Afro-American Studies 201 - METHODS OF INQUIRY

This course is designed to introduce students to the many methods of inquiry used for research in interdisciplinary fields such as Afro-American studies. Guided by a general research topic or theme, students will be exposed to different methods for asking questions and gathering evidence. Using the American South, as a case study, this course will give students an introduction to and practice in the tools of intellectual investigation in the study of African American history and culture/racial formations in the U.S. Students will read, attend lectures and learn from scholars whose work is based in specific disciplines (especially history, literature, cultural studies and the social sciences). You will also learn the challenges and opportunities made possible by doing interdisciplinary research. Through the multi-and interdisciplinary approach to a single topic or text (in the case of this semester, the South), students will learn how scholars in each discipline frame research questions, take certain kinds of research approaches, and put these various methods in conversation with each other. Finally, you will also have an opportunity to develop your own research project related to the focus of this course (race, ethnicity, and the social construction of identity) by means of library and media-based research.

Topic: Approaches to the American South.