African and African American Studies

AFRICAAM 16N. African Americans and Social Movements. 3 Units.

Theory and research on African Americans' roles in post-Civil Rights, US social movements. Topics include women¿s right, LGBT rights, environmental movement, and contemporary political conservativism.
Same as: CSRE 16N, SOC 16N.

AFRICAAM 30. The Egyptians. 3-5 Units.

Overview of ancient Egyptian pasts, from predynastic times to Greco-Roman rule, roughly 3000 BCE to 30 BCE. Attention to archaeological sites and artifacts; workings of society; and cultural productions, both artistic and literary.
Same as: CLASSHIS 105.

AFRICAAM 40SI. Possessive Investment in Whiteness. 1-2 Units.

This course is designed to present students with an approachable but nuanced way of developing a notion of the construction and maintenance of whiteness in the United States. By focusing on George Lipsitz's book, we will work to challenge and refine the ideas of white privilege and race in the history and contemporary United States. By focusing on the single text, with some outside supplementary material, I do not contend that Lipsitz is providing the only truth, the class will look to complicate his notions and expand them with personal and outside understandings.

AFRICAAM 43. Introduction to African American Literature. 3-5 Units.

(English majors and others taking 5 units, register for 143.) African American literature from its earliest manifestations in the spirituals, trickster tales, and slave narratives to recent developments such as black feminist theory, postmodern fiction, and hip hop lyricism. We will engage some of the defining debates and phenomena within African American cultural history, including the status of realist aesthetics in black writing; the contested role of literature in black political struggle; the question of diaspora; the problem of intra-racial racism; and the emergence of black internationalism. Attuned to the invariably hybrid nature of this tradition, we will also devote attention to the discourse of the Enlightenment, modernist aesthetics, and the role of Marxism in black political and literary history.
Same as: AMSTUD 143, ENGLISH 43, ENGLISH 143.

AFRICAAM 45. Dance Improvisation Techniques and Strategies Lab: From Hip Hop to Contact. 1 Unitss.

By learning various dance improvisation forms across cultures, students will develop techniques to gain a deep understanding of generating movement from the inside-out, harnessing that potential for creating dances. Guest dancer/choreographer workshops and Dance Jams enhance the learning experience.
Same as: DANCE 45.

AFRICAAM 47. History of South Africa. 3 Units.

(Same as HISTORY 147. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 147.) Introduction, focusing particularly on the modern era. Topics include: precolonial African societies; European colonization; the impact of the mineral revolution; the evolution of African and Afrikaner nationalism; the rise and fall of the apartheid state; the politics of post-apartheid transformation; and the AIDS crisis.
Same as: HISTORY 47.

AFRICAAM 48Q. South Africa: Contested Transitions. 3 Units.

Preference to sophomores. The inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president in May 1994 marked the end of an era and a way of life for S. Africa. The changes have been dramatic, yet the legacies of racism and inequality persist. Focus: overlapping and sharply contested transitions. Who advocates and opposes change? Why? What are their historical and social roots and strategies? How do people reconstruct their society? Historical and current sources, including films, novels, and the Internet.
Same as: HISTORY 48Q.

AFRICAAM 50B. 19th Century America. 3 Units.

(Same as HISTORY 150B. History majors and others taking 5 units, register in 150B.) Territorial expansion, social change, and economic transformation. The causes and consequences of the Civil War. Topics include: urbanization and the market revolution; slavery and the Old South; sectional conflict; successes and failures of Reconstruction; and late 19th-century society and culture.
Same as: HISTORY 50B.

AFRICAAM 54N. African American Women's Lives. 3-4 Units.

Preference to freshmen. The everyday lives of African American women in 19th- and 20th-century America in comparative context of histories of European, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American women. Primary sources including personal journals, memoirs, music, literature, and film, and historical texts. Topics include slavery and emancipation, labor and leisure, consumer culture, social activism, changing gender roles, and the politics of sexuality.
Same as: HISTORY 54N.

AFRICAAM 64C. From Freedom to Freedom Now!: African American History, 1865-1965. 3 Units.

(Same as HISTORY 164C. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 164C.) Explores the working lives, social worlds, political ideologies and cultural expressions of African Americans from emancipation to the early civil rights era. Topics include: the transition from slavery to freedom, family life, work, culture, leisure patterns, resistance, migration and social activism. Draws largely on primary sources including autobiographies, memoirs, letters, personal journals, newspaper articles, pamphlets, speeches, literature, film and music.
Same as: HISTORY 64C.

AFRICAAM 75E. Black Cinema. 2 Units.

How filmmakers represent historical and cultural issues in Black cinema.

AFRICAAM 101F. Race & Technology. 1-2 Units.

The program in African & African American Studies will be offering a weekly lecture series to expose and introduce underrepresented groups to the world of technology by creating a space where the idea of starting can lead to a "Start Up". The AAAS "Race & Technology" course endeavors to de-code the language of technology creation, how to build a team, problem solving, pitching an idea, leveraging the work of all disciplines in creating an entrepreneurship mindset. Scholars and industry people will cover topics such as the digital divide, women in technology, and social media.
Same as: AFRICAAM 201F.

AFRICAAM 103. Dance, Text, Gesture: Performance and Composition. 1 Unitss.

Students practice, compose and combine the languages of dance, gestural movement, music and text, to render complete expression in performance. Suitable for dancers, actors, spoken word artists and triple threat performers to devise original performance, dance and theater, culminating in an end of quarter showing.
Same as: DANCE 103.

AFRICAAM 105. Introduction to African and African American Studies. 5 Units.

Interdisciplinary. Central themes in African American culture and history related to race as a definitive American phenomenon. African survivals and interpretations of slavery in the New World, contrasting interpretations of the Black family, African American literature, and art. Possible readings: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Alice Walker, and bell hooks. Focus may vary each year. This course is a WIM course.

AFRICAAM 106. Race, Ethnicity, and Linguistic Diversity in Classrooms: Sociocultural Theory and Practices. 3-5 Units.

Focus is on classrooms with students from diverse racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Studies, writing, and media representation of urban and diverse school settings; implications for transforming teaching and learning. Issues related to developing teachers with attitudes, dispositions, and skills necessary to teach diverse students.
Same as: CSRE 103B, EDUC 103B, EDUC 337.

AFRICAAM 107C. The Black Mediterranean: Greece, Rome and Antiquity. 4-5 Units.

Explore problems of race and ethnicity as viable criteria in studying ancient societies and consider the question, What is the Mediterranean?, in relation to premodern evidence. Investigate the role of blackness as a marker of ethnicity; the demography of slavery and its roles in forming social identities; and environmental determinism as a factor in ethnic and racial thinking. Consider Greek and Roman perspectives and behavior, and their impact on later theories of race and ethnicity as well as the Mediterranean as a whole.
Same as: CLASSGEN 107, CSRE 107.

AFRICAAM 112. Urban Education. 3-4 Units.

(Graduate students register for EDUC 212X or SOC 229X). Combination of social science and historical perspectives trace the major developments, contexts, tensions, challenges, and policy issues of urban education.
Same as: EDUC 112X, EDUC 212X, SOC 129X, SOC 229X.

AFRICAAM 121X. Hip Hop, Youth Identities, and the Politics of Language. 3-4 Units.

Focus is on issues of language, identity, and globalization, with a focus on Hip Hop cultures and the verbal virtuosity within the Hip Hop nation. Beginning with the U.S., a broad, comparative perspective in exploring youth identities and the politics of language in what is now a global Hip Hop movement. Readings draw from the interdisciplinary literature on Hip Hop cultures with a focus on sociolinguistics and youth culture.
Same as: AMSTUD 121X, ANTHRO 121A, CSRE 121X, EDUC 121X, LINGUIST 155.

AFRICAAM 123. Great Works of the African American Tradition. 5 Units.

Foundational African and African American scholarly figures and their work from the 19th century to the present. Historical, political, and scholarly context. Dialogues distinctive to African American culture. May be repeated for credit.

AFRICAAM 127A. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History Of The Hip-Hop Arts. 4 Units.

This course explores the history and development of the hip-hop arts movement, from its precursor movements in music, dance, visual arts, literature, and folk and street cultures to its rise as a neighborhood subculture in the Bronx in the early 1970s through its local, regional and global expansion and development. Hip-hop aesthetics, structures, and politics will be explored within the context of the movement¿s rise as a post-multicultural form in an era of neoliberal globalization.
Same as: CSRE 127A.

AFRICAAM 130. Discourse of Liberation and Equity in Communities and Classrooms. 3-5 Units.

Issues and strategies for studying oral and written discourse as a means for understanding classrooms, students, and teachers, and teaching and learning in educational contexts. The forms and functions of oral and written language in the classroom, emphasizing teacher-student and peer interaction, and student-produced texts. Individual projects utilize discourse analytic techniques. Prerequisite: graduate status or consent of instructor.
Same as: EDUC 322.

AFRICAAM 145A. Poetics and Politics of Caribbean Women's Literature. 5 Units.

Mid 20th-century to the present. How historical, economic, and political conditions in Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Antigua, and Guadeloupe affected women. How Francophone, Anglophone, and Hispanophone women novelists, poets, and short story writers respond to similar issues and pose related questions. Caribbean literary identity within a multicultural and diasporic context; the place of the oral in the written feminine text; family and sexuality; translation of European master texts; history, memory, and myth; and responses to slave history, colonialism, neocolonialism, and globalization.
Same as: CSRE 145A.

AFRICAAM 145B. Africa in the 20th Century. 5 Units.

(Same as HISTORY 45B. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 145B.) The challenges facing Africans from when the continent fell under colonial rule until independence. Case studies of colonialism and its impact on African men and women drawn from West, Central, and Southern Africa. Novels, plays, polemics, and autobiographies written by Africans.
Same as: HISTORY 145B.

AFRICAAM 147. History of South Africa. 5 Units.

(Same as HISTORY 47. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 147.) Introduction, focusing particularly on the modern era. Topics include: precolonial African societies; European colonization; the impact of the mineral revolution; the evolution of African and Afrikaner nationalism; the rise and fall of the apartheid state; the politics of post-apartheid transformation; and the AIDS crisis.
Same as: HISTORY 147.

AFRICAAM 150B. 19th-Century America. 5 Units.

(Same as HISTORY 50B. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 150B.) Territorial expansion, social change, and economic transformation. The causes and consequences of the Civil War. Topics include: urbanization and the market revolution; slavery and the Old South; sectional conflict; successes and failures of Reconstruction; and late 19th-century society and culture.
Same as: AMSTUD 150B, HISTORY 150B.

AFRICAAM 152G. Global Harlem Renaissance. 5 Units.

Examination of the explosion of African American artistic expression during 1920s and 30s New York known as the Harlem Renaissance. Amiri Baraka once referred to the Renaissance as a kind of ¿vicious Modernism,¿ as a ¿BangClash,¿ that impacted and was impacted by political, cultural and aesthetic changes not only in the U.S. but Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. Focus on the literature, graphic arts, and the music of the era in this global context.
Same as: AMSTUD 152G, ENGLISH 152G.

AFRICAAM 166. Introduction to African American History: The Modern African American Freedom Struggle. 3-5 Units.

This course is an introduction to African-American Political movements of the period after 1930, with special emphasis on mass protest and civil rights activism as well as leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, Jesse Jackson, and Barack Obama. The lectures will utilize audio-visual materials extensively, and the exams will cover these materials as well as the traditional lectures. In addition to attending lectures, students are encouraged to undertake research projects.
Same as: AMSTUD 166, HISTORY 166.

AFRICAAM 190. Directed Reading. 1-5 Units.

May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

AFRICAAM 195. Independent Study. 5 Units.

AFRICAAM 199. Honors Project. 1-5 Units.

May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

AFRICAAM 200X. Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Seminar. 5 Units.

Required for seniors. Weekly colloquia with AAAS Director and Associate Director to assist with refinement of research topic, advisor support, literature review, research, and thesis writing. Readings include foundational and cutting-edge scholarship in the interdisciplinary fields of African and African American studies and comparative race studies. Readings assist students situate their individual research interests and project within the larger. Students may also enroll in AFRICAAM 200Y in Winter and AFRICAAM 200Z in Spring for additional research units (up to 10 units total).

AFRICAAM 200Y. Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Research. 3-5 Units.

Winter. Required for students writing an Honors Thesis. Optional for Students writing a Senior Thesis.

AFRICAAM 200Z. Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Research. 3-5 Units.

Spring. Required for students writing an Honors Thesis. Optional for Students writing a Senior Thesis.

AFRICAAM 201F. Race & Technology. 1-2 Units.

The program in African & African American Studies will be offering a weekly lecture series to expose and introduce underrepresented groups to the world of technology by creating a space where the idea of starting can lead to a "Start Up". The AAAS "Race & Technology" course endeavors to de-code the language of technology creation, how to build a team, problem solving, pitching an idea, leveraging the work of all disciplines in creating an entrepreneurship mindset. Scholars and industry people will cover topics such as the digital divide, women in technology, and social media.
Same as: AFRICAAM 101F.

AFRICAAM 204F. The Modern Tradition of Non-Violent Resistance. 5 Units.

During the twentieth century, peasants and menial laborers who comprised the majority of humanity launched liberation movements to secure citizenship rights. Mohandas K. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela are among the leaders whose ideas continue to influence contemporary movements for global peace with social justice in a sustainable environment.
Same as: CSRE 104F, HISTORY 204F.

AFRICAAM 233A. Counseling Theories and Interventions from a Multicultural Perspective. 3-5 Units.

In an era of globalization characterized by widespread migration and cultural contacts, professionals face a unique challenge: How does one practice successfully when working with clients/students from so many different backgrounds? This course focuses upon the need to examine, conceptualize, and work with individuals according to the multiple ways in which they identify themselves. It will systematically examine multicultural counseling concepts, issues, and research. Literature on counselor and client characteristics such as social status or race/ethnicity and their effects on the counseling process and outcome will be reviewed. Issues in consultation with culturally and linguistically diverse parents and students and work with migrant children and their families are but a few of the topics covered in this course.
Same as: CSRE 233A, EDUC 233A.

AFRICAAM 245. Understanding Racial and Ethnic Identity Development. 3-5 Units.

African American, Native American, Mexican American, and Asian American racial and ethnic identity development; the influence of social, political and psychological forces in shaping the experience of people of color in the U.S. The importance of race in relationship to social identity variables including gender, class, and occupational, generational, and regional identifications. Bi- and multiracial identity status, and types of white racial consciousness.
Same as: CSRE 245, EDUC 245.

AFRICAAM 246C. Islam and Christianity in Africa. 4-5 Units.

History of the 20% of the Muslims and Christians in the world who live in Africa. The role of these religions in social, cultural and political transformations. Linkages between African religions and global/transnational institutions. African contributions to theology, religious practice and religious styles. Muslim/Christian relations and relations with "traditional" African religions.
Same as: HISTORY 246C, HISTORY 346C.

AFRICAAM 255. Racial Identity in the American Imagination. 4-5 Units.

Major historical transformations shaping the understanding of racial identity and how it has been experienced, represented, and contested in American history. Topics include: racial passing and racial performance; migration, immigration, and racial identity in the urban context; the interplay between racial identity and American identity; the problems of class, gender, and sexuality in the construction of racial identity. Sources include historical and legal texts, memoirs, photography, literature, film, and music.
Same as: AMSTUD 255D, CSRE 255D, HISTORY 255D, HISTORY 355D.

AFRICAAM 261E. Mixed Race Literature in the U.S. and South Africa. 5 Units.

As scholar Werner Sollors recently suggested, novels, poems, stories about interracial contacts and mixed race constitute ¿an orphan literature belonging to no clear ethnic or national tradition.¿ Yet the theme of mixed race is at the center of many national self-definitions, even in our U.S. post-Civil Rights and South Africa¿s post-Apartheid era. This course examines aesthetic engagements with mixed race politics in these trans- and post-national dialogues, beginning in the 1700s and focusing on the 20th and 21st centuries.
Same as: AMSTUD 261E, ENGLISH 261E.

AFRICAAM 262D. African American Poetics. 5 Units.

Examination of African American poetic expressive forms from the 1700s to the 2000s, considering the central role of the genre--from sonnets to spoken word, from blues poetry to new media performance--in defining an evolving literary tradition and cultural identity.
Same as: AMSTUD 262D, ENGLISH 262D.