbean from Slavery to Independence: A Comparison of Empires

History 303/Religion 225 Afro-American Religious History

History/Environmental Studies 306 Urban Theory

History 311 History of the Old South

History 312 History of the New South

History 315 The Civil Rights Movement

History 318 The Black Radical Tradition in America

History 360 Civil War and Reconstruction

History 366T W. E. B. Du Bois

Music 122 Afro-American Music

Music 130 History of Jazz

Music 212 Jazz Theory and Improvisation

Music 320T Black Music and Postmodernism

Political Science 239 Political Thinking About Race: Resurrecting the Political in Contemporary Texts

Political Science 312 Southern Politics

Political Science 318 The Voting Rights Act and the Voting Rights Movement

Political Science 332 Fugitive Identities: Slavery and the Boundaries of American Politics

Theatre 314 African-American Theatre (Deleted 1997-98)

Theatre 320 Performance Traditions on the African Continent and Diaspora (Deleted 1997-98)

Recommended Elective Courses

Anthropology 241 Religious Movements and Utopian Communities

Economics 237 The Economics of Inequalitiy and Poverty

English 208 Introduction to American Literature

English 338 Literature of the American Renaissance

English 345 Black Aesthetics

English 357 Contemporary American Fiction

Environmental Studies 116 Environmental History of Africa

Greek 405 The Greek Historians

History 101 America in the 1960s

History 116 Environmental History of Africa

History 222 European Imperialism: The Conquest and Division of the World

History 248 Twentieth Century American Politics

History 301A Faith and Reason: Critical Explorations in American Religious History (Deleted 1997-98)

History 304 American Labor History

History 307 The French and Haitian Revolutions

History 308 Studies in American Social Change

History 321 Reform and Reformers in Modern America (Deleted 1997-98)

History 324 Women in the United States Since 1870

History 326 Blacks, Jews, and Women in Revolutionary France (Deleted 1997-98)

History 351 Slavery, Capitalism, and Revolution: The Impact of the New World on Europe, 1700-1900

History 364 Imagining Urban America, Three Case Studies: Boston, Chicago, and L.A.

History 375/Religion 226 Twentieth-Century American Religious Movements

History 381 The Ghetto from Venice to Harlem

Literary Studies 111 Traveling Fictions: Encountering the Other Through Tourism, Time Travel, Exile

Music 114 American Music

Music 125 Music Cultures of the World

Music 131 Gender, Class, and Race in Western Musical Society

Political Science 209 Poverty in America

Political Science 219 Constitutional Law

Political Science 331 Non-Profit Organization and Community Change

Psychology 341 Stereotypes, Prejudices, and Discrimination

Sociology 203 Social Inequality

Sociology 220 Ethnicity

Sociology 307 Law and Disorder

Theatre 304 The Peacock and the Doll

And the culminating Senior Project (491 or 492)

HONORS PROGRAM IN AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES

Candidates for honors in Afro-American Studies must maintain at least a B+ average in the concentration and be admitted to candidacy by the program faculty. In addition to the regular requirements for the concentration, candidates for honors are also required to take one course specifically related to their Senior Project (see above). It is also required that honors candidates devote one independent study course (491 or 492) and their senior year Winter Study to the completion of their Senior Project. That Winter Study may also serve to fill the regular Winter Study Project requirement for the concentration. Honors Senior Projects should demonstrate unusual creativity, depth, and intellectual rigor.

Candidates for honors are permitted and encouraged to pursue non-traditional projects, such as presentations in the performing arts, visual arts, or creative writing, as well as more traditional interdisciplinary studies. Honors Senior Projects will be evaluated by the advisor, and the program faculty will decide whether honors should be conferred. Students wishing to become candidates for honors in Afro-American Studies should inform the chair of the program in writing before spring registration of their junior year.

THE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES CONCENTRATION AND THE AMERICAN STUDIES MAJOR

Several courses in Afro-American Studies count for credit in the American Studies major. Therefore, students in American Studies can easily complete requirements for an Afro-American Studies concentration by electing one course in an African subject and by taking Afro-American Studies 491. Another three courses must be chosen which satisfy both American Studies and Afro-American Studies requirements.