This course is a survey of the second half of African American History and Culture and traces the historical, political, social, and cultural experiences of black Americans from Reconstruction to the modern freedom movement for Black Lives. This course will focus upon a number of specific movements in the history of black Americans. Thematically, we explore the meaning of freedom, the dynamic between black struggle and white resistance, and the ways in which factors such as gender and geography complicate any notions of a single black experience. 

This course offers an introduction to contemporary African politics. The primary goal is to introduce students to the diversity of challenges and development issues facing African countries since independence. Questions motivating the course include: (1) Why state institutions weaker in African than in other developing regions? (2) What explains Africa's slow economic growth? (3) What can be done to improve political accountability on the continent? (4) Why have some African countries been plagued by high levels of political violence while others have not? 

In answering these questions, we will examine Africa’s historical experiences, its economic heritage, and the international context in which it is embedded.  At the same time, we will explore how Africans have responded to unique circumstances to shape their own political and economic situations.  

As we address the core themes of the course, we will draw on a wide range of academic disciplines, including political science, history, economics and anthropology. We will study particular events in particular African countries, but we will also examine broad patterns across countries and use social science concepts and methods to try to explain them. 

This course explores key themes and debates in anticolonial thought, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. It examines how provocative visions of dignity and dignified existence have shaped anti-colonial struggles, both during colonial struggle and in times of so-called independence. Through the study of key, firebrand philosophers, poets, writers and activists as well as by engaging multiple forms of media, we will analyze the various faces of anticolonialism and the questions it has raised and continues to raise, especially around dignity, freedom, violence, modernity, race and culture. While the course readings are mainly drawn from African anticolonial thought, students are encouraged to engage with and raise examples from global experiences and theories of anticolonialism.

This course explores the nature and composition of the African Diaspora and its changing meanings. We will examine the sociocultural connections among diasporic Africans such as the forced migrations of enslaved Africans and voluntary emigration of Africans out of continental Africa. The seminar also explores the historical, religious, and cultural factors that foster distinctive diasporic African identities and how these people constitute and contribute to global citizenry.

Ancient Nubia, located on the Middle Nile, is the source of more than 8,000 years of art and material culture: colossal statuary of kings, monumental architecture, exquisite gold jewelry, and some of the most innovative ceramics ever produced. Yet seldom does it receive the attention it deserves, especially compared to its northern neighbor, Egypt. This course will examine Nubia's art and material culture, identifying what makes it unique and what it adopted, adapted, and rejected from its neighbors to the north and south especially. Students will select a topic of research, present aspects of it throughout the semester and deliver it both orally and in paper (or electronic) form as a final project at the end. Pending approval from the Sudan Antiquities Department, students will also have the opportunity to contribute to the Virtual Database of the now-destroyed Sudan National Museum. Guest lecturers and field trips will round out what is presented in class.

The Black woman writer's efforts to shape images of herself as Black, as women, and as an artist. The problem of literary authority for the Black woman writer, criteria for a Black woman's literary tradition, and the relation of Black feminism or "womanism" to the articulation of a distinctively Black and female literary aesthetic.