African American Studies

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
This seminar will provide a detailed introduction and working knowledge of the various methodological techniques appropriate for interdisciplinary research on the African Diaspora.
Interdisciplinary Research Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2018, Spring 2017
A review of competing epistemologies in qualitative research of African Americans.
Qualitative Research Methods for African American Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2017, Fall 2016
This course is intended to provide students with an initial background for the composition of the position paper discussing the concept and study of African Diaspora necessary for passing department qualifying exams. It will introduce some of the theoretical frameworks for, and approaches to, scholarship concerning the African Diaspora.
Theories of the African Diaspora: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2023
One hour of lecture per week per unit. Topics will vary from term to term depending on student demand and faculty availability.
Special Topics in Cultural Studies of the Diaspora: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
One hour of lecture per week per unit. Topics will vary from term to term depending on student demand and faculty availability.
Special Topics in Development Studies of the Diaspora: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2012
Topics will vary to suit student demand or interest. The seminar will require solid grounding in linguistic theory.
Special Topics in African Linguistics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2023, Spring 2021
The course will examine the development of an intellectual group in African American life from the 18th century to the present. Implicit in the examination is consideration of the social and cultural roles, writers, scholars, artists, and other thinkers have played in American and African American culture.
Black Intellectuals: Social and Cultural Roles: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course is designed to encourage the development of an intersectional sensibility among scholars working in the area of race, gender and justice, broadly defined. In addition to providing a theoretical and methodological introduction to sociological literature on the practice of intersectionality in research and writing, we will also use a cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary set of readings, along with discussions and assignments, to examine historical and contemporary trends in how Black women and girls experience institutional and interpersonal threats of violence, policing and punishment; from the convict lease system to the crisis of mass incarceration and ending with a consideration of the experiences of Black women and girls.
Researching Race, Gender and Justice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2008
This seminar analyzes the social construction and reproduction of diasporic communities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. It examines the relations of the diaspora to the homeland in the context of the globalization process. The role of transnational migration and deterritorialization in the production of bipolar, fragmented, and multiple identities will be analyzed. Postnational models of citizenship--differentiated, transnational, and multicultural--will be assessed in light of poststructuralist theories.
Diaspora, Citizenship, and Transnationality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2008, Spring 2006
An exhaustive examination of the conditions under which identity constructs (race, ethnicity, nation, religion, language, region, etc.) come to occupy the symbolic center in the organization of mass political movements in non-industrialized Third World societies. The course will be comparative in scope using case histories from Africa and the Caribbean. It will focus on the relationship between the "politics of identity," national economic decision making, and the distribution of economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital.
Identity Politics in the Caribbean and Africa: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2011, Spring 2009
This course will focus on theories and realities of power, domination, and ideology as they pertain to issues of identity in the post-World War II political economies of Africa and the African diaspora.
Power, Domination, and Ideology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2009, Fall 2007, Fall 2006
This course will focus on the development of a black feminist criticism(s). We will be specifically concerned with the writings of significant black women critics of the 19th and 20th centuries who have used intersections of class, race, and gender to analyze major issues of their time.
Black Feminist Criticism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
This introductory graduate seminar will engage the research literature on race, diversity, and educational policy to provide a foundation for examining contemporary issues in American public schooling. We will examine research on race, culture, and learning alongside more policy driven research on school structures, governance, finance, politics, and policy. In doing so, we will blend micro level examinations of teaching and learning with macro level considerations of politics and policy.
Research Advances in Race, Diversity, and Educational Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Fall 2010, Spring 2010
This seminar will examine a wide range of perspectives on the education of African American children and adolescents in the United States. Readings will support students in understanding some of the key issues and tensions in African American education and school achievement, including the roles that culture, identity, parents, families, and communities play in the education and schooling of African American students; systemic issues in educational improvement and the perpetuation of "achievement gaps"; and language and power.
The Education of African-American Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
Open to qualified students who have been advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree and are directly engaged in doctoral dissertation research.
Directed Dissertation Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2017
This class is designed to prepare second year graduate students for the spring Master's Examination in African Diaspora Studies. Basing our syllabus upon the established reading list, we will meet weekly to discuss individual texts, methods of interpreting and critiquing works across disciplines, strategies for reading, studying, and ultimately taking the exam itself.
Master's Examination Preparation Course: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2022
Individual study or research program to be worked out with sponsoring faculty before approval by department chair. Regular meetings arranged with faculty sponsor.
Individual Study or Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2020
The seminar provides a systemic approach to theories and practices of critical pedagogy at the university level. Examines the arts of teaching and learning and current disciplinary and cross-disciplinary issues in African/diaspora and Ethnic Studies. Participation two hours per week as practicum in 39, "Introduction to the University: African American Perspectives" is mandatory. The course is required for students expecting to serve as graduate student instructors in the department.
Critical Pedagogy: Instructor Training: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Individual study for the master's requirements in consultation with the adviser. Units may not be used to meet either unit or residency requirements for the master's degree.
Individual Study for Master's Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Individual study, in consultation with group faculty, to prepare students for the doctoral oral examinations. A student will be permitted to accumulate a maximum of 8 units toward examination preparation. Units earned in this course may not be used to meet academic residence or unit requirements for the master's or doctoral degree.
Individual Study for Doctoral Students: Read More [+]