Spring 2026 Undergraduate Courses

Introduction to African American Literature

CAS AA 103 – Arianna James

Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (WR 120 or equivalent) – What is the African American literary tradition? In this course, we will read poetry, slave narratives, essays, speeches, tales, short stories, and novels and consider how culture, politics, and history shape African American literature. 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. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, 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.

Black Power in the Classroom: The History of Black Studies

CAS AA 112 – Chad Williams

Centers Black experiences, cultures, knowledge production and identity formation in the United States and in the African Diaspora across time and space. Examines and traces the genealogies of Black Studies as a discipline: its political, ideological, and practical foundations on college campuses and in communities. Also explores earlier traditions and contemporary work in Black radical thought and activism that lay the groundwork for and build on the founding principles of Black Studies by mobilizing an intersectional and diasporic lens. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I, Research and Information Literacy.

Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

CAS AA 207 – Saida Grundy

Examines the fundamental theoretical and empirical approaches regarding race/ethnicity and the current state of race relations in the U.S. that explore both contemporary social problems. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, The Individual in Community, Research and Information Literacy.

African Americans in Global Perspective

CAS AA 234 – Joyce Hope Scott

A study of how chattel slavery in the Americas led to racialization as a primary tool in the creation of American society and New World capitalism. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.

African Diaspora Archaeology

CAS AA 301 – Andreanna Cunningham

Introduction to the archaeology of the African diaspora, the global displacement of African people and their descendants. Reviews findings, methodology, and theory around key burial contexts. Emphasis on shifting dialogues, such as human remains stewardship, community engagement, and reburial. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas Critical Thinking, Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.

Civil Rights History

CAS AA 310 – Brianna Tafolla Riviere

This course examines the U.S. Civil Rights and the struggle for black freedom movements. From the late nineteenth century through the twenty-first century, we consider events, organizations, “leaders” and organizers, legal campaigns, and political protests to answer the questions: What were the race, class, and gender dynamics within the movements? What were the changing definitions of freedom? The course treats the movement’s roots, goals, ideologies, and cultures, and includes a comparison of the struggles for equal rights of Mexican Americans, Native Americans, LGBT folks, and other groups. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Historical Consciousness, Teamwork/Collaboration.

African Diaspora Arts in the Americas

CAS AA 316 – Nicole Smythe-Johnson

This course introduces arts of the African diaspora in the Caribbean, South America, and the United States by examining aesthetic, religious, and philosophical systems. Examines artistic forms including Santería altars, Haitian architecture, Caribbean masquerading, and contemporary African-American artists.

Colonialism in Africa

CAS AA 348 – Linda Heywood

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.

Religion in the Digital Age

CAS AA 356 – Margarita Guillory

Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (CAS WR 120 or equivalent) – 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.

Religion in Pre-Colonial Africa

CAS AA 382 – John Thornton

The study of the development of religious traditions in Africa during the period prior to European colonialism. An emphasis on both indigenous religions and the growth and spread of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the continent as a whole. Also offered as CAS HI 349 and CAS RN 382. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness.

Transnational Black Radicalism from the 19th Century to the Present

CAS AA 388 – Joyce Hope Scott

Explores black cultural and political movements and examines how they interacted in ways that establish ideas crucial to our contemporary moment through readings in literature and history, film and popular culture productions. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.

Seminar: Ethnic, Race, and Minority Relations

CAS AA 408 – Saida Grundy

Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAA207 OR CASSO207) or consent of instructor. – Formation and position of ethnic minorities in the United States, including cross-group comparisons from England, Africa, and other parts of the world. Readings and field experience.

African Diaspora in the Americas

CAS AA 489 – Linda Heywood

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.

The Black Pacific: Feminisms and Futurities

CAS AA 500 – Jewel Pereya

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.

Topics in African American Literature

Undergraduate Prerequisites: two previous literature courses or junior or senior standing. – Topic for Fall 2022: Tracking Changes in the Twentieth-Century African American Novel: Negotiations of Genre and Gender. Readings of Slave Narratives and Neo Slave Narratives, and the Urban Novel. Authors include Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and Walter Mosley.

CAS AA 502 – Kelsey Desir

Labor, Sexuality, & Resistance in the Afro-Atlantic World

CAS AA 514 – John Thornton

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.

The Life, Times, & Work of W.E.B DuBois

CAS HI 500 B1 – Chad Williams

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.

Topics in Art and Society: Black Feminist Art & Performance

CAS AH 527 B1 – Nicole Smythe-Johnson

This course explores the work of ten Black women artists, coupled with theoretical and critical texts written primarily by Black women thinkers. It is structured as a semester long reading group. Each week, students will give presentations on a single artwork and facilitate discussion of the assigned readings. Over the semester, students will 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?