Academics

110 Introduction to African American Studies
This course provides an overview of African American history and culture. Topics include major events, persons, and issues spanning the period from the African heritage to contemporary times. Students survey the evolution of African American expressive culture in music, literature, film, art, and dance. The course includes lectures, discussions, and video presentations. (Cross-listed as American Studies 101. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

205 Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
(Cross-listed as American Studies 201 and Psychology 205. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

215  The NAACP: 100th Anniversary of Progressive Activism
This course will provide an overview of NAACP and its continuing influence on African American cultural and political life.  Topics will include major historical events, persons, and issues spanning the period from institutional inception to the present day.  Secondarily, students will survey the evolution of other progressive African American institutions and their continued importance in American social discourse. (Cross-listed as American Studies 215. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

216 African American Literature I
(Cross-listed as English 216. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

218 Blues Women in African American Literature
(Cross-listed as English 218, American Studies 218, and Women's and Gender Studies 218. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

219 African Politics
(Cross-listed as Politics 217.  Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

221 Cultures of Modern Africa
(Cross-listed as Sociology and Anthropology 221.  Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

223  Black Body Images in Media and Society
Representations of African Americans in popular American discourse have been a contested political and ideological terrain since the first depictions of "Sambo," "Mammy," and "savages from the Dark Continent."  This course is designed to explore both contemporary and historic images of African American bodies from the genesis of popular (mis)conceptions generated in the antebellum South to current debates surrounding the issue in such diverse cultural spaces as sports (the Imus controversy; constructions of black femininity), hip-hop culture (depictions of black masculinity and black female sexuality),  and the potency of language and symbol (discourse surrounding use of the "n-word" and the noose as symbols of regressive ideologies).   (Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

254 African American History
(Cross-listed as American Studies 254 and History 254. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

325 Black Literature of the 1960s
(Cross-listed as American Studies 325 and English 325. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

326 African American Theater
(Cross-listed as American Studies 336 and Theater 336. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

335  Racism and the African American Experience
This course is a survey of the sociological and historical development of the theories of race and racism at the individual, group, and cultural levels.  Students will examine the impact these theories have had on social policy.  The course focuses on the African American experience in America with special attention given to institutional expressions of racism in American Society.  (Cross-listed as American Studies 335 and Sociology and Anthropology 335. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)

361 Advanced Topics in African American History:  The Modern American Civil Rights Movement
(Cross-listed as American Studies 361 and History 361. Meets GEC Cultural Diversity Requirement.)