Fall Semester 2014
Course Offerings that Fulfill
Africana Studies Requirements
AFST 201-502: Introduction to Africana Studies
Instructor: Dr. Mikko Tuhkanen
MWF 1:50-2:40 p.m., HELD 120
Introduction to the field of Africana Studies: interdisciplinary approach drawing from history,
philosophy, sociology, political studies, literature and performance studies; explores the African
foundational relationship to and connections with its diaspora populations; covers Africa, the
United States, the Caribbean, Europe and South America.
AFST 252-500 / PHIL 252-500: Introduction to Hip Hop Philosophy
Instructor: Dr. Tommy Curry
MWF 11:30-12:20 p.m., YMCA 115
This course is the student’s introduction to various philosophical conceptualizations of the
human condition. The objective of this course is to encourage students to become critical
advocates of their own life circumstances through the experimental application of various
cultural and political lenses. As with Hip-Hop, the lessons learned from these readings will aid
students in becoming proactive thinkers that are willing to challenge, resist, and when necessary
defend the various perspectives that arise from the political, ethical, and personal burdens that
accompany their individual freedom and societal responsibilities.
AFST 302-500: Gateway Course for Minor - Issues in Africana Studies
Instructor: Dr. Adrienne Carter-Sowell
TR 12:45-2:00 p.m., PSYC 336
This course serves as the gateway in the series of courses offered for the minor in Africana
Studies and is intended to cultivate an awareness of the issues surrounding Africana Studies. As
such, its purpose is twofold: First, the course should provide a thorough introduction to the
discipline of Africana Studies. For example, students will gain an understanding of the dominant
theories in Africana Studies, such as Afrocentrism and Black Atlanticism, postcolonial studies,
critical race theories, and feminist theories. Second, the course will give students the opportunity
to become conversant with a wide array of special topics and to examine the multifarious
concepts and debates that surround the field. Using a multi‐disciplinary approach, students will
study history, sociology, political studies, economics, psychology, and creative production across
the African diaspora. Such a study would allow students to gain familiarity with the major
cultural traditions and various cultural forms arising from African diasporic communities.
Africana Studies Program Courses for Fall Semester 2011
AFST 317-501 / SOCI 317-501: Racial and Ethnic Relations
Instructor: Dr. Arthur Sakamoto
TR 2:20-3:35 p.m., CHEN 102
AFST 317-502 / SOCI 317-502: Racial and Ethnic Relations
Instructor: Dr. Wendy Moore
TR 2:20-3:35 p.m., ACAD 308
AFST 317-503 / SOCI 317-502: Racial and Ethnic Relations
Instructor: Zinobia Chara Bennefield
MWF 10:20-11:10 a.m., HECC 204
AFST 317-504 / SOCI 317-504: Racial and Ethnic Relations
Instructor: Michael Robert Regan
MWF 1:50-2:40 p.m., HECC 204
The objective of this course is to get the student to think critically about race, racial categories,
and racial inequality in the United States. The course will examine the concept and meaning of
race and ethnicity and the dynamics of racial oppression and privilege. We will discuss dominant
sociological theories on U.S. race relations and critically explore the sociological meanings of
terms that get used in popular discourse like prejudice, discrimination, and racism. We will also
look at historical and legal constructions of race and racial hierarchy in the U.S., and analyze the
historical experiences of different racial groups through the lens of the theoretical frameworks
we have discussed at the beginning of the course. Finally, we will explore the institutional
dynamics of race and racial inequality in various United States institutions, examining the ways
in which different racial groups have experienced racial oppression through structural and
institutional racism. Throughout the course we will look critically at race privilege, and we will
examine the ways that racial privilege has been negotiated and contested throughout U.S. history.
AFST 323-500 / SOCI 323-500: Sociology of African Americans
Instructor: Dr. Reuben May
MWF 8:00-8:50 a.m., HECC 201
This course examines sociological perspectives as they pertain to Black Americans. We will
explore the nexus between historical and contemporary situations of African Americans in the
United States in an attempt to unearth the various ways in which these strands of thought
intersect at both individual and institutional levels. The ultimate goal of this course is to expose
the student to scholarly research and thinking in order to undergird their understanding of Black
Americans in the 21st Century. We will achieve this goal through a variety of lectures,
discussion, and readings.
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Africana Studies Program Courses for Fall Semester 2011
AFST 324-500 / SOCI 319-500: Africana Social Studies: Sociology of Sport
Instructor: Dr. Reuben May
MWF 9:10-10:00 a.m., HECC 204
This course will explore the structural and cultural relationship of sport to society. Particular
attention will be given to issues of race, gender, sexuality, economics, and politics as they relate
to sport. We will explore the historical development of sport in America and the ways in which it
parallels the growth and development of other social institutions (e.g., schools). Throughout the
course we will also explore contemporary issues in sport and society. The ultimate goal of this
course is to provide students a sociological understanding of sport that will complement their
everyday knowledge of sport. This goal will be achieved through a mixture of lectures,
discussions, and written examinations.
AFST 327-500 / PERF 327-500 / MUSC 327-500: Popular Musics in the African Diaspora
Instructor: Dr. David Donkor
TR 3:35-5:10 p.m., RICH 101
Examines a range of popular musics from the 20th century that have emerged in conjunction with
the historical global spread of peoples and cultures from the African continent. We will begin
the course by developing a sense of the interdisciplinary connections between Ethnomusicology,
Cultural Studies, African American Studies and Performance Studies that shape this course. We
will survey concepts that will be key to our exploration, such as Diaspora, popular culture,
migration, diffusion, identity, ethnicity, race, hybridity and creolization. Then with a view of the
African Diaspora as a product and process of circum-Atlantic flows (or transatlantic circulations)
we will do the following: we will examine the African continental heritage and the early “New
World” experiences of slavery; popular musics in the United States and the Caribbean
(particularly Jamaica and Trinidad); and then the Diasporic reconnections with the African
continent. Musical forms/styles in our focus will include blues, jazz, soul, r&b, mento, ska,
rocksteady, reggae, dancehall, calypso, soca, highlife, hip-life and Afrobeat. Approaches to these
will be historical, cultural and critical/political.
AFST 339-500 / ENGL 339-500: African-American Literature Post - 1930
Instructor: Dr. Larry Oliver
TR 11:10-12:25, PETR 104
This section of English 339 is designed to be a survey course on African American literature
from the mid-Thirties (the end of the Harlem Renaissance) until the present. Focusing on the
periods of Realism, the Black Aesthetic (Arts) Movement, and Postmodernism, particular
emphasis will be given to the changing role of the African American writer. The literature
selected interrogates the gaps between American ideals and American socioeconomic practices
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Africana Studies Program Courses for Fall Semester 2011
when dealing with African American subjects. Through the genres of the satirical novel, the
neo-slave narrative, and the comic/graphic novel, students will interrogate topics such as
authentic blackness, class, black sexuality, feminism, black masculinity.
AFST 352-500 / PHIL 352-500: Africana Philosophy
Instructor: Dr. Tommy Curry
MW 4:10-5:25 MILS 213
Presentation of the seminal ideas of several influential Africana thinkers; recovery of the
neglected traditions in which these thinkers locate themselves.
AFST 357-500 / HIST 357-500: Out of Africa
Instructor: Dr. Violet Johnson
MWF 1:50-2:40 GLAS 008
History and cultures of the peoples of the African Diaspora from the fourteenth through the
nineteenth centuries; social, political, and economic impact on Africa, the Americas, Europe, and
the Arab World; emphasis on race, gender, identity, and migration.
AFST 391-500: Africana Feminisms: Psychology of Women of Color
Instructor: Dr. Adrienne Carter-Sowell
TR 2:20-3:35 PSYC 336
Interdisciplinary theories to study the unique yet insectional experiences of women from
different racial groups, ethnicities, nationalities, and cultural backgrounds. Scholarly research
from the diversity science field. Contemporary topics that have developed in a global context;
examination of the complex issues which affect women of color across the lifespan.
AFST 481-500 changed to AFST 485-500: Senior Seminar
Instructor: Dr. Phia Salter
MW 4:10-5:25 p.m., PSYC 284
Comparative studies of slave societies in the modern world; history and analysis of African
American feminism; comparative analyses of the social, political, and economic condition of
African Americans and other African peoples of the diaspora.
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Africana Studies Program Courses for Fall Semester 2011
AFST 489-500: SPTP: New African Cinemas
Instructor: Dr. Carmela Garritano
MWF 11:30-12:20 EDCT 503
The African cinematic landscape has changed in dramatic ways in the last decade; currently, it is
made up of a diversity of creative filmmaking practices from across the continent and the
diaspora, including the thriving Nigerian commercial industry, known popularly as Nollywood;
the art cinema of African auteurs such as John Akomfrah, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Fanta Régina
Nacro, and Abderrahmane Sisako; and film by a group of young African filmmakers concerned
with contemporary political issues, such as environmental sustainability, globalization, and
sexuality. This seminar will focus on these so-called new African cinemas. We will examine its
aesthetic and narrative qualities and investigate the structural and material conditions that sustain
it. An engaging and interdisciplinary list of readings, drawn from film criticism and theory,
media studies, anthropology, history, and globalization studies, will facilitate our study.
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