Africana Studies

Course Offerings Spring 2013

Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
AFST 100-01	Intro to Africana Studies Instructor: Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy Course Description: Cross-listed with LALC 121-01.	1030:TR ALTHSE 207
AFST 200-01	Approaches to Africana Studies Instructor: Megan Glick Course Description: This course will investigate the importance of conceptual analysis and the development of concepts in the theoretical and textual research of Africana Studies. Thus, the course will focus on various interpretive frameworks and approaches to organizing and understanding Africana Studies, including but not limited to the African model, Afrocentricity, diaspora model, critical race theory, post-modernism, and post colonialism. Prerequisite: 100. This course fulfills the Division II social sciences distribution requirement and the WR graduation requirement.	0900:TR ALTHSE 109
AFST 220-01	African Government & Politics Instructor: J Mark Ruhl Course Description: Cross-listed with POSC 252-01. An introduction to the politics of contemporary, sub-Saharan Africa. After analyzing the historical and socio-economic context of African politics, the course examines a number of contrasting political systems in depth. The final section of the course discusses the current problems of South Africa from an international perspective.	1330:MR DENNY 313
AFST 220-02	Caribbean Diasporic Identities Instructor: Jerry Philogene Course Description: Cross-listed with AMST 200-02 and LALC 200-02. This course provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the development of Caribbean diasporic identities during the 20th century. Drawing on a wide range of materials including: essays, novels, and popular culture, this course contextualizes the social, cultural, and political processes that have shaped Caribbean diasporic peoples. Geared towards students who are interested in the intersections of immigration, ethnicity, race, and culture, this course opens up perspectives to explore the transformative experience of immigration and the making of Caribbean diasporic identities. More broadly, the course utilizes popular and visual arts, including music and carnival, as critical lenses to examine the meaning and formation of Caribbean diasporic identities. This course will bring to light the interconnectedness of immigration, identity formation, and cultural production; processes that have been central to the creation of American peoples.	0900:TR DENNY 204
AFST 220-03	Marginalization & Represent Instructor: Vanessa Tyson Course Description: Cross-listed with POSC 290-02. This course explores the political representation of groups that have historically been marginalized in American society and excluded from the democratic process either through statute or through common practices. In particular, issues of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia will be addressed.	1330:W DENNY 311
AFST 220-04	Global Eastern Africa Instructor: James Ellison Course Description: Cross-listed with ANTH 255-01. This course examines global connections in the intersections of culture and power that underlie contemporary issues in eastern Africa. The globally marketed indigenous cultures and exotic landscapes of eastern Africa, like current dilemmas of disease and economic development, are products of complex local and transnational processes (gendered, cultural, social, economic, and political) that developed over time. To understand ethnicity, the success or failure of development projects, the social and economic contexts of tourism, responses to the AIDS crisis, the increasing presence of multinational corporations, and other contemporary issues, we will develop an ethnographic perspective that situates cultural knowledge and practice in colonial and postcolonial contexts. While our focus is on eastern Africa, the course will offer students ways to think about research and processes in other contexts.	1330:MR DENNY 303
AFST 220-05	Cities & Urban Life in Africa Instructor: Constanze Weise Course Description: Cross-listed with HIST 215-03. This course will focus on the history and historiography of cities and urbanization in Africa from the fourth millennium BC to the present. Readings and discussions will explore urban political and economic conditions; urban location and infrastructure; the sociality of urban life; and urban culture.	1230:MWF DENNY 104
AFST 220-06	The French Colonial Empire Instructor: Benjamin Ngong Course Description: Through the polyvalent character of French-speaking novel and cinema that is termed as "Francophone," that is, from countries other than France, this course examines the role of France as a colonial empire that, although it began to take shape in the 17th century, was consolidated at the end of the 19th and beginning of 20th centuries by a great acquisition of colonial territories and the implementation of the Civilizing Mission. From anti-colonial struggles to postcolonial disillusionments, we will investigate how novelists, essayists, and filmmakers capture the complex destinies of African and Caribbean societies, challenging the subjugation that is inscribed in cultural and social fabrics of their communities, exploring imaginative and unexpected venues that may mobilize energies for peoples liberation. The course will primarily address notions of multiculturalism, imperialism, national identity, as well as the development of colonial discourse in relation to the French empire.	1500:MR BOSLER 318
AFST 220-07	Islam: Africa & Indian Ocean Instructor: Constanze Weise Course Description: Cross-listed with HIST 215-06 and MEST 200-06. This lecture/ discussion course surveys the political, social, economic, and religious history of the expansion of Islam to Africa from the Muslim conquest in the seventh and eighth centuries C.E. until ca. 1900 C.E. It looks at the interaction between Muslim North Africa, the Middle East as well as Sub-Saharan and Indian Ocean Africa. We will examine trans-regional trade networks that extended from north of the Sahara and from across the Indian Ocean and which formed an undeniable part of the diffusion of Muslim religious thought and practices to the African Continent. We will further study processes of Islamization in various African regions over the past 1000 + years that were triggered by political as well as social historical processes. We will consider questions such as: What were the main undercurrents of the processes of religious conversion? Did patterns of Islamization differ regionally? Is there an African Islam or in other words is there an Africanization of Islam? How did Islam influence the creation and operation of social, political and economic institution? What impact did Arabic literacy have on African communities in general and educational institutions in particular? What were the big institutions of Islamic learning and what was their influence in African communities? How did Islam impinge on the status of African women across diverse cultures? What influence did Islam have on gender roles within African communities? What did being Muslim mean in the context of the trans-Saharan and the trans-Atlantic slave trades? Throughout the quarter we will consider these questions and learn about a range of key religious, economic, political, social and cultural issues of importance that are attributed to the role of Islam in Africa. We will explore a range of scholarly readings and debates as well as various sources of African history such as poetry, travel narratives, memoirs, legal texts, chronicles, and oral histories.	0930:MWF DENNY 104
AFST 235-01	Introduction to Caribbean St Instructor: Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy Course Description: Cross-listed with LALC 122-01.	1330:TR ALTHSE 106
AFST 320-01	Postcolonial Fem Sci Studies Instructor: Megan Glick Course Description: Cross-listed with AMST 301-01 and WGST 300-01. This course will provide an introduction to postcolonial feminist critiques of medicine, science, and technology. We will begin by interrogating how ideas of gender, sex, and sexuality are shaped by medical, scientific, and technological discourses. We will continue on to address how these concepts are deployed in reproductive politics, the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare, and the use and dissemination of modernizing technology in developing nations. We will then consider the place of women both as objects of, and active participants in - scientific research projects. We will examine all of these phenomena from cross-cultural perspectives, paying particular attention to the circulation of knowledge and research across the globe, and the relationship between scientific progress and conditions of socio-economic inequality.	1030:TR ALTHSE 109
AFST 320-02	African American Women Writers Instructor: Lynn Johnson Course Description: Cross-listed with ENGL 375-01 and WGST 300-04. This course examines a range of the literary productions written by African American women. Specifically, we will span the African-American literary tradition in order to discover the historical, political, and social forces that facilitated the evolution of Black women's voices as well as their roles inside and outside the Black community. Additionally, we will discuss such issues as self-definition, womanhood, sexuality, activism, race, class, and community.	1330:MR ALTHSE 206
AFST 320-03	Franco-Maghrebi Imagination Instructor: Nancy Mellerski Course Description: Cross-listed with FLST 310-01, FREN 363-01, MEST 200-08 and WGST 300-02. We will study writers and filmmakers of two generations in France: those who immigrated to the Mtropole from North Africa during the postcolonial period, and those who were born in France of Maghrebi parents but still find themselves on the other side of the ethnic divide in a society that maintains an ambivalent relationship with its cultural minorities. Our approach will be an eclectic one, as we explore the history of Franco-Maghrebi relations during the colonial era, the socioeconomic experiences of the guest workers who toiled to rebuild France during the postwar period, the meaning of social and geographical marginalization in the banlieue, the particular situation of Muslim female authors, and, finally, the ways in which cultural hybridity is expressed in both prose and cinema.	1330:TF BOSLER 310
AFST 320-04	African Women's History Instructor: Constanze Weise Course Description: Cross-listed with HIST 374-01 and WGST 374-01. This course examines the role of women in African societies since the nineteenth century. Lectures and readings will be arranged thematically. Themes include sexuality and reproduction, the household, women's economic activity, political power, religion, colonialism, and democracy. After a discussion of gender, we will analyze pre-colonial production and reproduction, family life and religion in the twentieth century, women's roles in nationalist politics, the politics of female genital mutilation, and the lives of two contemporary African women leaders. Readings, including historical studies and novels, songs, and art, will be drawn from across the cultures and languages of Africa.	1030:MWF DENNY 104
AFST 400-01	Writing in Africana Studies Instructor: Lynn Johnson Course Description: This course will build on experiences in the methods course. Students in this course continue research toward and writing of a senior thesis. The emphasis is on writing skills and course material; assignments link those skills to work in Africana Studies. Seniors in the major will work independently with the director of Africana Studies and a second faculty reader (representing a discipline closer to the senior's interest) to produce a lengthy paper or special project which focuses on an issue relevant to the student's concentration. Under the direction of the director of Africana Studies, students will meet collectively two or three times during the semester with the directors (and, if possible, other Africana Studies core and contributing faculty) to share bibliographies, research data, early drafts, and the like. This group will also meet at the end of the semester to discuss and evaluate final papers and projects.	1330:T ALTHSE 07
Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
AMST 200-02	Caribbean Diasporic Identities Instructor: Jerry Philogene Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 220-02 and LALC 200-02. This course provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the development of Caribbean diasporic identities during the 20th century. Drawing on a wide range of materials including: essays, novels, and popular culture, this course contextualizes the social, cultural, and political processes that have shaped Caribbean diasporic peoples. Geared towards students who are interested in the intersections of immigration, ethnicity, race, and culture, this course opens up perspectives to explore the transformative experience of immigration and the making of Caribbean diasporic identities. More broadly, the course utilizes popular and visual arts, including music and carnival, as critical lenses to examine the meaning and formation of Caribbean diasporic identities. This course will bring to light the interconnectedness of immigration, identity formation, and cultural production; processes that have been central to the creation of American peoples.	0900:TR DENNY 204
AMST 301-01	Postcolonial Fem Sci Studies Instructor: Megan Glick Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 320-01 and WGST 300-01. This course will provide an introduction to postcolonial feminist critiques of medicine, science, and technology. We will begin by interrogating how ideas of gender, sex, and sexuality are shaped by medical, scientific, and technological discourses. We will continue on to address how these concepts are deployed in reproductive politics, the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare, and the use and dissemination of modernizing technology in developing nations. We will then consider the place of women both as objects of, and active participants in - scientific research projects. We will examine all of these phenomena from cross-cultural perspectives, paying particular attention to the circulation of knowledge and research across the globe, and the relationship between scientific progress and conditions of socio-economic inequality.	1030:TR ALTHSE 109
Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
ANTH 255-01	Global Eastern Africa Instructor: James Ellison Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 220-04. Global Eastern Africa This course examines global connections in the intersections of culture and power that underlie contemporary issues in eastern Africa. The globally marketed indigenous cultures and exotic landscapes of eastern Africa, like current dilemmas of disease and economic development, are products of complex local and transnational processes (gendered, cultural, social, economic, and political) that developed over time. To understand ethnicity, the success or failure of development projects, the social and economic contexts of tourism, responses to the AIDS crisis, the increasing presence of multinational corporations, and other contemporary issues, we will develop an ethnographic perspective that situates cultural knowledge and practice in colonial and postcolonial contexts. While our focus is on eastern Africa, the course will offer students ways to think about research and processes in other contexts.	1330:MR DENNY 303
Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
ENGL 375-01	African American Women Writers Instructor: Lynn Johnson Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 320-01 and WGST 300-04. This course examines a range of the literary productions written by African American women. Specifically, we will span the African-American literary tradition in order to discover the historical, political, and social forces that facilitated the evolution of Black women's voices as well as their roles inside and outside the Black community. Additionally, we will discuss such issues as self-definition, womanhood, sexuality, activism, race, class, and community.	1330:MR ALTHSE 206
Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
FLST 310-01	Franco-Maghrebi Imagination Instructor: Nancy Mellerski Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 320-03, FREN 363-01, MEST 200-08 and WGST 300-02. We will study writers and filmmakers of two generations in France: those who immigrated to the Mtropole from North Africa during the postcolonial period, and those who were born in France of Maghrebi parents but still find themselves on the other side of the ethnic divide in a society that maintains an ambivalent relationship with its cultural minorities. Our approach will be an eclectic one, as we explore the history of Franco-Maghrebi relations during the colonial era, the socioeconomic experiences of the guest workers who toiled to rebuild France during the postwar period, the meaning of social and geographical marginalization in the banlieue, the particular situation of Muslim female authors, and, finally, the ways in which cultural hybridity is expressed in both prose and cinema.	1330:TF BOSLER 310
Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
FREN 246-01	Intro to Francophone Cultures Instructor: Benjamin Ngong Course Description:	1030:MWF BOSLER 213
FREN 246-02	Intro to Francophone Cultures Instructor: Linda Brindeau Course Description: This course explores the relationship between literature and Francophone cultures (Vietnam, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa). Topics include: "Ngritude," the negro-African identity, "cultural mtissage," the status of women, the dialogue between tradition and modernity, independence, and post-colonial disillusionment. Historical overview of the international context of Francophonie will be examined through short stories, novels, poems, critical essays, feature and documentary films. Prerequisite: 236. This course fulfills the DIV I.b. distribution requirement and Comparative Civilizations graduation requirement.	1130:MWF BOSLER 318
FREN 363-01	Franco-Maghrebi Imagination Instructor: Nancy Mellerski Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 320-03, FLST 310-01, MEST 200-08 and WGST 300-02. The Monday session will be taught in French. We will study writers and filmmakers of two generations in France: those who immigrated to the Mtropole from North Africa during the postcolonial period, and those who were born in France of Maghrebi parents but still find themselves on the other side of the ethnic divide in a society that maintains an ambivalent relationship with its cultural minorities. Our approach will be an eclectic one, as we explore the history of Franco-Maghrebi relations during the colonial era, the socioeconomic experiences of the guest workers who toiled to rebuild France during the postwar period, the meaning of social and geographical marginalization in the banlieue, the particular situation of Muslim female authors, and, finally, the ways in which cultural hybridity is expressed in both prose and cinema.	1330:MF BOSLER 310
Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
HIST 215-03	Cities & Urban Life in Africa Instructor: Constanze Weise Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 220-05. This course will focus on the history and historiography of cities and urbanization in Africa from the fourth millennium BC to the present. Readings and discussions will explore urban political and economic conditions; urban location and infrastructure; the sociality of urban life; and urban culture.	1230:MWF DENNY 104
HIST 215-07	Islam: Africa & Indian Ocean Instructor: Constanze Weise Course Description: Cross-listed with MEST 200-06 and AFST 220-07. This lecture/ discussion course surveys the political, social, economic, and religious history of the expansion of Islam to Africa from the Muslim conquest in the seventh and eighth centuries C.E. until ca. 1900 C.E. It looks at the interaction between Muslim North Africa, the Middle East as well as Sub-Saharan and Indian Ocean Africa. We will examine trans-regional trade networks that extended from north of the Sahara and from across the Indian Ocean and which formed an undeniable part of the diffusion of Muslim religious thought and practices to the African Continent. We will further study processes of Islamization in various African regions over the past 1000 + years that were triggered by political as well as social historical processes. We will consider questions such as: What were the main undercurrents of the processes of religious conversion? Did patterns of Islamization differ regionally? Is there an African Islam or in other words is there an Africanization of Islam? How did Islam influence the creation and operation of social, political and economic institution? What impact did Arabic literacy have on African communities in general and educational institutions in particular? What were the big institutions of Islamic learning and what was their influence in African communities? How did Islam impinge on the status of African women across diverse cultures? What influence did Islam have on gender roles within African communities? What did being Muslim mean in the context of the trans-Saharan and the trans-Atlantic slave trades? Throughout the quarter we will consider these questions and learn about a range of key religious, economic, political, social and cultural issues of importance that are attributed to the role of Islam in Africa. We will explore a range of scholarly readings and debates as well as various sources of African history such as poetry, travel narratives, memoirs, legal texts, chronicles, and oral histories.	0930:MWF DENNY 104
HIST 374-01	African Women's History Instructor: Constanze Weise Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 320-04 and WGST 374-01. This course examines the role of women in African societies since the nineteenth century. Lectures and readings will be arranged thematically. Themes include sexuality and reproduction, the household, women's economic activity, political power, religion, colonialism, and democracy. After a discussion of gender, we will analyze pre-colonial production and reproduction, family life and religion in the twentieth century, women's roles in nationalist politics, the politics of female genital mutilation, and the lives of two contemporary African women leaders. Readings, including historical studies and novels, songs, and art, will be drawn from across the cultures and languages of Africa.	1030:MWF DENNY 104
Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
LALC 121-01	Intro to Africana Studies Instructor: Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 100-01.	1030:TR ALTHSE 207
LALC 122-01	Introduction to Caribbean St Instructor: Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 235-01.	1330:TR ALTHSE 106
LALC 200-02	Caribbean Diasporic Identities Instructor: Jerry Philogene Course Description: Cross-listed with AMST 200-02 and AFST 220-02. This introductory course provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the development of Caribbean diasporic identities during the 20th century. Drawing on a wide range of materials including: essays, novels, and popular culture, this course contextualizes the social, cultural, and political processes that have shaped Caribbean diasporic peoples. Geared towards students who are interested in the intersections of immigration, ethnicity, race, and culture, this course opens up perspectives to explore the transformative experience of immigration and the making of Caribbean diasporic identities. More broadly, the course utilizes popular and visual arts, including music and carnival, as critical lenses to examine the meaning and formation of Caribbean diasporic identities. Caribbean American Identities will bring to light the interconnectedness of immigration, identity formation, and cultural production; processes that have been central to the creation of American peoples.	0900:TR DENNY 204
Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
MEST 200-06	Islam: Africa & Indian Ocean Instructor: Constanze Weise Course Description: Cross-listed with HIST 215-07 and AFST 220-07. This lecture/ discussion course surveys the political, social, economic, and religious history of the expansion of Islam to Africa from the Muslim conquest in the seventh and eighth centuries C.E. until ca. 1900 C.E. It looks at the interaction between Muslim North Africa, the Middle East as well as Sub-Saharan and Indian Ocean Africa. We will examine trans-regional trade networks that extended from north of the Sahara and from across the Indian Ocean and which formed an undeniable part of the diffusion of Muslim religious thought and practices to the African Continent. We will further study processes of Islamization in various African regions over the past 1000 + years that were triggered by political as well as social historical processes. We will consider questions such as: What were the main undercurrents of the processes of religious conversion? Did patterns of Islamization differ regionally? Is there an African Islam or in other words is there an Africanization of Islam? How did Islam influence the creation and operation of social, political and economic institution? What impact did Arabic literacy have on African communities in general and educational institutions in particular? What were the big institutions of Islamic learning and what was their influence in African communities? How did Islam impinge on the status of African women across diverse cultures? What influence did Islam have on gender roles within African communities? What did being Muslim mean in the context of the trans-Saharan and the trans-Atlantic slave trades? Throughout the quarter we will consider these questions and learn about a range of key religious, economic, political, social and cultural issues of importance that are attributed to the role of Islam in Africa. We will explore a range of scholarly readings and debates as well as various sources of African history such as poetry, travel narratives, memoirs, legal texts, chronicles, and oral histories.	0930:MWF DENNY 104
MEST 200-08	Franco-Maghrebi Imagination Instructor: Nancy Mellerski Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 320-03, FLST 310-01, FREN 363-01 and WGST 300-02. We will study writers and filmmakers of two generations in France: those who immigrated to the Mtropole from North Africa during the postcolonial period, and those who were born in France of Maghrebi parents but still find themselves on the other side of the ethnic divide in a society that maintains an ambivalent relationship with its cultural minorities. Our approach will be an eclectic one, as we explore the history of Franco-Maghrebi relations during the colonial era, the socioeconomic experiences of the guest workers who toiled to rebuild France during the postwar period, the meaning of social and geographical marginalization in the banlieue, the particular situation of Muslim female authors, and, finally, the ways in which cultural hybridity is expressed in both prose and cinema.	1330:TF BOSLER 310
Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
POSC 252-01	African Government & Politics Instructor: J Mark Ruhl Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 220-01.	1330:MR DENNY 313
POSC 290-02	Marginalization & Represent Instructor: Vanessa Tyson Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 220-03. This course explores the political representation of groups that have historically been marginalized in American society and excluded from the democratic process either through statute or through common practices. In particular, issues of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia will be addressed.	1330:W DENNY 311
Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
WGST 300-01	Postcolonial Fem Sci Studies Instructor: Megan Glick Course Description: Cross-listed with AMST 301-01 and AFST 320-01. This course will provide an introduction to postcolonial feminist critiques of medicine, science, and technology. We will begin by interrogating how ideas of gender, sex, and sexuality are shaped by medical, scientific, and technological discourses. We will continue on to address how these concepts are deployed in reproductive politics, the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare, and the use and dissemination of modernizing technology in developing nations. We will then consider the place of women both as objects of, and active participants in - scientific research projects. We will examine all of these phenomena from cross-cultural perspectives, paying particular attention to the circulation of knowledge and research across the globe, and the relationship between scientific progress and conditions of socio-economic inequality.	1030:TR ALTHSE 109
WGST 300-02	Franco-Maghrebi Imagination Instructor: Nancy Mellerski Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 320-03, FLST 310-01, FREN 363-01 and MEST 200-08. We will study writers and filmmakers of two generations in France: those who immigrated to the Mtropole from North Africa during the postcolonial period, and those who were born in France of Maghrebi parents but still find themselves on the other side of the ethnic divide in a society that maintains an ambivalent relationship with its cultural minorities. Our approach will be an eclectic one, as we explore the history of Franco-Maghrebi relations during the colonial era, the socioeconomic experiences of the guest workers who toiled to rebuild France during the postwar period, the meaning of social and geographical marginalization in the banlieue, the particular situation of Muslim female authors, and, finally, the ways in which cultural hybridity is expressed in both prose and cinema.	1330:TF BOSLER 310
WGST 300-04	African American Women Writers Instructor: Lynn Johnson Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 320-02 and ENGL 375-01. This course examines a range of the literary productions written by African American women. Specifically, we will span the African-American literary tradition in order to discover the historical, political, and social forces that facilitated the evolution of Black women's voices as well as their roles inside and outside the Black community. Additionally, we will discuss such issues as self-definition, womanhood, sexuality, activism, race, class, and community.	1330:MR ALTHSE 206
WGST 374-01	African Women's History Instructor: Constanze Weise Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 320-04 and HIST 374-01. This course examines the role of women in African societies since the nineteenth century. Lectures and readings will be arranged thematically. Themes include sexuality and reproduction, the household, women's economic activity, political power, religion, colonialism, and democracy. After a discussion of gender, we will analyze pre-colonial production and reproduction, family life and religion in the twentieth century, women's roles in nationalist politics, the politics of female genital mutilation, and the lives of two contemporary African women leaders. Readings, including historical studies and novels, songs, and art, will be drawn from across the cultures and languages of Africa.	1030:MWF DENNY 104