Courses

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.

• 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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 AA 616: Religion, Race, and Climate Change
  A multi-disciplinary course delving into the influence of religion and race on human behavior and non-human, planetary realities at local and global scales. It focuses on the historical, systemic, and societal implications associated with ongoing climate change debates. Effective Fall 2024 fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry I.
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  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Social Inquiry I
• CAS AA 630: 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.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • The Individual in Community
• CAS AA 656: Religion in the Digital Age
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR120) - How has technology impacted religion' This hands-on course explores how digital technologies like the Internet, social media, gaming, and artificial intelligence have changed the way that people think about religion. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Writing-Intensive Course, Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS AA 683: African Diaspora Religions
  This course introduces students to religions of the African Diaspora, with a specific focus on the Caribbean and the Americas. Religious traditions such as Africanized Christianity, Cuban Santería, Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Candomblé, and African American Spiritualism will be explored. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Historical Consciousness
  • The Individual in Community
  • Research and Information Literacy
• CAS AA 688: 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 804: Seminar: The Family
  Explores the rise of "modern" families and the plurality of contemporary family forms and processes including gay and lesbian families and new reproductive technologies. Particular attention to social and economic inequalities and their implications for family life. Also offered as GRS SO 804.
• CAS AA 808: Seminar: Ethnic, Race, and Minority Relations
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing and at least two previous sociology courses, at least one of which must be CASSO 207; or consent of instructor. This course critically surveys advanced theoretical and empirical approaches to the sociological study of race and racism in the U.S. and the world.
• CAS AA 871: Seminar in African American History
  Graduate seminar in African American history surveys shifts in historiography in the last 25 years in slavery studies, Black women's, Black youth history, Great Migration, the histories of racial justice and coalitional movements (CR, BP, BLM), and the recent turn in carceral studies.
• CAS AH 500: Topics in History of Art & Architecture
  May be repeated for credit as topics change. Two topics are offered Spring 2026. Section A1: Global History of Camps: 19th Century to the Present. The image of the camp dominates contemporary representations. This course examines this spatial device from a global historical perspective, tracing a genealogy from colonial camps, Nazi camps, Soviet gulags, US internment camps to contemporary detention camps, refugee camps, border camps. Section B1: Pigments and Prisms: Histories of Color in North American Art. This course positions color as a framework to examine artworks and artistic practices within North America. Through case studies, students consider color and its various regional, historical, cultural, and social contexts. Topics include color theory, technology, pigments, dyes, and minerals.
• CAS AH 502: Practicum in Museum Studies
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of the Director of Museum Studies, and stamped approval; prior museum/gallery experience an asset. - Graduate Prerequisites: consent of Director of Museum Studies, and stamped approval; prior mus eum/gallery experience an asset. Graduate internships must be taken in a non-profit institution in order to count for credit. - Centered on an internship, which must comprise a supervised project approved in advance by the Director of Museum Studies. Stamped approval prior to the internship is necessary for registration in the course. Internships in Boston-area museums, galleries, historical agencies, and houses arranged for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, 10-12 hours per week (150 hours per semester) at the host institution, with written report.