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The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • CAS AA 430: Black American Cinema
    A survey of important genres and movements in the history of Black American cinema, with possible focus on race films, civil rights dramas, horror and Blaxploitation films, postcolonial cinema, the LA Rebellion school, Black independent film, afrofuturism, and/or more. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • The Individual in Community
  • CAS AA 488: Critical Studies in African American Literature
    Undergrad prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. Graduate prerequisites: graduate standing. - Topic for Fall 2024; Gender and Sexuality in the Neo-slave Narrative. Examines how neo-slave narratives intervene in the sexual and gendered silences of slave narratives and the power relations that produced them. Students who are hesitant to study depictions of sexual violence might consider taking another course.
  • CAS AA 489: The African Diaspora in the Americas
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - History of peoples of African descent in the Americas after end of slavery from an international framework. Examines development of racial categories, emergence of national identities in wake of the wars of independence, diverse Black communities in the twentieth century. Also offered as CAS HI 489.
  • CAS AA 490: Blacks and Asians: Encounters Through Time and Space
    Comparative exploration of how artists and activists of African descent and those of Asian descent, such as Tomiyama Takeo, James Baldwin, Octavia Butler and Takeuchi Yoshimi struggled against global white supremacy and imagined and invented new modes of human liberation. Effective Fall 2026, this course fulfills a single requirement in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation, Historical Consciousness.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS AA 500: Topics in African American Studies
    May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Topic for Spring 2026: The Black Pacific: Feminisms and Futurities. This course engages theories and debates in emerging studies of the “Black Pacific” by directing conversation between diasporic African American, Asian American, and Pacific Islander literature, art, and cultural productions from the twentieth century to the present.
  • CAS AA 502: Topics in African American Literature
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - Topic for Spring 2026: Black Feminist Theory. Explores the dynamic nature of Black feminist theory. In doing so, we trouble the creative-critical divide by examining how objects of expression—novels, poems, visual art—function as sites of Black feminist theorizing in tandem with what is traditionally recognized as theory. By analyzing the diverse methodological approaches of the assigned texts, we grapple with the myriad ways Black feminist knowledge is produced.
  • CAS AA 507: Literature of the Harlem Renaissance
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., EN 120 or WR 100 or WR 120). - An exploration of the literature of the "New Negro Renaissance" or, more popularly, the Harlem Renaissance, 1919-1935. Discussions of essays, fiction, and poetry, three special lectures on the stage, the music, and the visual arts of the Harlem Renaissance. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration, Critical Thinking. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS AA 514: Labor, Sexuality, and Resistance in the Afro-Atlantic World
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing. - The role of slavery in shaping the society and culture of the Afro-Atlantic world, highlighting the role of labor, the sexual economy of slave regimes, and the various strategies of resistance deployed by enslaved people. Also offered as CAS HI 584. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS AA 516: The Life, Times and Work of W. E. B. Du Bois
    Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or WR 120), History, African American and Black Diaspora Studies major or minor or consent of instructor. - Traces the life, intellectual career, and dominant themes animating the art and activism of W. E. B. Du Bois. Historically contextualizes Du Bois and his work to demonstrate his importance to Black Studies and African diasporic history. Effective Fall 2026, this course fulfills a single requirement in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Historical Consciousness, Writing-Intensive Course.
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS AA 523: Race, Ethnicity, and Childhood in US History
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar. - The history of childhood in US History intersects with the interdisciplinary area of childhood studies. Within that, the histories of Black children and children of ethnic minorities and historically marginalized young people is a burgeoning subfield. This course examines how identities inclusive of (and structural inequities associated with) race, ethnicity, gender, social class, and sexuality have differently affected the lives and experiences of young people in the United States from the colonial period through to the 21st century. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness (HCO), Creativity/Innovation.
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS AA 545: Seminar: Black Feminist Art and Performance
    Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or WR 120). - This course explores the work of eleven Black femme artists, coupled with theoretical and critical texts written primarily by Black femme thinkers. It is structured as a semester long reading group. Each week, students give presentations on a single artwork and facilitate discussion of the assigned readings. Over the semester, students debate what Black feminism is, and what makes a work of art or set of ideas Black feminist. Is it an identity, a method, an interpretive frame?
  • CAS AA 571: Problems of African Diaspora Art History
    This course examines the visual life of the African Diaspora. It challenges students to explore diaspora, Black studies and postcolonial studies’ bearing on aesthetic concerns, and introduces key debates shaping the sub-field of African Diaspora Art History.
  • CAS AA 580: White Supremacist Thought: Self, Culture and Society since the 18th Century
    Within a global and comparative context, this course explores the simultaneous, mutualistically symbiotic emergence and sustained codependent development of autonomous individuality and white supremacy in western Europe and the United States from the 18th century to the present day.
  • CAS AA 591: Black Thought: Literary and Cultural Criticism in the African Diaspora
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. - An introduction to the cultural criticism of African-America and the Black Diaspora. This ranges from literary, theoretical and public conversations centered on race, and interrelated issues such as gender, sex, and migration. The course hones in on specific trends, themes, topics and characteristics of this work and assesses its relationship to historical and contemporary political and social contexts.
  • CAS AH 111: Pyramids to Cathedrals: An Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Art
    A chronological examination of the fundamentals of art and architectural history, this course introduces students to major monuments and works of art from antiquity to the middle ages in their social, religious and historical contexts. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS AH 112: Introduction to Art in Europe and the United States from the Renaissance to Post- Modernism
    Major monuments and artists in Europe and the United States from the Renaissance to Post-Modernism. Sequential development of major styles in architecture, sculpture, painting, and photography. Relationship of visual art to social and cultural forces. Effective Spring 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS AH 113: Arts and Monuments of Asia
    An introduction to the art and architecture of Asia from the earliest times to the present. Course addresses not only important cultural monuments but also portable art objects within museum collections. Course examines a wide range of media, including ink painting, ceramics, textiles, photography, as well as major architectural projects, monuments, and built environments. It aims to challenge and rethink monolithic definitions of "Asian art" by allowing students to understand the complex and sophisticated processes of interregional and global cultural exchange. Effective Spring 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • CAS AH 114: Kongo to Cuba: Art, Exchange, and Self-Determination in Africa and Latin America
    This course introduces the arts of Africa and Latin America. It explores the rich diversity of each continent's artistic production and highlights the impact of their intertwining histories on visual expression in the wake of transcontinental exchange and globalization. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration, Critical Thinking.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Critical Thinking
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS AH 201: Understanding Architecture
    Introduces a range of approaches to understanding architecture in an historical perspective. Learn how architects and others have imagined buildings, landscapes, and cities in relation to politics, society, nature, history, and technology, focused upon European and American architecture from 1400 to the present. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS AH 220: Islamic Art and Architecture
    Examines key monuments of Islamic art and architecture within their historical and cultural context, and emphasizes the diversity within the visual cultures of the Islamic world. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Research and Information Literacy

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