Courses
U = for undergraduate credit only, UG = for undergraduate or graduate credit, G = for graduate credit. R after the credit indicates the course may be repeated for credit to the maximum indicated after the R. Credits beyond this maximum do not count toward a degree.
- U AAS 141H Introduction to African American Studies 3cr.
Offered autumn. Same as HSTA 141H. This course introduces students to the primary questions, themes, and approaches to African American Studies. In addition to examining key historical periods such as Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights era, students will encounter Hip-Hop, African-American film, African-American religion, and contemporary identity politics. This course concludes by discussing the reasons for and new directions in African American studies including diasporic studies, Pan-Africanism, and post-colonial studies. Overall students will gain new insight into the social, cultural, political, and intellectual experiences of a diverse people and into the history and contemporary experience of the United States. - U 195 Special Topics Variable cr. (R 6)
Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one time offerings of current topics. - U 208H Discovering Africa 3 cr.
Offered intermittently. Same as HSTA 208H. Interdisciplinary study of the history of pre-colonial Africa, focusing on social, economic, political and cultural institutions and traditions including the wealth, diversity and complexity of ancient and classical African civilizations and cultures. - U 260 African Americans and Native Americans 3 cr.
- Spring, odd years. Same as NAS 260. This one-semester course is a study of the broad scope of relations between African Americans and Native Americans, and the lives and circumstances of people who are a mixture of those two groups. We will explore these topics through history, cultural anthropology, linguistics, sociology, and the arts. Some of the questions that we will seek answers for include: What sorts of relations between African Americans and Native Americans have existed in the course of American history? How do people of mixed African and Native American ancestry identify themselves culturally? Is culture “racial”? What are the origins of racial identity? What does it mean to be “Indian," “African," “Afro-Indian," “African American," “American," “Euro-American," or “white?" Many more questions will be raised and examined in the course of our study and classroom interactions. We will attempt, wherever possible, to connect the past to the present (including personal experiences) in our considerations of all of these areas of study.
- U 262 Abolitionism: The First Civil Rights Movement 3 cr.
Offered spring. Interdisciplinary, historical perspective on the early 19th century movement to abolish slavery and racial discrimination in the United States. - U 295 Special Topics Variable cr. (R-6)
Offered intermittently. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics. - U AAS 342H African American History to 1865 3cr.
Offered intermittently. Same as HSTA 342H. Survey of the African American experience from the African background to the end of the Civil War. Focus on Black American quest for the American Dream, and how Blacks attempted to deal with the challenges of enslavement and racism. - U AAS 343H African American History Since 1865 3cr.
Offered intermittently. Same as HSTA 343H. Study of the African American experience since the Civil War. Change and continuity in the African American experience, the fight against Jim Crow, the struggle for civil rights, and post-civil rights economic, political, social and cultural developments and challenges. - U AAS 345 The Black Radical Tradition 3 cr.
Autumn, odd years. Same as HSTA 345. Historians have generally framed African-American resistance to institutional, political, and cultural racism in the United States according to either the non-violent integrationist efforts of the Civil Rights Movement or the armed, revolutionary efforts of Black Nationalist groups. This dichotomy ignores the continuities within the black radical tradition throughout American history. This course seeks to answer the question, “What are the sources, practices, and effects of the Black Radical tradition in United States history?” From slave revolts through to the Move rebellion in Philadelphia, this course examines how the African-American community has engaged in radical efforts to change the status quo in the name of seeking justice. - U 372 African American Identity 3 cr.
Offered autumn. Interdisciplinary course designed to explore and illuminate the multifaceted nature and development of African American group and individual identity. - U AAS 374 African American Religious Experience 3 cr.
Spring, odd years. Same as HSTA 374 and RELS 374. The African-American religious experience encompasses Islam, Christianity, Santería, voodoo, and many others. In this course, students will examine the history of religious expression within the African-American community from the colonial era through the twentieth century. Central to the course is the question, “How did religion shape the experience of the African-American community?” Students will also examine the ways in which religious practice influenced social, political, and cultural changes in American history. - U 388 Africa to 1880 3 cr.
Offered intermittently. Same as HSTR 388. History of Africa from the earliest of times. Evolution of African societies and states, social, economic, political, and cultural developments; the dynamics, nature and consequences of Africa's interaction with Europe up to 1880. - U
439H Colonial and Independent Africa 3 cr.
Offered intermittently. Same as HSTR 439H. Historical development in Africa since the imposition of colonial rule. Analysis of colonialism and emergence of nationalism. - U 395 Special Topics Variable cr. (R 9)
Prereq., consent of instr. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one time offerings of current topics. - U 396 Independent Study Variable cr. (R 9)
Prereq., consent of instr. - UG 409 History of Southern Africa 3 cr.
Offered intermittently. Same as HSTR 409. Historical survey of developments in southern Africa from the earliest of times to the present. Focus on the evolution and growth of societies and states; economic, social and political developments; external interventions and impacts on race relations. - U AAS 417 Prayer and Civil Rights 3 cr.
Autumn, even years. Same as HSTA 450 and RELS 417. This course explores the meaning of public prayer in the Civil Rights Movement. Built around the question, “Does religion help or hinder the pursuit of social change?” this class combines historical and religious studies inquiry to trace changes in civil rights activists’ efforts to make use of religion. By focusing on a particular religious practice – in this case prayer – in a specific, but limited period of time, this course challenges students to consider how meaning is formed through historical action and study the social significance of religious practice. This course complicates prevailing ideas about the normalcy of African-American religious practitioners’ prayer, invites students to examine their assumptions about the nature of prayer, and traces how religion spilled out of sanctuaries into the streets during the civil rights era. - U AAS 420 America Divided, 1848-1865 3 cr.
- Same as HSTA 420. Few time periods in American history were as explosive as the mid-nineteenth century. This course focuses closely on United States history from the end of the Mexican War to the end of the Civil War. Through the examination of both primary and secondary sources, students will explore a variety of topics and key developments of the era. These include the socio-economic divergence between the “Free” North and Slave South; the national political disruptions caused by the prospect of slavery’s western expansion; race, racism, and debates over black Americans’ future; immigration, nativism, and ethno-religious conflicts; Southern secession, the creation of the Confederacy, and Civil War; military mobilization and the social experience of the Civil War; dissent within both the Union and Confederate causes.
- U 493 Omnibus Variable cr. (R 6)
Prereq., consent of instr. - UG 495 Special Topics Variable cr. (R 9)
Prereq., consent of instr. Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one time offerings of current topics. - U 496 Independent Study Variable cr. (R 9)
Prereq., consent of instr. - G AAS 562 Problems in African American Religious History 3 cr.
Spring, even years. Same as HSTA 562. This course explores the question “How does one study African American history?” through the lens of African-American religious practice. In addition to examining the African-American experience across the broad sweep of United States history and the vast array of regional variety, students will identify a particular African-American community to research from a historiographical perspective of their choosing. Students will likewise consider the particular challenges of studying African-American history where race and class render historical analysis complex. This class examines those complexities through discussion of the Frazier-Herskovitz slavery debate over continuity and disruption in African religious traditions, the tension between accommodation and resistance paradigms in the nineteenth century free black church, and the interposition of politics and sacred practice in the twentieth century black church.
