The African and Black Diaspora Studies Program
Course Descriptions
Spring 2017
di.as.po.ra [dī-as-per-uh]:
referring to a group that
has been dispersed outside of its traditional
homeland, especially involuntarily.
ABD 203: Africa, 1900-Present
T/Th 1:00-2:30 (LPC)
Instructor: Dr. Ogenga Otunnu
“passing,” “war brides,” “orientalism,” trans-racial
adoption, and “colorism.”
Crosslist with HST 133. Examines the wor kings
of the colonial system, the rise and course of independence movements, and the history of individual
African states since independence.
ABD 206: Afro-Caribbean and AfroLatin America: Peoples, Cultures,
Ideas, and Movements
M/W 2:40-4:10 (LPC)
Instructor: Dr. Alyssa Garcia
This course examines historical and cultural constructions of blackness in Latin America and the
Caribbean. This class will explore the way racial
projects intersect with gender, sexuality, and class
issues via case studies of diverse communities and
countries in the region through both historical and
contemporary perspectives. Students will learn
how racial identities are constructed and interpreted in the Americas and the ways these identities
have shaped Latin American and Caribbean cultures, politics, and societies. The course will situate race and blackness amongst social, cultural,
economic and political transformations in the region and the comparative dimensions of these processes in order to illustrate the diversity and complexity of the region’s development.
ABD 246: Principles of African Art
The second portion of the course examines varying definitions of love as well as visual and fictional representations of blacks in loving relationships in film, romance fiction, and self-help
and relationship books between 1990 and 2014.
It concludes with student projects that examine a
range of genres in search of progressive, transformative images that represent blacks in loving
relationships (heterosexual, gay, parental, familial, and platonic friendships).
Founded in 2003, the African and Black Diaspora Studies Program is committed to a
rigorous, interdisciplinary and sociallyconscious approach to the study of the ideas, peoples, and cultures of African descent
around the world.
ABD 232: Mixed Race American
Identity
T/Th 1:00-2:30 (LPC)
Instructor: Dr. Lori Pierce
ABD 220: Blacks and Love
Although the US has always been culturally heterogeneous, it was not until the last decades of
the 20th century that “mixed race” people – the
children of parents from distinct ethnic backgrounds – began to assert an independent identity. In the wake of the Civil rights movement,
greater social mobility and a global economic
and political expansion, more Americans chose
to accept, identify with or actively pursue relationships that crossed traditional racialized social
barriers. Mixed race or bi-cultural identity
emerged in the late 20th century as a means by
which children of diverse cultural heritages could
positively identify with the full range of their
cultural experiences.
This course examines definitions of love as well as
representations of blacks and love in essays, photography, art, film, and literature. The course begins by studying the construction of race in eighteenth and nineteenth century. It explores how European and American writers theorized about
blacks and their capacity to give and receive love.
In addition, it studies how black writers, artists,
and photographers’ challenged these theories as
well as the stereotypical representations of blacks
in media and popular culture.
Racial mixing is not, of course, new. The idea
presumes that ethnic purity or social homogeneity ever existed or was ever possible. This course
will explore the idea of “mixing” by examining
the lives of mixed race people, the laws, social
institutions and cultural expressions that constitute mixed race identity. We will problematize
the idea of race and the concept of race mixing
and how the social and political contexts of racial
identity is supported, undermined or confounded
by the existence of those who are considered to
be “mixed.” The course will also consider other
forms of cultural and social mixing such as
We will explore broad patterns, changes, and continuities in the history of the African Diaspora in
the hemisphere through an analysis of various topics such as the conquest, colonization, slavery, independence struggles, nation-building, imperialism, neo-colonialism, revolution, violence, social
movements, and inter-American relations. It will
provide both anthropological and interdisciplinary
perspectives about the intersection of race and gender, and the impact of their interaction in order to
develop a nuanced appreciation of history and culture in Latin America and the Caribbean.
T/Th 9:40-11:10 (LPC)
Instructor: Dr. Julie Moody-Freeman
T/Th 1:00-2:30 (LPC)
Instructor: Dr. Mark DeLancey
Crosslist with HAA 101. This cour se ser ves as
an introduction to the study of African art. Coverage of the artistic traditions of Africa will not be
exhaustive. Africa is an enormous continent with
an extraordinary diversity of cultures. It is impossible to represent the entire continent in one quarter. The course is based around a series of important concepts for the study of African art. The
course will explore each of these concepts through
a variety of artistic traditions from the continent. In
this manner, students will gain basic theoretical
tools which will enable them to work with art from
across Africa.
The study of African art will also serve as an introduction to the basic concepts of the field of art history more generally, albeit from the Africanist perspective. As such, there is no need to have taken
prior art history or African studies courses. This
course assumes no prior encounter with either.
ABD 247: Ancient African Art:
Prehistoric to the European Encounter
T/Th 4:20-5:50 (LPC)
Instructor: Dr. Mark DeLancey
Cross-listed with HAA 201. This cour se sur veys
a selection of artistic traditions from across the
African continent beginning with the earliest attempts by humanity to visually represent complex
thought until the Portuguese began trading along
the coast of West Africa in the mid-fifteenth century. Emphasis is placed on demonstrating connectedness with a larger cultural environment, while
also suggesting connections to future artistic traditions.
ABD 251: World Refugee Crisis
Tuesday 6:00-9:15 (LPC)
Instructor: Dr. Ogenga Otunnu
Crosslist with HST 241. Human histor y has
been punctuated by violent and systematic violations of human rights and massive displacements
of populations in all regions of the world. These
crises--which reflect persistent and profound moral
and political legitimation deficit--have fragmented
and consumed millions of innocent lives, destroyed socio-economic and political infrastructures, provoked widespread xenophobia and destabilized national, regional, and international com-
ABD COURSE DESCRIPTIONS: SPRING 2017
munities and institutions. The causes of these crises are closely interrelated and include state formation; wars; terrorism; apartheid; genocide; trafficking of people; economic exploitation and underdevelopment; collapsed states; ecological destruction and ecological violence; imperialism; and
the conflict-laden and parasitic globalization. Displaced people are, therefore, a tragic by-product of
these local, national, regional and international
forces, past and present.
This course will raise questions and highlight debates about forced migration and the challenges of
contemporary displacements. It will also analyze
the causes and consequences of forced migration
since 1500. With these objectives in mind, the
course will examine some of the following themes
and topics: refugee studies versus forced migration
studies; international bill of human rights; causes
of forced migration; regional and international human rights law and international refugee law; immigration, asylum and refugee policies; internal
displacements; environmental displacements; challenges facing displaced women and displaced children; emergency response to humanitarian crises;
global trafficking of people; war crimes; genocide
and mass rapes; crises of land-mines; humanitarian
interventions; durable solutions to refugee crises;
and peace-building and reconstruction of postconflict studies.
ABD 254: African Politics
Online
Instructor: Dr. Clement Adibe
ABD 290: Special Topics: Slavery,
Race, and Religion
T/Th 11:20-12:50 (LPC)
Instructor: Dr. Chernoh Sesay, Jr.
Crosslist with REL 219. This class addr esses
three basic questions:
1) How do we understand and explain the shift
from defining slavery as a natural, but oppressive, condition to defining slavery as unnatural
and evil?
2) How has religion been used both to legitimate
and to criticize slavery?
3) What is the significance of the changing relationship between Christianity and slavery for
thinking about various modes of contemporary
oppression?
While the class will briefly introduce students to
the long historical relationship between slavery
and religion, the class will focus on the historical
relationship between racial slavery, evangelical
religion, and Christian abolitionism in the Atlantic world. Students will examine religious arguments for and against slavery. Students will also
gain an introduction to and think about the relationship between slavery, evangelicalism, capitalism, and Enlightenment moral philosophy.
ABD 290: Special Topics: Global
Empires
Monday: 6:00-9:15 (LPC)
Instructor: Dr. Shailja Sharma
Crosslist with PSC 254. The study of Afr ica
must first proceed with the understanding that Africa is a vast continent of heterogeneous nations,
and not a monolithic nation-state. The failure on
the part of scholarship and media commentaries to
appreciate this kernel of African politics has been
responsible for gross generalizations, simplifications and misconceptions on a grand scale. Therefore, approaching Africa as an “Area Study” within
the field of comparative politics requires some
measure of modesty, rigor and analytical discipline.
Crosslist with INT 306. In this cour se, students gain an acquaintance with theories of imperialism and post-colonial theory through historically situated studies. 'Power' serves as the
generative concept for this course, to be understood as emergent at multi-scalar levels. This
course will look at comparative partitions in the
period of decolonization in order to talk about
imperialism and its effect on the modern nationstate system, particularly in Asia.
The purpose of this course is to equip first-time
students of African politics with the requisite comparative analytical tools to embark upon a measured and systematic study of African politics, international relations and political economy. During
the course of this quarter, we shall focus our critical lenses on the continuing influence of colonialism on both the academic study of Africa and the
development of 'state capacity' in this vast continent as well as the emerging patterns of (re)
engagement between Africa and the international
community in light of the global war on terror. We
shall also examine the politics of an African state,
Nigeria, to test some of the assumptions and hypotheses in the theoretical literature on African
politics.
T/Th 11:20-12:50 (LPC)
Instructor: Dr. Julie Moody-Freeman
ABD 258: African American History,
1900-Present
T/Th 11:20-12:50 (LPC)
Instructor: Dr. Authens Oppong Wadie
Crosslist with HST 248. The Afr ican exper ience
in America spans four hundred years, from the initial settlement of the American continent by Europeans, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and down
through the present day. This course will focus on
a portion of that history--from 1900 to the present.
This course will focus on the voices and experiences of African Americans themselves. The course is
more or less organized chronologically, with an
emphasis on topics such as Jim Crow segregation,
migration, the Harlem Renaissance/Black Arts
Movement, African Americans in World Wars I
and II, black political thought, black freedom
movements, and gendered criminalization.
ABD 380: Topics in African American Studies: bell hooks
This course examines the writings of bell hooks,
Black intellectual, feminist theorist, and cultural
critic. It studies five of her books: Ain’t I a
Woman?: Black Women and Feminism, Feminist
Theory: From Margin to Center, Bone Black:
Memories of Girlhood, Rock My Soul: Black
People and Self-esteem, and We Real Cool:
Black Men and Masculinity, as well as her critical essays, conversations, and speeches. We will
use these works to examine hooks’ focus on the
intersectionality of race, gender, and capitalism
as well as her focus on women’s writing lives,
belonging and spirituality in contemporary culture. Finally, the course will study critical engagements between bell hooks and other Black
intellectual scholars, feminist theorists, and cultural critics on topics that include: Black people’s intellectual, psychological, and spiritual
development; Black sexual politics and the issue
of Black respectability; and popular cultural
icons performing feminisms.
Questions?
Email
[email protected]
ABD 386: Black Women’s Lives
Tuesday 6:00-9:15 PM (LPC)
Instructor: Misty DeBerry
Crosslist with WGS 386. Time flows on,
through and between bodies. Time can be interrupted, taken away from, controlled, distributed,
and re-imagined. Time can also be used as an aesthetic function in creative and activist practices.
Black women’s engagement with durational art
practices, such as restorative justice circles where
over a specified length of time, acts of breathing
and listening begin to shift group dynamics, is one
example of the ways that time and embodiment
shape creativity, struggle, and resilience among
black women engaged in political struggle. The
question then is not so much what time is, but, rather what does time do and how is time experienced by particular bodies? Examining time-based
art practices taken up by black women and nonbinary people of color, this class grapples with
questions pertaining to performances of embodied
time as strategies for black healing and liberation
in the U.S. It looks at black women’s relationship
with the nation/state through forms of temporal
violence, such as debt accrual, environmental racism, and everyday hostilities that are characteristic
of carceral logics. Spanning the intimate realm to
the public sphere, covering notions of national belonging to intellectual solitude, this course explores black women’s uses of creative expression,
activist practices, and intellectual production as a
means for healing and liberation. Course materials
will include performances, activist practices, and
written scholarship at the intersections of Black
Feminist Thought, African American Studies, performance theory, and critical theory. Authors covered include: Francesca Royster, Daphne Brooks,
Mia McKenzie, Angela Davis, Hortense Spillers,
Sandra Ruiz, Claudia Rankine, Charles Mills, Judith Butler, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. A weekly
performance workshop will accompany each seminar. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to develop a final performance in response to
the course. *Please note, no performance experience is necessary, willingness and curiosity will
do!
Did you know:
African and Black Diaspora Studies
(ABD) will accept courses from other
departments towards a major or minor in ABD?
Even courses not listed here can
count, if they deal with Africa, Black
America, the Caribbean, or anywhere
in the African diaspora.
Wondering if a course will count? Ask us!
Email [email protected]