Anthropology

CAS/GRS AN 382   

Wealth, Poverty, and Culture

Shipton

TR 9:30-11

Explores vital cultural dimensions of production, exchange, and consumption in varied settings.  Asks how social ties relate to property, wealth, and poverty.  Examines how people classify, control

GRS AN 585  

Seminar in Advanced Reading in African  Ethnography    

Pritchett
      

M 3-6

Graduate and undergraduate seminar on the uses and abuses of the ethnographic genre.  We will examine a mix of classical and contemporary African ethnographies with an eye toward theory, methods and cultural content.  The reading list will be designed to reflect the regional and topical interests of the students enrolled.
Prerequisite:  Permission of instructor.

CAS AH315    

Popular stereotypes of Africa include images of people living in thatched huts located in rural settings with minimal economic resources. This course takes as its starting point a very different and more accurate vision of Africa: the African city. For more than two thousand years urbanism has been an essential feature of African history. In contemporary Africa, urbanization is occurring at a rapid pace with approximately forty percent of the population residing in cities, resulting in the creation of some of the largest and most vibrant cities in the world. This course traces the history of African urban architecture and city-life from ancient Nubia to contemporary Lagos. Topics include politics and indigenous architecture, the colonial impact on African urbanism, and the contemporary art scene in Africa’s twenty-first century metropolises.

CAS/GRS AH 822 

Graduate Seminar African Art and Architecture: Contemporary African Art

F 11:00-1:00

This graduate seminar concentrates on contemporary African painting, sculpture, and photography from period of 1950 to the present. We question and critique how the term contemporary is used in an African context and analyze the dichotomy that is made between “contemporary” and “traditional” African art. We also explore the influence of politics, history, patronage, and colonialism, post-colonialism, and globalization on contemporary African art. The course also considers the reception of contemporary African art in Africa and beyond and considers the politics of display through an examination of international exhibitions, such as Africa Explores, The Short Century, Africa Remix, and the Dak’Art Biennale.

Archaeology

CAS/GRS AR 232

  Archaeology of Ancient Egypt

Bard

TR 12:30-2:00

The technology, economy, social life, political organization, religions, art, and architecture of Egypt from pre-dynastic times through the Hellenistic period, based on archaeological and prehistorical sources.  Emphasis on the period of the Pharaohs (ca. 3200-323 BC).  Satisfies humanities distribution requirement.

CAS/GRS AR 706

    Archaeology of Complex Societies

Bard

W 1:00-4:00

Core concepts of archaeological research on the formation, cultural development, and decay of complex societies as well as their introduction into other cultures.  Coverage emphasizes research design rather than simply survey.

Economics

CAS EC 392

         International Finance    

Harris

TR 9:30-11:00

Basic issues of international finance.  Case studies in international economic policy.

History

CAS HI 292

Colonialism in Africa: Impact and Aftermath         

Wylie

TR 9:30-11:00

Uses case studies of particular African societies or nations to examine patterns of European conquest and African resistance; forms of colonial administration and socioeconomic consequences of colonial rule; decolonization and contemporary African liberation movements; economic and political developments since independence; and contemporary social and cultural change.

CAS/GRS HI 385/885

Atlantic History  

Thornton

TR 11-12:30    

Examines the various interactions that shaped the Atlantic World, connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas between 1400 and 1800.  Begins by defining the political interaction, then emphasizes cultural exchange, religious conversion, and the revolutionary era. 

CAS HI 394  

 Environmental History of Africa

     McCann       

TR 2-3:30

This course will focus on the evolution of African environmental and ecological systems over the past 200 years.  Subjects will include aspects of the physical environment such as climatic change and hydrology, as well as key issues of human/environmental interaction, such as agriculture, deforestation, conservation, famine, and the role of colonialism and economic development in environmental change.  The course will also examine the ways in which outsiders have created myths about the African environment and how Africans have managed their natural resources.  The final section of the course will examine the causes and social effects of famine.  The course will cover most geographical regions of Africa with special attention to East Africa.  Readings and lectures will include films and visual materials.
There are no prerequisites for this course.  Students from history, international relations, environmental science, or biology are encouraged to enroll.

Interdisciplinary Studies

  CAS ID 116

Africa Today:  The Beat of Popular Culture  

TBA

MWF 11:00-12:00

Core course in the African Studies minor concentration.  Provides a fresh view of African popular culture through the lens of contemporary literature, film, television, music, dance, and the visual arts.

International Relations

CAS IR 507

The Muslim and Western Worlds: Prospects for a “Clash of Civilizations”

Dunbar

T 8:30-9:30

This course explores the perennially troubled relationship between the Western and Muslim worlds.  Its central aim is to shed light on the realities and mutual misperceptions, both past and present that come together to give credence to Samuel Huntington’s prediction of a clash across the cultural fault line he perceived between Muslims and Westerners

Modern Foreign Languages and Literature

         Second Semester Swahili

Mmari

ARR

         Fourth Semester Swahili

Mmari

ARR

         Sixth Semester Swahili

Mmari

ARR

         Second Semester Twi

Owu-Ewie

ARR

         First Semester Zulu

Mali

ARR

         Second Semester Zulu

Mali

ARR

         Third Semester Zulu

Mali

ARR

         Fourth Semester Zulu

Mali

ARR

         First Semester isiXhosa

Mali

ARR

The Colonial Novel

Cazenave

TT 2:00-3:30

Literary representations of the people, cultures and places of the former colonies in works by Baudelaire, Camus, Duras, Gide, Leiris, and Robbe-Grillet.  Attention to colonialist discourse and articulation of counter-discourse in historical perspective with works by Mongo Beti, Ousmane Sembene, Grantz Fanon and Albert Memmi.  Taught in French.

Political Science

CAS PO 566

Political Systems of Southern Africa

Bustin

TR 11:00-12:30

Analysis of the balance of political forces in the multi-racial societies of southern Africa; emphasis on the problems of governmental stability, the prospects for integration and disintegration, the range of responses to interracial tensions, and their international repercussions.

CAS PO 786

Africa in International Relations    

Bustin

W 2-5:00

Deals with the preconditions of foreign policy autonomy, the encapsulation of African actors in the dynamics of non-African foreign policy conceptualizations, and the range of options available to African states – from neutrality to alignment, and from dependency to collective action.

School Of Education

SED IE 602

Practicum and Seminar in International Educational Development

Boatman

TR 4-7:00

The course focuses on analyzing and creating policies and projects using education for social change and to create the well being of individuals, communities and nations.  Non majors do not need to complete the practicum part of the course.