Week 1:
What is African American
Studies?
African American Studies
40 A
Marable: Black Studies
and the Racial Mountain
Why is the Black intellectual
tradition an important part of
African American Studies?
Three Aspects
of the Black Intellectual Tradition
1. Descriptive- spoken from the perspective
of Black people.
2. Corrective- educated the mis-educated
of every racial group.
3. Prescriptive- theorized, offered strategies
for, proposed tactics for the eradication
of racism.
Marable: Black Studies
and the Racial Mountain
• Why does African American Studies
present a challenge to many White
educational institutions?
• Why did the Black intellectual tradition
begin in Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs)?
Marable: Black Studies
and the Racial Mountain
• What are the two major approaches to
African American studies in the academy?
• What are the differences between them?
• What alternative does Marable offer?
Carter G. Woodson
Key Questions:
1. Who is Carter G. Woodson?
2. Why does Woodson argue that the Negro is
mis-educated?
3. Why does Woodson suggest that Black people
study slavery and other aspects of Black
history?
4. What solution does the Association for the
Study of Negro Life and History have for the
race problem?
Hull and Smith: The Politics of Black
Women’s Studies (1979)
• Why do the authors argue that Black
Women's Studies is a political term?
• What are the origins of Black Women's
Studies?
• Why is Black studies or Women's Studies
not enough? Why a separate discipline?
• What are challenges to Black Women
Studies in universities and colleges?
You can take Black Women’s
Studies Courses at UCI!
• Arlene Keizer, Ph.D.
Department of English
• Bridget R. Cooks, Ph.D.
Program in African American Studies and
Department of Art History
• Belinda Robnett, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology
• Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Ph.D.
Program in African American Studies
• Jessica Millward, Ph.D.
Department of History
• Katherine Tate, Ph.D.
Department of Political Science
Marable: Black Studies,
Multiculturalism and the Future of
American Education
Key Concepts:
• African American Studies
• Multicultural democracy
• Culture
• Color blindness
• Conspiracy of silence
• Mutual transformation
Four types of Multiculturalism
1.
2.
3.
4.
Corporate
Liberal
Afrocentrism
Radical democratic multiculturalism