African American Studies
The Graduate ProgramMA in African American Studies
Courses
Interdepartmental Program
The following list reflects the 2007/2008 faculty.
Director Ronald K. Richardson
FacultyAllison Blakely George and Joyce Wein Chair of African American Studies; Professor of History, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, University of Oregon; MA, PhD, University of California, Berkeley
Mary Anne Boelcskevy Visiting Assistant Professor of African American Studies, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, University of Massachusetts, Boston; AM, PhD, Harvard University
Lawrence A. Breiner Professor of English, College of Arts & Sciences. AB, Boston College; MPhil, PhD, Yale University
Neta Crawford Professor of African American Studies and Political Science, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gene A. Jarrett Associate Professor of African American Studies and English, College of Arts & Sciences. AB, Princeton University; AM, PhD, Brown University.
Linda M. Heywood Professor of African American Studies and History, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, Brooklyn College; MA, PhD, Columbia University
Robert Margo Professor of African American Studies and Economics, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, University of Michigan; AM, PhD, Harvard University
Ronald K. Richardson Associate Professor of African American Studies and History, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, MA, PhD, State University of New York, Binghamton
John K. Thornton Professor of African American Studies and History, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, University of Michigan; MA, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles
Associated Faculty
Cynthia Becker Assistant Professor of Art History, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, University of New Orleans; MA, PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Irene Gendzier Professor of Political Science (Comparative Politics), College of Arts & Sciences. AB, Barnard College; MA, PhD, Columbia University
Shahla Haeri Associate Professor of Anthropology, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, Boston State College; MA, Northeastern University; PhD, University of California, Los Angeles
Patricia Hills Professor of Art History, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, Stanford University; MA, City College of New York, Hunter College; PhD, New York University
James C. McCann Professor of History, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, Northwestern University; MA, PhD, Michigan State University
Anita Patterson Associate Professor of English, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, Harvard College; MA, PhD, Harvard University
James Pritchett Associate Professor of Anthropology, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, Ohio State University; AM, PhD, Harvard University
Jeremy Yudkin Associate Professor of Music, College of Fine Arts. BA, MA, University of Cambridge (England); PhD, Stanford University
Emeriti
Adelaide M. Cromwell Professor Emerita of Sociology, College of Arts & Sciences. AB, Smith College; AM, University of Pennsylvania; PhD, Harvard University
James E. Teele Professor Emeritus of Sociology, College of Arts & Sciences. BA, Virginia Union University; MA, PhD, New York University
The Graduate Program
The African American Studies Program explores the African American experience in global and comparative perspective. It trains students in the research techniques needed to uncover connections between African descent populations and other ethnic, racial, national, and cultural groups around the world and within the United States. It encourages critical examination of the racial, ethnic, gender, national, and cultural categories in which we have been taught to think. Our aim is to develop appreciation of the African American impact on world history and national development and understanding of global and cross-cultural influences on African Americans. Our ultimate mission is to foster awareness of our common humanity, respect for our differences, and openness to cross-cultural understanding.
For further information contact the program office at 138 Mountfort Street, Brookline, MA 02446; 617-353-2795; afam@bu.edu; www.bu.edu/afam.
MA in African American Studies
The Master of Arts degree program is focused on building the conceptual, theoretical, and research skills that will allow students to become life-long critical investigators of cross-cultural interaction. While our focus is on the African American experience, our program approaches that experience in the context of global processes and in terms of its relationship to other groups such as Latinos, Asians, European Americans, Africans, and Native Americans.
Admissions Tests and Prerequisites Candidates for the Master of Arts in African American Studies must hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution. Because of the broad focus of this program, there are no specific undergraduate concentration requirements except that the student must have completed some study in both the humanities and the social sciences. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Tests are required of all applicants.
Course Requirements The graduate program is centered on the production of two major research papers, one of which must be orally defended during the last semester in residence. Each paper must be completed as part of the coursework for a research colloquium. Both papers should not be undertaken during the same semester. Colloquia are designed to provide the intellectual environment and the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological guidance needed for graduate level research and writing. The course requirements for the master’s degree in African American Studies consist of GRS AA 871 African American History and CAS AA 580 The History of Racial Thought, plus six additional courses in African American Studies, for a total of eight courses or thirty-two credit hours.
Language Requirement for the MA Each student who has not previously completed at least two years of study in one foreign language at the undergraduate level or the equivalent must make up the deficiency through coursework or examination.
Doctoral Work in African American Studies Although Boston University does not currently offer a PhD major in African American Studies, it is possible to pursue a concentration within a related PhD program, such as History or American & New England Studies.
Courses
CAS AA 501 Topics in African American Literature
Topic for Fall 2008: Political Activism and African American Literature. Examines representations of politics in African American literature, along with the historical impact of U.S. political movements on the tradition’s forms and themes. Authors include Wheatley, Equiano, Douglass, Delany, Hopkins, Washington, Du Bois, Garvey, Wright, Giovanni, and Lorde. Also offered as EN 588. Jarrett. 4 cr, 1st sem.CAS AA 502 Topics in African American Literature
Two topics are offered Spring 2009. Students may take either or both for credit. Section A1: Twentieth-Century African American Novel. Major works from the Harlem Renaissance, Realism, Modernism, the Black Arts Movement, and the contemporary period. Authors include Jean Toomer, Nella Larsen, Wallace Thurman, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, John Wideman, and Toni Morrison. Also offered as CAS EN 380. Boelcskevy. 4 cr, 2nd sem. Section B1: Racial Uplift. We will examine the ideology of racial uplift in nineteenth-century African American literature, focusing on the themes of literacy, civilization, political constituency, class, gender, and the black intelligentsia. Also offered as EN 587. Jarrett. 4 cr, 2nd sem.CAS AA 504 African American and Asian American Women Writers
Prereq: sophomore standing. Cross-cultural comparison of African American and Asian American women writers. Explores and evaluates the cultural impact of their work, and looks at how these two groups bound together by “otherness” pursue the theme of conflicting cultures. Also offered as CAS EN 371. Boeleskevy. 4 cr, 1st sem.CAS AA 505 Black Community and Social Change
Not offered 2008/2009CAS AA 507 Literature of the Harlem Renaissance
A study of the major writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Explores how their work proclaimed a renewed sense of cultural pride and how they contributed to the destruction of racial and cultural barriers in American society. Also offered as CAS EN 377. Boeleskevy. 4 cr, 1st sem.CAS AA 510 Afro-American Drama
A study of African American and Afro-Caribbean dramatic literature. Focus on the work of August Wilson, Lorraine Hansberry, Aimé Césaire, and Derek Walcott in the context of Western drama. Richardson. 4 cr, 1st sem.CAS AA 514 Comparative Slavery
Prereq: junior standing. The institution of slavery in history with a special focus on slavery and the slave trade in Africa and the Americas in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Attention to cultural and political issues as well as economic and social aspects of slavery. Also offered as CAS HI 584. Thornton. 4 cr, 1st sem.CAS AA 537 Studies in West Indian Literature: Caribbean Fiction
Not offered 2008/2009CAS AA 538 Studies in West Indian Literature: Caribbean Poetry
A study of twentieth-century Caribbean poetry written in English(es). Anthologies and major figures (Walcott, Braithwaite, Goodison, Roach). Consideration of the poet in a small society, creole vs. standard language, oral vs. literate norms, relations to diverse literary traditions. Also offered as CAS EN 586. Breiner. 4 cr, 1st sem.CAS AA 559 Reckoning with the Past: Reparations and Justice in Comparative Perspective
Not offered 2008/2009CAS AA 563 Race and the Development of the American Economy in Global Perspective
Not offered 2008/2009CAS AA 564 From Slavery to Freedom: Abolition in Comparative Perspective
Not offered 2008/2009CAS AA 569 African American Economic History
Not offered 2008/2009CAS AA 571 African American Art
Prereq: junior standing. Studies African American art and craft production from the early nineteenth century to the present against the background of the diaspora, reconstruction, and the modernist movements of the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Also offered as CAS AH 571. Hills. 4 cr, 2nd sem.CAS AA 580 The History of Racial Thought
Study of racial thinking and feeling in Europe and the United States since the fifteenth century. Racial thinking in the context of Western encounters with non-European people and Jews; its relation to social, economic, cultural, and political trends. Also offered as CAS HI 580. Richardson. 4 cr, 2nd semCAS AA 583 Black Radical Thought
Black radical thought in America, Europe, and Africa since the eighteenth century through writings of abolitionists, leaders of revolutions and liberation movements, and Black socialists. Emphasizes the global nature of the “Black World” and its role in world history. Also offered as CAS HI 583. Blakely. 4 cr, 1st sem.CAS AA 586 African Americans Abroad
Develops awareness of the global nature of the African American experience through study of Black Americans’ involvement in aspects of world development besides slavery and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Focus on Europe and the Americas; some attention to Africa and Asia. Also offered as CAS HI 586. Blakely. 4 cr, 2nd sem.CAS AA 588 Women, Power, and Culture in Africa
Not offered 2008/2009CAS AA 590 The World and the West
Prereq: consent of instructor. Explores relations between the West and the Third World from 1850, focusing on national and cultural movements in the Third World, and places the African American struggle for freedom in the United States in global and comparative perspective. Also offered as CAS HI 590. Richardson. 4 cr, 1st sem.GRS AA 716 African Diaspora Arts in the Americas
Not offered 2008/2009GRS AA 871 African American History
The history of African Americans from African origins to present time; consideration of slavery, reconstruction, and ethnic relations from the colonial era to our own time. Also offered as GRS HI 871. Heywood. 4 cr, 1st sem.GRS AA 885 Atlantic History
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. Also offered as GRS HI 885. Thornton. 4 cr, 2nd sem.Directed Study
GRS AA 901, 902 Directed Study in African American Studies
Prereq: consent of instructor. 4 cr.Related Courses
In addition, unlisted professional courses may be selected for graduate credit as part of the African American Studies Program in consultation with the director.
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9 January 2009
Boston University
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