African American Studies

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022
Training in expository, argumentative, and other styles of writing. The assignments will focus on themes and issues in African American life and culture. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Freshman Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2007 10 Week Session, Summer 2006 10 Week Session
To provide Summer Bridge students with training in expository, argumentative, and other styles of writing. The assignments will focus on themes and issues in African American life and culture. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Continued training in expository and argumentative writing, with more emphasis on literary interpretation. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Freshman Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Emphasis on pre-colonial social, cultural, political, and economic structures; introduction to art, literature, oral traditions, and belief systems.
Africa: History and Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
Emphasis on social, political, and economic change in 20th century Africa; with further emphasis upon the roles of modernization, urbanization, and the emergence of contemporary African states.
Africa: History and Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1996 10 Week Session
Emphasis on pre-colonial social, cultural, political, and economic structures; introduction to art, literature, oral traditions, and belief systems.
Africa: History and Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
A study of the genesis, development, and scope of African American culture, approached through an examination of selected art forms, historical themes, and intellectual currents.
African American Life and Culture in the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Emphasis on the social experience of African Americans. An interdisciplinary approach designed to help students understand the forces and ideas that are influencing the individual and collective African American experience.
African American Life and Culture in the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
This course introduces students to speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Wolof. Instruction is mixed English and Wolof. Emphasis is placed on developing student ability to create and to communicate with basic Wolof structures and vocabulary in culturally and socially appropriate context. Speaking and listening abilities are developed through oral exercises, class discussions, and recordings available from Berkeley Language Center. Reading and writing are developed through in-class exercises, independent reading projects, and compositions. This course not open to native or heritage speakers of Wolof.
Elementary Wolof: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
This course introduces students to speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Wolof. Instruction is mixed English and Wolof. Emphasis is placed on developing student ability to create and to communicate with basic Wolof structures and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context. Speaking and listening abilities are developed through oral exercises, class discussions, and recordings available from the Berkeley Language Center. Reading and writing are developed through in-class exercises, independent reading projects, and compositions. For students with no college level Wolof completed with passing grade; this course is not open to native heritage speakers of Wolof.
Elementary Wolof: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge of fundamental structures from Elementary Wolof and appropriate cultural contexts of these structures in oral and written communication. More grammar and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context is developed. Speaking ability is expanded through oral exercises, individual reports, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by instructor's materials.
Intermediate Wolof: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge of fundamental structures from Elementary Wolof, and appropriate cultural contexts of these structures in oral and written communication. More grammar and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context is developed. Speaking ability is expanded through oral exercises, individual reports, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by the instructor's materials.
Intermediate Wolof: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge from Intermediate Wolof. Oral and written communication will be presented in appropriate cultural contexts. Developing oral language skills will be strongly emphasized as part of this course and will be expanded through individual presentations, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing, grammar, vocabulary, and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by the instructor's materials.
Advanced Wolof: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge from Intermediate Wolof. Oral and written communication will be presented in appropriate cultural contexts. Developing oral language skills will be strongly emphasized as part of this course and will be expanded through individual presentations, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing, grammar, vocabulary and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by the instructor's materials.
Advanced Wolof: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge of fundamental structures from Elementary Swahili and appropriate cultural contexts of these structures in oral and written communication. More grammar and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context is developed. Speaking ability is expanded through oral exercises, individual reports, class discussions, and recordings available at Berkeley Language Center. Writing and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by instructor's materials.
Intermediate Swahili: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge of fundamental structures from Elementary Swahili and appropriate cultural contexts of these structures in oral and written communication. More grammar and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context is developed. Speaking ability is expanded through oral exercises, individual reports, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by instructor's materials.
Intermediate Swahili: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course introduces students to the basics of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Swahili. Instruction is mixed English and Swahili. Emphasis is placed on developing student ability to create and to communicate with basic structures and vocabulary in culturally and socially appropriate context. Speaking and listening abilities are developed through oral exercises, class discussions, and recordings available from Berkeley Language Center. Reading and writing are developed through in-class exercises, independent reading projects, and compositions. This course not open to native or heritage speakers of Swahili.
Elementary Swahili: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course introduces students to the basics of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Swahili. Instruction is mixed English and Swahili. Emphasis is placed on developing student ability to create and to communicate with basic structures and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context. Speaking and listening abilities are developed through oral exercises, class discussions, and recordings available from Berkeley Language Center. Reading and writing are developed through in-class exercises, independent reading projects, and compositions. This course not open to native or heritage speakers of Swahili.
Elementary Swahili: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2019 8 Week Session, Summer 2014 10 Week Session, Summer 2014 8 Week Session
This will be an intensive introduction of the Swahili language to beginners specifically designed for second language Swahili learners. The course is equivalent to two semesters of studying Swahili, with a full academic year credit. In order to attain the necessary proficiency (1-1+, using Interagency Round Table (ILR) scale) by the end of 8 weeks, students will need to commit themselves to use the Swahili language at all times outside class. The primary focus is to develop speaking, listening, reading and writing skills with special emphasis on developing communicative language skills.
Intensive Elementary Swahili: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2010
This course introduces students to speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Zulu. Instruction is mixed English and Zulu. Emphasis is placed on developing student ability to create and to communicate with basic Zulu structures and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context. Speaking and listening abilities are developed through oral exercises, class discussions, and recordings available from Berkeley Language Center. Reading and writing are developed through in-class exercise, independent reading projects, and compositions. This course not open to native or heritage speakers of Zulu.
Elementary Zulu: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2011
This course introduces students to speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Zulu. Instruction is mixed English and Zulu. Emphasis is placed on developing student ability to create and to communicate with basic Zulu structures and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context. Speaking and listening abilities are developed through oral exercises, class discussions, and recordings available from Berkeley Language Center. Reading and writing are developed through in-class exercises, independent reading projects, and compositions. This course not open to native or heritage speakers of Zulu.
Elementary Zulu: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge of fundamental structures from Elementary Zulu. Oral and written communication is emphasized. More grammar and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context is developed. Speaking ability is expanded through oral exercises, individual reports, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by instructor's materials.
Intermediate Zulu: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge of fundamental structures from Elementary Zulu. Oral and written communication is emphasized. More grammar and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context is developed. Speaking ability is expanded through oral exercises, individual reports, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by instructor's materials.
Intermediate Zulu: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge from Intermediate Swahili. Oral and written communication will be presented in appropriate cultural contexts. Developing oral language skills will be strongly emphasized as part of this course and will be expanded through individual presentations, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing, grammar, vocabulary and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by instructor's materials.
Advanced Swahili: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge from Intermediate Swahili. Developing oral language skills will be strongly emphasized as part of this course and will be expanded through individual presentations, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing, grammar, vocabulary, and reading are expanded through compositions, research projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection, and supplemented by instructor's materials.
Advanced Swahili: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Igbo is one of the main languages spoken in Nigeria. Originating in southeastern Nigeria among the Igbo people, Igbo is spoken by around 30 million people in Nigeria and throughout the Diaspora. The Igbo language is in the Niger-Congo language family. There are several Igbo dialects spoken in Eastern Nigeria, with some being mutually intelligible. A "Standard Igbo" is used in Eastern Nigeria for government, law, education and religious contexts.
Elementary Igbo: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Igbo is one of the main languages spoken in Nigeria. Originating in southeastern Nigeria among the Igbo people, Igbo is spoken by around 30 million people in Nigeria and throughout the Diaspora. The Igbo language is in the Niger-Congo language family. There are several Igbo dialects spoken in Eastern Nigeria, with some being mutually intelligible. A "Standard Igbo" is used in Eastern Nigeria for government, law, education and religious contexts.
Elementary Igbo: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Amharic is one of the major languages of Ethiopia, spoken by over 21 million people there, and widely used by emigrants in the Diaspora. This course introduces the Amharic language and culture to both non-native and heritage language learners. The class primarily emphasizes listening, speaking, reading and writing through communicative activities, enabling students to perform various tasks in the target language. We will also become familiar with the Amharic or Geez alphabet.
Elementary Amharic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course introduces students to more complex speaking, writing and listening exercise. The course covers different tasks of intermediate abstraction. It mainly focuses on speaking. The speaking is mostly carried out by students in dialogue, role play and narrative format.
Elementary Amharic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge from Intermediate Zulu. Oral and written communication will be presented in appropriate cultural contexts. Developing oral language skills will be strongly emphasized as part of this course and will be expanded through individual presentations, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing, grammar, vocabulary, and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by instructor's materials.
Advanced Zulu: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge from Intermediate Zulu. Oral and written communication will be presented in appropriate cultural contexts. Developing oral language skills will be strongly emphasized as part of this course and will be expanded through individual presentations, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing, grammar, vocabulary, and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by the instructor's materials.
Advanced Zulu: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020
During the fall 2020 semester we will have the quadrennial opportunity to study American politics during a presidential campaign. Combining real-time analysis of the election, an in-depth study of the relevant historical and sociological trends that are shaping this moment, and a lively roster of guest speakers from across the Berkeley campus and community, this class will provide students with a comprehensive and interdisciplinary introduction to American politics in a time of unprecedented crisis and possibility.
THE 2020 ELECTION: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course continues to build on what students learned in its prerequisite course, AFRICAM 18A. A student is required to have successfully completed AFRICAM 18B at UC Berkeley. Students who took Amharic elsewhere may have to take a PLACEMENT test before enrolling in this course. The design of this syllabus is based on global standards for teaching Amharic as a foreign language, and ACTFL proficiency guidelines. Using the skills acquired in the first year of Amharic, this course is meant to help students improve their speaking, writing, reading, listening and cultural proficiencies. In this course, students are advised to minimize the use of English to 50% and below and plan on using Amharic more in and out of class.
Intermediate Amharic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
A student is required to have successfully completed Intermediate Amharic I (21A)at UC Berkeley. Students who took Amharic elsewhere may have to take a PLACEMENT test before enrolling in this course. The design of this syllabus is based on global standards for teaching Amharic as a foreign language, and ACTFL proficiency guidelines. To familiarize yourself with the standards and ACTFL proficiency guidelines, visit the following link:http://www.actfl.org/publications/all/national-standards-foreign-language-education. Using the skills acquired in the first year of Amharic, this course is meant to help student improve their speaking, writing, reading, and listening and cultural proficiencies.
Intermediate Amharic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2020
The Berkeley Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Berkeley Seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester.
Freshman Seminars: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2003, Spring 2002
This course is an interdisciplinary analysis of the aesthetics and politics of the US through a focus on Black popular music since WWII with an emphasis on the “Black Awakening” of the 1960s. With the African American experience at the center, this course will explore constructions of whiteness through the lens of jazz, disco and hip hop identity formation, as well as works of members of the Asian American and Latinx musical communities in the US as they impacted and were influenced by the Black music world.
African American Music and US Popular Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session
This course explores the role of race, racism and resistance in the United States from 1492 to the present. We do this by reading autobiographical works written by racial justice activists alongside works in the theory of racial formations. Together we ask: What is race? How do we define and recognize racism? How has race shaped the lives of Americans historically classified as minorities? And how have anti-racist intellectuals represented the personal and political struggles of racialized communities living in a white majority culture? To answer these questions we focus on the intersections of race, class and gender; immigration, labor and democracy; and the history of resistance to racial oppression from abolition to liberation and back.
Race, Racism and Resistance in the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
An examination of the movement of individuals, ideas, ideologies, and institutions between minority American communities in the U.S. (African Americans, Asians, Chicanos) and their cultures of origin, in the 19th and 20th centuries. The course will utilize the concepts of "migration," "diaspora," "otherness," "multiculturalism," and "global village" and will draw largely on social science perspectives.
Globalization and Minority American Communities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2016
This course introduces students to speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Chichewa. Instruction is mixed English and Chichewa. Emphasis is placed on developing student ability to create and to communicate with basic Chichewa structures and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context. Speaking and listening abilities are developed through oral exercises, class discussions, and recordings available from Berkeley Language Center. Reading and writing are developed through in-class exercises, independent reading projects, and compositions. This course is not open to native or heritage speakers of Chichewa.
Elementary Chichewa: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course introduces students to speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Chichewa. Instruction is mixed English and Chichewa. Emphasis is placed on developing student ability to create and to communicate with basic Chichewa structures and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context. Speaking and listening abilities are developed through oral exercises, class discussions, and recordings available from Berkeley Language Center. Reading and writing are developed through in-class exercises, independent reading projects, and compositions. This course is not open to native or hertiage speakers of Chichewa.
Elementary Chichewa: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2011, Fall 2010
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge of fundamental structures from Elementary Chichewa and appropriate cultural contexts of these structures in oral and written communication. More grammar and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context is developed. Speaking ability is expanded through oral exercises, individual reports, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by the instructor's materials.
Intermediate Chichewa: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2011
This course reviews and expands students' knowledge of fundamental structures from Elementary Chichewa and appropriate cultural contexts of these structures in oral and written communication. More grammar and vocabulary in a culturally and socially appropriate context is developed. Speaking ability is expanded through oral exercises, individual reports, class discussions, and recordings available at the Berkeley Language Center. Writing and reading are expanded through compositions, written exercises, and independent reading projects with texts available through Berkeley's African Library Collection and supplemented by the instructor's materials.
Intermediate Chichewa: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Spring 2018
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophmore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Spring 2013
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophmore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2013 10 Week Session, Fall 2012, Summer 2012 10 Week Session
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophmore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophmore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2011
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophmore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophmore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
This course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to work closely with African American Studies faculty, investigating a topic of mutual interest in great depth. Designed primarily for lower division students and non-majors. Topics vary from semester to semester.

Special Topics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012
Sophomore seminars are small interactive courses offered by faculty members in departments all across the campus. Sophomore seminars offer opportunity for close, regular intellectual contact between faculty members and students in the crucial second year. The topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 sophomores.
Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
Supervised research on specific topics related to African American Studies.
Directed Group Studies for Freshmen and Sophomores: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
Berkeley Connect is a mentoring program, offered through various academic departments, that helps students build intellectual community. Over the course of a semester, enrolled students participate in regular small-group discussions facilitated by a graduate student mentor (following a faculty-directed curriculum), meet with their graduate student mentor for one-on-one academic advising, attend lectures and panel discussions featuring department faculty and alumni, and go on field trips to campus resources. Students are not required to be declared majors in order to participate.
Berkeley Connect: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
Supervised research on specific topics related to African American Studies.
Supervised Independent Studies for Freshmen and Sophomores: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course, lets students explore the status of African American studies as a discipline. The class will discuss the social relevance of African American studies, the political origins of the discipline, and the debate over Afrocentricity. Special attention will be devoted to the contributions of black feminist theory and community scholars/organic intellectuals to the development of the discipline.
Black Intellectual Thought: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
As an introduction to interdisciplinary research methods as they are applied to the study of African American communities, the course will examine theoretical and conceptual issues; techniques for identifying existing research; and sources and methods of social research and data collection. The main focus will be on qualitative methods.
Research Methods for African American Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2013, Spring 2011, Spring 2006
This course examines the formation and implementation of public policies directly relevant to the black community. While the policies analyzed differ from year to year, basic public policy methodology will be introduced each year.
Race and Public Policy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2014, Spring 2013
The course examines ways gender and race constructions shape the lives of African American males. Developmental in design, we examine black males in the context of childhood, adolescence, gender relations and family, and the world of work.
Black and Male in American Life: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
Emphasis on social history and comparative analysis of race, class, and gender relations in American society. Examines both similarities and differences, and highlights gender politics.
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2022 8 Week Session, Fall 2020, Summer 2020 8 Week Session
A focus on patterns of globalization, migration, and race/ethnic relations with regard to African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans in the 1890s and 1990s. Key aspects like economics, politics, gender, and culture are examined. This course is web-based.
Race, Class, and Gender: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
An examination of the structural and actual manifestations of Third World underdevelopment and the broad spectrum of theoretical positions put forward to explain it. Underdevelopment will be viewed from both the international and intranational perspective.
Political and Economic Development in the Third World: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
A critical appraisal of the theoretically based policies employed by Third World nations in their attempts at transition to modernized developed socio-political and economic systems and an examination of the international and intranational impediments to Third World development. The focus will be on actual examples that represent the diversity of developing countries.
Political and Economic Development in the Third World: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024

Racial Capitalism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2020

The course will provide an overview of the linguistic structure of African languages. Because the Bantu languages constitute the largest sub-group in sub-Saharan Africa, there will be much focus on the description of the major grammatical features of Bantu languages. The descriptions of African linguistic structure will be accompanied by insights into the contributions made by African languages to general linguistics. Data from various African languages will be brought in to illustrate relevant aspects of African linguistic structure.
Introduction to African Linguistics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2021, Spring 2020
This is an upper division course dealing with the relevance of language to social issues in African societies. It will focus on political developments in Africa and the use of language in fostering national identity; attaining cultural emancipation; and as a tool of oppression, of maintenance of social relations, and of addressing issues of education and childhood development, etc. The course will examine such issues as the roots of national language policies as influenced by Africa's reaction to colonialism; the role of western languages in African society and the attitudes towards African languages and cultures; the challenges of nation-building in modern African states; the use of African languages in government, education, and technology; the role of language in dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and other health issues; minority languages, endangered languages, and language preservation; cultural responses to migration and African diaspora: the use of African languages in the age of globalization and information technology.
Language and Social Issues in Africa: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course will examine the origins of the African slave trade, and explore political, economic, demographic and cultural factors shaping African American life and culture prior to 1865.
Slavery and African American Life Before 1865: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
With emphasis given to the organization of labor after slavery, this course will explore the history of African American cultural, institutions and protest traditions from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement.
African Americans in the Industrial Age, 1865-1970: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
The course explores the role of the transatlantic slave trade in the evolution of the Atlantic world, comprising four continents: Africa, Europe, and North and South America. Although the course will deal with various aspects of the slave trade, it will emphasize cultural themes. The discovery of fresh data and the application of more sophisticated techniques have in recent years combined with a growing willingness of specialists to speak to a wider audience and to wider social implications.
The Slave Trade and Culture in the Modern Atlantic World: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2012
Topics will vary each semester.
Selected Topics in the Sociohistorical Development of the Black World: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2021
This course offers a panorama of the African historical experience from the political economic dynamics of Africa at the onset of European colonization in the late nineteenth century, through the colonial period, to our age of globalization. For better or for worse, African history and culture have shaped and have been shaped by European colonial rule and its aftermath, but we shall also give due attention to postcolonial-era structures and processes in the general context of Africans’ attempts to remake their world. This course takes the thematic, rather regional, approach but will remain sensitive to interregional variations at every juncture.
Africa From Revolution to Globalization: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
Analysis of the theoretical and historical development of African Americans' political forms and expression. Examination of local, state, and federal political processes and activities, and the development of black political ideologies, organizations, and movements.
Black Political Life in the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Examines the historical roles and functions of families in the development of black people in America from slavery to the present.
African American Families in American Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Fall 2021
An examination of social and political thought of Africans traveling across the Diaspora, with particular focus on the 19th and 20th centuries.
Social and Political Thought in the Diaspora: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2014 10 Week Session, Summer 2014 8 Week Session, Summer 2013 8 Week Session
Using the thought and actions of Martin Luther King, this course examines the major events of the Civil Rights Movement. Reading includes original works by King as well as secondary sources with a special emphasis on African American religion, nonviolence, and integration. This course is web-based.
The Philosophy of Martin Luther King: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2013, Spring 2012, Spring 2011
The objective of this course is to examine the modern civil rights movement. As understood traditionally, this period began with the United States Supreme Court decision of May 17, 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education, until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This course will seek to place this movement in the context of global developments and in the context of the broad sweep of United States history. Assigned readings consist of historical texts and autobiographies. Lectures will place the readings in context, discussing the material and its significance in the overall history and culture of African Americans. Visual and musical media will augment the class lectures.
History of the Civil Rights Movement: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
The objective of this course is to examine the modern Civil Rights Movement. As traditionally understood, this period began with the May 17, 1954, "Brown vs. Board of Education” Supreme Court decision and ended with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This course will expand this time frame and seek to place this movement in the context of global developments and the broad sweep of United States History. Assigned readings consist of historical and autobiographical texts. Lectures will contextualize the readings by placing the material and its significance within the overall history and culture of Americans. Visual media will augment the lectures.
The History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
The objective of this course is to examine substantive issues in the African American female experience from colonial times to the present. The dominant themes of this course include family, work, community, sexuality, and individual and collective activism. Particular attention will be paid to the interplay between race, class, and gender in American society. Assigned readings consist of an introduction to the scholarly secondary literature on African American women's history. Lectures and discussions will examine the readings in context. Videos will augment the lectures and discussions.
African American Women's History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session
Pan-Afrikan Social Movements: Past, Present and Future is an immersive study abroad experience based in Ghana. Through site-based experiences, weekly lectures and weekly interactive workshops, students will examine Black/Afrikan Liberation Stories. This course will provide students with an in-depth perspective/case study from the historical trajectory of the Ghanaian Independence Movement which saw revolutionary scholar and leader, Kwame Nkrumah, theorize “liberation” and engage in revolutionary praxis under the banner of Pan-Africanism. The course will also provide insight to students on modern day Black-led movements for liberation and give them space to dialogue on the progress, obstacles, failures and successes of movement work.
Pan Afrikan Social Modemets: Past, Present and Future -- Study Abroad: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Comparative study of Spanish, Dutch, English, and French-speaking Caribbean societies. Analysis of Caribbean social structure including the development of the plantation system, urban dynamics, ethnic politics, family structures, and ecology of African Caribbean religions.
Caribbean Societies and Cultures: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2004 10 Week Session, Summer 2003 10 Week Session, Summer 2002 10 Week Session
This course will combine a broad overview of the Caribbean with a focus on specific issues that are central to the field of Caribbean studies. One of its aims is to introduce Caribbean social structure and expressive culture. This will be supplemented with specific discussions of the plantation system as a social structure, ethnic politics, the debate around Caribbean social stratification (class and status), forms of expressive culture, and the Caribbean political economy.
Caribbean Societies and Cultures: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
This course will focus on understanding urban schools as a part of a broader system of social stratification and the process by which students in urban schools come to a sense of themselves as students, as members of cultural and racial groups, and as young people in America. Topics include racial identity; race/ethnicity in schools; urban neighborhood contexts; and schooling in the juvenile justice system. Students will also integrate course readings with their own first-hand experience working in one of several off-campus sites. This course has a mandatory community engagement component for which students will earn 1 unit of field study (197) credit.
What is the Role of Race in Urban Schools?: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
This course assesses the role of information technology in the digitalization of society by focusing on the deployment of e-government, e-commerce, e-learning, the digital city, telecommuting, virtual communities, Internet time, the virtual office, and the geography of cyberspace. Course will also discuss the role of information technology in the governance and economic development of society.
Information Technology and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
This course assesses the role of information technology in the digitalization of society by focusing on the deployment of e-government, e-commerce, e-learning, the digital city, telecommuting, virtual communities, internet time, the virtual office, and the geography of cyber space. The course will also discuss the role of information technology in the governance and economic development of society.
Information Technology and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2019, Fall 2018

Criminal Justice and the Community: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session
What is the relationship between the criminal justice system and surveillance in America? What role does power play in this relationship? How does this complicated relationship inform, reproduce, and engender understandings about race, class and sexuality? How has this relationship changed over time? How has technological change impacted this relationship? In this course, we will examine the relationship between the criminal justice system and the surveillance of vulnerable communities. We will examine social and historical trends, but our main focus will be on the evolution of this relationship since the mid-20th century, especially how this relationship developed in distressed urban neighborhoods in the post-Civil Rights era.

Race, Policing and Surveillance in the U.S.: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
Examination of theoretical issues in urban anthropology and sociology pertaining to the United States as a multicultural society. Comparative analysis of the ecology and social structure of African American, Native American, Asian American, Mexican American and Afro-Caribbean urban communities with special emphasis on social class, ethnicity, and culture.
Multicultural Communities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Examines the concept of black nationalism and its historical and intellectual development. Special attention will be given to the role of African American religion and the attempt to develop "black socialism."
Black Nationalism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
Topics will vary each semester.
Selected Topics of African American Social Organization and Institutions: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
Special Topics on race and law will vary each semester.
Special Topics in Race and Law: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Topics will vary each semester.
Special Topics in Cultural Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course examines the the spatial configurations of inequality and poverty and their relationship to race
through an analysis of the historical, theoretical and ethnographic conceptualizations, practices, and lived
experiences of that relationship. The course will cover the topics of race, space, and inequality through four
interwoven thematic lenses of formation, implementation, normalization, and resistances.
Race, Space and Inequality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2012, Spring 2011
Examines through lectures and a selection of films, the development and achievements of Third World motion picture artistry. Social, political, and cultural themes are discussed, with particular emphasis given to major works from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Other newly developed film sources from abroad are presented for critical assessment.
Third World Cinema: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
This course uses film to investigate the central role of race in American culture. Through the study of film history, from silent film of the Jim Crow era to the digitized dystopias of the 21st century, this course explores the relationship between art and politics, race and representation. Looking at both Hollywood and independent cinema, the course charts the continuities and varieties of representations of race in cinema, considering the overlapping histories of African Americans, whiteness and ethnicity, American Indians, Mexican Americans, the “Third World” and Multiculturalism in film. Films screened include The Birth of a Nation (1915) The Jazz Singer (1927) Salt of the Earth (1953) The Searchers (1956) Imitation of Life (1958).
Race and American Film: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2016, Fall 2003
Introduction to the Research-to Performance Method, African American aesthetics and dramatic performance techniques. Course will survey wide range of writings on performance and investigate applications through exercises and improvisations. Students will also assist in information gathering for works in progress.
Performance: An African American Perspective: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2007
Development of scholarly material for theatrical presentation and enhancement of dramatic performance techniques through discussions, improvisations and readings of work conceived by the class and/or writers in other African American Studies courses. All source material will be based on the research of scholars in the field of African American Studies.
Research-to-Performance Laboratory: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2011, Spring 2004
Study and production of a play by an African American writer. The play will be studied within its social and historical context. Students will be introduced to the various aspects of theatre production.
Black Theatre Workshop: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2013, Spring 2010
This course examines theories of culture and contemporary issues in popular culture. The course focuses on the instrumentality of culture as a vehicle of domination and resistance. The goal of the course is to provide the student with a critical vocabulary for cultural analysis. Key issues to be examined are ideology, hegemony, articulation, race and gender formation. Students must have a willingness to engage new and difficult ideas.
Introduction to Cultural Studies: Black Visual Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Survey of African American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the present. A close analysis of major writers, premises.
African American Literature 1920 to Present: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1997 10 Week Session
To survey major trends in poetry, fiction, and the essay form in African American literature from the 1920s to 1980s, both in terms of socio-political and literary content. As well as a study of major African Americans of the 20th century.
Survey of African American Literary Forms and Styles 1920 to 1980: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2021, Spring 2020
This course explores African American fiction written during the 1970s and 1980s that attempt to re-present the ur-text of African American literature--and/or to represent for contemporary readers the lives of African slaves in the United States. In what ways do these authors imagine the experience and effects of slavery from their vantage point a century after emancipation, and with the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements shaping the context of their writing?
Neo-Slave Narratives: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2021, Fall 2020
We will closely read seven of Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison's novels, as well as a short story and some of her essays, considering the works in relation to: her interest in creating what she calls "village literature" and in writing literature that does "trope work" that intervenes in American representations of blackness and racial identity; her contributions to the renaissance of black women's writing (and African American literature in general) in the 1980s and 1990s.
Novels of Toni Morrison: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
An introduction to representative works, themes, and discourses in Caribbean literatures--produced by authors from the Anglophone, Creolophone, Francophone, and Hispanophone areas within Plantation America. Includes examinations of indigenous folkways and nation languages as sources for a re-examination of Caribbean culture and literary history.
Literature of the Caribbean: Significant Themes: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
A large lecture/discussion class which introduces students to poetry as culture, history, criticism, politics, and practice. Focusing comparatively on poetry from three American racial/ethnic groups, this course requires students to learn both the technical structure of various forms of poetry as well as the world views which inform specific poetic traditions. The groups and traditions vary from semester to semester. This course satisfies the Arts and Literature breadth requirement.
Poetry for the People: Introduction to the Art of Poetry: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
This course examines the the spatial configurations of inequality and poverty and their relationship to race through an analysis of the historical, theoretical and ethnographic conceptualizations, practices, and lived experiences of that relationship. The course will cover the topics of race, space, and inequality through four interwoven thematic lenses of formation, implementation, normalization, and resistances.
Race, Space, and Inequality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
The focus of this course is on the writing of poetry, and students undertake an intensive study of both the techniques of poetry and the social and cultural context of specific poetic traditions. Students must "imitate" the poems they study, write critical papers comparing poetic traditions, and complete an original manuscript of new poems. In addition, they must produce an on-campus poetry reading and are required to teach for five to seven weeks at one of the assigned Poetry for the People venues. This course satisfies the Arts and Literature breadth requirement.
Poetry for the People: The Writing and Teaching of Poetry: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
A teaching practicum, with the regular and active supervision of the instructor, for students who completed 156AC during the previous year and 158A in the previous fall. They serve as student teacher poets for 156AC. The focus of 158B is on the teaching of poetry. Each student poet is responsible for a group of seven to ten students, and, under the direct supervision of the instructor, helps the students in his/her group learn to read, criticize, and produce poetry.
Poetry for the People: Practicum: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Special topics in African American literature.
Special Topics in African American Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
This course is designed to give students four vantage points on contemporary spoken word: 1) as a diverse, layered, and multicultural young adult arts movement 2) as an art form with African American roots, including Black church, Black power and hip hop traditions 3) as an opportunity to practice using spoken word as a tool for social commentary and to communicate personal experience, and 4) as an opportunity to utilize the process of creativity for self-exploration and community building.
Spoken Word: Oral Tradition & Transformation from Poetry to Hip Hop, Standup & Beyond: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2022, Fall 2020
In this course, we will read books by acclaimed African American poets who h­ave won Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, and commendations from the Library of Congress. We will also examine book reviews, articles, and interviews that illuminate popular and critical responses to these authors and their work. The course is designed to teach students how different poems function—through close reading, and careful attention to poems’ formal properties. Hard work is required; love of the genre and confidence in one’s ability to understand it is not (as the former U.S. Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey, admitted recently in an interview “growing up, I didn't think I could understand poetry, I didn't think that it had any relevance to my life”).
African American Poetry: Eyes on the Prize: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2012
This course surveys the impact of Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence and justice in American Civil Rights struggles. Through narratives, images from African American, itinerant Gandhian, and ethnic critics of race practice in American culture, we examine how Gandhian satyagraha shaped emergent civil resistance movements, as also the global appeal to nonviolent democracy. ACES component comprises internship with civil liberties partners that monitor local implementations of human rights treaties.
Gandhi and the Civil Rights Movement in America: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2023, Summer 2021 First 6 Week Session
The current crises of inequality, democracy, racial and political division, and climate change are fomenting social movements in the United States and around the world. How do social movements grow and sustain? How do social movements capture national attention that motivates everyday people including students to mobilize for social change? This class will provide students with a grounding in the literature of social movement theory and history, with a special emphasis on social movements led by African American, Latinx, indigenous, and Asian Pacific Islander communities for equity. The class will also introduce students basics of social movement organizing, mobilizing unlikely voters through organizing technique and theory of non-violence.
Social Movements and Organizing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2007, Spring 2005
For a four-unit course, an extra assignment/research component will be added to the course to increase contact hours with students. Possible components include additional readings, outside of class reserach projects and other projects which the instructor feels will add to the value of course. Topics to be announced at the beginning of each semester.
Advanced Seminar in African Diaspora Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
This course will acquaint new students, specifically freshman and transfer students, with the understanding of the intellectual and academic university experience. The course develops critical inquiry and creative assessment skills through analyses of text, film and writing assignments at the university level. The goals of the course: to introduce newly admitted and returning Blacks/African Americans to venues designed to encourage their achievement; introduce incoming freshman to critical and creative thinking through analytical skill development; to link students with key faculty, staff and students who may serve as an academic support network; and to provide history and context with respect to the experiential. Course open to everyone.
African American Theme Program Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2018
This course will acquaint new students, specifically freshman and transfer students, with the understanding of the intellectual and academic university experience. The course develops critical inquiry and creative assessment skills through analyses of text, film and writing assignments at the university level. The goals of the course: to introduce newly admitted and returning Blacks/African Americans to venues designed to encourage their achievement; introduce incoming freshman to critical and creative thinking through analytical skill development; to link students with key faculty, staff and students who may serve as an academic support network; and to provide history and context with respect to the experiential.
Course open to everyone.
African American Theme Program Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This three unit seminar is designed for all graduating African American Studies majors. This course will guide majors in the process of consolidating their intellectual experience as they work toward carving out the next stage of their professional lives. Drawing upon interdisciplinary methods and the unique opportunities the field offers for problem-solving, the seminar is concerned with underscoring the moveable academic skill set outside the ivory tower.
Senior Capstone: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
African American Studies Honor’s Seminar centers on revising the senior thesis/project prepared in the Fall capstone course. Each student will develop and follow an individual course of revision/reworking in consultations with an assigned AAS professor. In addition, you will meet weekly during the semester with the Instructor of Record and GSI to make sure that you are progressing adequately. The class time and classroom space is reserved for you to work as a cohort and in conjunction with the assigned GSI. You will be responsible for meeting with your assigned advisor during office hours (or by appointment).
Senior Honors Thesis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Spring 2018, Fall 2017
The student will complete a primary research and writing project based on study of an advanced topic with faculty sponsor. Fulfills department thesis requirement. Application and details at departmental adviser's office. Students must enroll for both semesters of the sequence.
Senior Honors Thesis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
The student will complete a primary research and writing project based on study of an advanced topic with faculty sponsor. Fulfills department thesis requirement. Application and details at departmental adviser's office. Students must enroll for both semesters of the sequence.
Senior Honors Thesis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Summer 2021 First 6 Week Session
Supervised field work in off-campus organizations. Regular individual meetings with faculty sponsor and written reports required. Independent study form available in department office.
Field Study in African American Life: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
Supervised research on a specific topic.
Directed Group Studies for Undergraduates: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
Berkeley Connect is a mentoring program, offered through various academic departments, that helps students build intellectual community. Over the course of a semester, enrolled students participate in regular small-group discussions facilitated by a graduate student mentor (following a faculty-directed curriculum), meet with their graduate student mentor for one-on-one academic advising, attend lectures and panel discussions featuring department faculty and alumni, and go on field trips to campus resources. Students are not required to be declared majors in order to participate.
Berkeley Connect: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
Forms for independent study are available in the department office.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

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 [+]