College of Arts and Sciences
African American Studies
CoursesDirector Ronald K. Richardson
Professors Blakely, Breiner, Crawford, Heywood, Margo, Thornton
Associate Professor Richardson
Visiting Assistant Professor Boelcskevy
Professors Emeriti Cromwell, Teele
The African American Studies Program explores the African American experience in global and comparative perspective. Courses are designed to make students aware of the connections between Americans of African descent, other Americans, and global populations. Critical investigation of race, ethnicity, and other forms of collective identity is a central concern of the program.
Minor Concentration in African American Studies
The minor concentration in African American Studies provides an introduction to the global study of the African American experience and to various forms of collective identity such as race and ethnicity.
The minor concentration requires six courses, completed with a grade of C or higher: CAS AA 371 African American History, CAS AA 580 The History of Racial Thought, and four additional courses in African American Studies.
Courses
CAS AA 207 Introduction to Ethnic, Race, and Minority Relations
Social definition of race and ethnicity. The adjustment of different ethnic groups and their impact upon U.S. social life. How prejudice and discrimination create class identities and how caste relations have affected patterns of integration during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Also offered as CAS SO 207. Stone, Kibria, Monti. 4 cr, either sem.
CAS AA 304 Introduction to African American Women Writers
Surveys the writings of African American women writers from slavery to the present and explores the African American female literary tradition in the context of black history and culture. Also offered as CAS EN 370. Boelcskevy. 4 cr, 2nd sem.
CAS AA 310 History of the Civil Rights Movement
Not offered 2007/2008
CAS AA 316 African Diaspora Arts in the Americas
Not offered 2007/2008
CAS AA 363 Race and the Development of the American Economy: A Global Perspective
Prereq: CAS EC 101 or consent of intructor. Surveys the economic history of African Americans within the context of the development of the American and global economies. Topics include the economics of slav-ery; race and industrialization; the Great Migration; anti-discrimination legislation; and the historical origins of contemporary racial inequalities. Also offered as CAS EC 363. Margo. 4 cr, 2nd sem.
CAS AA 371 African American History
Prereq: sophomore standing. 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 CAS HI 371. Heywood. 4 cr, 1st sem.
CAS AA 385 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 CAS HI 385. Thornton. 4 cr, 2nd sem.
CAS AA 396 State and Commerce in Atlantic Africa, 1450–1850
Examines—both by region and across the larger Atlantic area—the ways that overseas commerce, in particular the slave trade, interacted with and was shaped by African politics and economic variables. Also offered as CAS HI 396. Thornton. 4 cr, 2nd sem.
CAS AA 489 The African Diaspora in the Americas
Prereq: consent of instructor. Uses historical studies, autobiographical and fictional texts, films, and music by and about Africans for a thematic and chronological exploration of the origin and transformation of African Diaspora communities in the Americas from the period of the Atlantic slave trade to the present. Also offered as CAS HI 489. Heywood. 4 cr, 2nd sem.
CAS AA 491, 492 Directed Study in African American Studies
Prereq: consent of director. 4 cr, 1st & 2nd sem.
CAS AA 502 Topics in African American Literature
Topic for Fall 2007: Literacy and African American Literature. Focuses on the classic theme of literacy in African American literature, with an emphasis on stories of black physical and intellectual freedom, socio-cultural awareness, and political empowerment. Also offered as CAS EN 587. Jarrett. 4 cr, 1st 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. Boelcskevy. 4 cr, 1st sem.
CAS AA 505 Black Community and Social Change
Not offered 2007/2008
CAS AA 507 Literature of the Harlem Renaissance
Prereq: junior standing and consent of instructor. A study of the major writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Explores how they proclaimed a renewal of racial consciousness and cultural pride, and how they challenged racial and cultural barriers in American society. Also offered as CAS EN 377. Boelcskevy. 4 cr, 1st sem.
CAS AA 514 Comparative Slavery
Prereq: junior or senior 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 2007/2008
CAS AA 559 Reckoning with the Past: Reparations and Justice in Comparative Perspective
The debate about reparations for slavery and Jim Crow segregation in the United States examined critically as conversation about, and movement for, retrospective justice. Includes discussion of war crimes tribunals and truth commissions. Also offered as CAS PO 559. Crawford. 4 cr, 1st sem.
CAS AA 563 Race and the Development of the American Economy: A Global Perspective
Prereq: CAS EC 101 or consent of instructor. Surveys the economic history of African Americans within the context of the development of the American and global economies. Topics include the economics of slavery; race and industrialization; the Great Migration; anti-discrimination legislation; and the historical origins of contemporary racial inequalities. Also offered as CAS EC 563. Margo. 4 cr, 2nd sem.
CAS AA 564 From Slavery to Freedom: Abolition in Comparative Perspective
How did legalized slavery, a world-wide practice for thousands of years, end? The process of abolition in the Americas, Africa, and elsewhere is examined and compared to the later regulation of forced labor and to contemporary slavery. Also offered as CAS PO 564. Crawford. 4 cr, 2nd sem.
CAS AA 569 African American Economic History
Prereq: CAS EC 101 or EC 111 and junior standing. Introduction to current research in African American economic history. Topics include slavery and its aftermath, the long-term evolution of racial economic differences, segregation, voting rights, and anti-discrimination legislation. Also offered as CAS EC 569. Margo. 4 cr, 1st sem.
CAS AA 571 African American Art
Not offered 2007/2008
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, 1st sem.
CAS AA 583 Black Radical Thought
Not offered 2007/2008
CAS AA 586 African Americans Abroad
Not offered 2007/2008
CAS AA 588 Women, Power, and Culture in Africa
Prereq: consent of instructor. Understanding the role of women in African history. Topics include the Atlantic slave trade, power, religion, the economy, resistance movements, health, the state, and kinship. Emphasis on the period before independence. Also offered as CAS HI 588. Heywood. 4 cr, 2nd sem.
CAS 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, 2nd sem.
Related Courses
See courses listed in the History, Psychology, English, Sociology, Economics, and Religion sections on this site.
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