Spring 2021 Courses

Instructor: Professor Kwamina Panford

CRN: 35266

Days, Time: Mondays and Wednesdays 2:50 PM – 4:30 PM

Pre- Requisites: N/A

Description: This is a survey with an emphasis on the 49 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. It introduces students to major theoretical approaches used in African studies to understand key phenomena including racism; slavery; colonialism; neocolonialism;  African liberation/decolonization and Pan-Africanism that shape lives in Africa and are huge influences on Africans and people of African Descent.

This course has been cancelled.

Instructor: Professor Angel Nieves

CRN:  TBA, Coming to Banner Soon

Days, Time: Wednesday and Friday 11:45 AM – 1:25 PM

Pre- Requisites: N/A

Cross-listed Courses: INTL 1185, WMNS 1185

Description: Studies variations in gender roles throughout the African Diaspora, beginning on the African continent to the “modern” United States. Areas of the African Diaspora include Africa, the West Indies, the Caribbean, the Americas, Europe, and the Islamic world. Issues may include African feminism(s), sexuality, sexual expression, labor, reproduction, racism, intersectionality, and social constructions of gender.

Instructor: Professor Richard Wamai

CRN: 33176

Days, Time: Tuesday and Friday 1.35-3.15pm

Pre- Requisites: N/A

Cross-listed Courses: PHTH 1270

Description: This course introduces global health in the context of an interdependent and globalized world focusing on four main areas of analysis: infrastructure of global health; diseases; populations; and terms, concepts and theories. While our focus is on lower-income countries, the course examines issues in a broader global context underscoring the interconnections between global health disparities and global health policy response. Case studies describing interventions to improve healthcare in resource-poor settings in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere are applied to help illuminate the actors, diseases, populations and principles and frameworks for the design of effective global health interventions.

Instructor: Professor Kwamina Panford

CRN: 33356

Days, Time: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 9:15 AM -10:20 AM

Pre- Requisites: N/A

Description: This course focuses on challenges in Africa such as youth unemployment, low technology for industry,  agriculture, and communications, and how Africans can improve living and working conditions. The course offers opportunities to study historical economic, political, and social situations that shape current conditions in Africa.

Instructor: Professor N. Fadeke Castor

CRN: 35264

Days, Time: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays 1:35 PM – 2:40 PM

Pre- Requisites: N/A

Description: This course is designed to provide students with the tools to critically analyze various forms of global popular culture in the African Diaspora and understand them within a broader social context. Although this course will draw on your familiarity with Black popular culture, we will approach the subject from a scholarly perspective. We will learn how popular culture, in all its various forms, not only reflects the world around us but also how it influences the way we perceive the world. We will examine a wide range of subjects (such as film, festivals, music) using a wide range of critical approaches (such as critical theory, gender studies, postcolonial theory and cultural studies) in a variety of international locations (Ghana, Cuba, Brazil, and Trinidad) so that we can better understand the circulation, production, and consumption of Black popular culture around the globe. Our class is organized around an intersectional analysis, focused on three major themes (race, gender, and class).

Instructor: Eric Jackson

CRN: 35265

Days, Time: Mondays and Thursdays 11:45 AM – 1:25 PM

Pre- Requisites: N/A

Description: Lewis Porter has written this about John Coltrane, “John Coltrane was a key figure in jazz history, a pioneer in world music, and an intensely emotional force whose following continues to grow. In addition, Porter has written this about Coltrane, “Coltrane’s significance in the black community goes far beyond the notes he played. He stands for integrity, humility, spirituality, and more.” This course is designed with non-musicians in mind. It will examine the life of the artist and the changes in his life that effected his music. Chronological, the student will be exposed to some of the key recordings in the the artist’s career. In addition, audio/video materials will be used to supplement the course. Quiz questions will be drawn from this material and from classroom lectures and required readings. There will be 6 quizzes and each quiz will count as 10 % of the final grade. The successful completion of 5 homework papers will count as a total 10% of your grade and the final paper will be worth 30% of your grade. Grades will be based on a possible score of 1000 points and not on an average. Required readings should be completed prior to class so that the student is prepared to take part in class discussions. It’s possible that additional readings that are not listed on the syllabus will be required. The same may be true of audio and video material. Students are responsible for class material missed due to absence. Attendance and participation are an integral part of this course and all students are expected to attend class meetings regularly. All students will be required to turn in a final paper of not less than 6 pages at the completion of the class. As mentioned, the paper will count for 30% the student’s grade

Instructor: Professor Matt Lee

CRN: 35934 (Section 01), 38796 (Section 02)

Days, Time: Tuesdays and Fridays 9:50 AM – 11:30 AM (Section 01), Mondays and Thursdays 11:45 AM – 1:25 PM (Section 02)

Pre- Requisites: N/A

Cross-listed Courses: HUSV 2355, SOCL 2355

Description: This undergraduate-level course examines racism, racial identity, and theories of social change and racial empowerment primarily within the US context.  The goal of the course is to highlight different ways in which racism and racial privilege have been experienced by different racial communities, more specifically at the micro, meso, and macro levels, and to learn ways to promote racial empowerment and equity.  Using theory from primarily psychology and sociology, we investigate the impact of social systems and institutions on individual-level and group experiences of racism, such as students’ own racial identities, a deeper understanding of institutional inequalities and intersectionality, and practical skills in leadership and community-building that can promote positive social change and racial equality.

Instructor: Professor Angel Nieves

CRN:  38085

Days, Time: Tuesday and Friday 9:50 AM – 11:30 AM

Pre- Requisites: N/A

Description: This hybrid lecture course (includes humanities-based computing) examines the social impact of diverse forms of technological development and application that will have sweeping effects on the everyday lives of individuals, groups, governments, and societies in the twenty-first century, especially for POC. The global, transforming effects of technology as it affects communities of color in the United States (with a focus on African Americans) and internationally are explored in three main areas: the computer, DNA (bio-politics), and social revolutions (“Arab Spring,” BLM, prison abolition, etc.). Topics may include the digital divide, minority media usage and ownership, human cloning, social media activism, race and cultural representations on the internet, and biopiracy. Lectures, class discussions, fieldwork, online projects, and interaction with digital-media leaders in these various fields are integral elements of this hybrid course. No previous experience in coding and/or programming required.

This course has been cancelled.

Instructor: Professor Melissa Pearson

CRN: 36104

Days, Time: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 9:15 AM – 10:20 AM

Pre- Requisites: N/A

Cross-listed Courses: ENGL 3404

Description: “African American Rhetorical Traditions” is a survey course which examines and organizes the ways that African Americans have historically maintained their humanity and negotiated freedom through discourse. The course explores various discursive practices of African American discourse communities, such as, the enslaved, abolitionists, feminists, nationalist/revolutionaries, and entertainers; to engage discussions about freedom, access to democracy, racial uplift, gender equity, and the discursive and recursive nature of racial identity. This course will look at historical contexts and current sociopolitical dynamics emphasizing the Black Jeremiad, civil rights rhetoric, the black power movement, Black Feminist Thought and Hip Hop.

The historical and theoretical scope of the course the African American rhetorical tradition will begin with the original notion of the African principle of Nommo, the power of the “Word” and in the classical rhetorical traditions of ancient Greece and Rome.

This course has been cancelled.

Instructor:  Chantal Muse, Noora Abdulkerim

CRN:  38275

Days, Time: Tuesdays and Fridays 3:25 PM-5:05 PM

Pre- Requisites: N/A

Description: In this course, we will discuss a decolonized model of mental health care. We will be discussing ways in which a decolonized training model better equips clinicians to serve patients with marginalized identities, as opposed to existing diversity models. Through the decolonized frame-work, we will investigate the ways in which colonialism and capitalism affect our understanding of intersectionality, race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability. Also, we will discuss  the role of whiteness within the health sciences and throughout history, re-evaluate previously held colonized beliefs when conducting and validating research. Finally, this class will explore and discuss tools for clinicians on implementing a decolonized practice. As a result, we will learn how to work with clients of marginalized identities as opposed to taking charge of their agency.

Instructor:  Professor Richard Wamai

CRN: 34994

Days, Time: Wednesday 4:40 PM – 7:40 PM

Pre- Requisites: N/A

Description: While it might have been the case in past decades that a disease experienced in one country “stayed” in that country or continent, this is no longer the case (think: Ebola in Africa, Zika in South America, SARS in Asia, MERS in the Middle East, or COVID-19!). With today’s unparalleled global mobility, it’s quite clear that what happens in one nation does affects others— and this is particularly true when we consider infectious diseases. With greater understanding that our planet is a dynamic system, it is critically important that we acknowledge that a disease in one nation can have worldwide consequences, and we recognize a greater need for moral imagination. Global health provides a foundation and mechanism for identifying those factors that promote or threaten health in diverse contexts and with diverse populations, leading to implications for prevention, intervention, and hopefully, effective treatments. This interdisciplinary seminar provides a platform for curious students to explore the multifaceted new frontiers of global health in ways that span research, theory, practice, communication, and social action— the “art and science” of health— all while learning how a new disciplinary imagination and set of professions emerge.

• AFRS 1101 – Introduction to African Studies

• AFRS 1185 – Gender and Sexuality in the African Diaspora (course cancelled)
• AFRS 1270 – Introduction to Global Health
• AFAM 1113 – Black Popular Culture
• AFAM 1135- John Coltrane & History of Jazz

• AFAM 1113 – Black Popular Culture
• AFAM 1135- John Coltrane & History of Jazz
• AFAM/ENGL 3404 – African American Rhetorical Traditions (course cancelled)

• AFRS 1185 – Gender and Sexuality in the African Diaspora (course cancelled)
• AFRS 1270 – Introduction to Global Health
• AFAM/HUSV 2355 – Race, Identity, Social Change and Empowerment
• AFRS 2307 – Africa Today
• AFAM 2600 – Race, Science, and Technology
• AFAM 4618 – Topics in Community Psychology: Decolonizing Mental Health (course cancelled)

• All courses offered