An intensive study of fifty major works of Afro-American studies. Required of all first-year doctoral candidates and open to only them.

Not available at this time

Not available at this time

Not available at this time

This course examines genealogies of black visual culture from the age of slavery to the present day. It also offers an introduction to black visual theory. We will consider multiple genealogies, including the visual rhetoric of the abolitionist movement; the role of visuality in regimes of enslavement and its afterlives; black women's friendship albums and other visual ephemera; the data visualizations created by W. E. B.

This course will cover major writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance of the 1930s-1950s, setting them in the context of the White Chicago Renaissance, the New Negro Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, and other arts in Chicago in the era, and treating various aesthetics, goals, themes, symbols and images that express the zeitgeist of the movement.

A critical examination of the life and thought of W.E.B. Du Bois, black scholar and activist, with reference to his major works. Topics include Du Bois as sociologist, historian, propagandist, and creative writer, taking into account his often shifting views on art and culture, politics, leadership, civil rights and the color line, trade unionism, Pan-Africianism, socialism, internationalism, and double consciousness.

This course will provide an opportunity for students to assist in researching and selecting materials for a Black Presence at UMass website and for a short history, with photos, of the presence of Black folk at UMass since its founding in 1867. The goal for the website is to be as comprehensive as possible in identifying students, staff, administrators, faculty that made up the UMass Afro-descended community. The efforts of all students involved will receive appropriate acknowledgement on the website and in the book.

This course will focus on contributions to primarily Marxist African and African-descended thinkers. We will read and discuss such major figures as W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, Angela Davis and Muhammad Ahmad. We also hope to introduce you to a selection of perhaps lesser-known figures such as George Padmore, Claudia Jones, Harry Haywood and James Boggs. The course will require extensive reading, informed participation in class discussion, and a final paper.

Not available at this time