This course is a collaboration between the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts and the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. Building upon the evolving discussions of race and racism in our society, this course aims to serve as a model for improving diversity education on campuses across the country and contribute to a more informed and thoughtful national culture.

Southern literature by African Americans, including slave narratives, autobiography, fiction and poetry. Concepts and issues of time, oppression and violence, culture and tradition, family and community, roots of social change as they impact factors of identity, race, class, and gender. (Gen. Ed. AL, DU)

This course will examine the development of Afro-American music during the twentieth century with an especial focus on links to the Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts Movement. In particular, the class will survey the variegated styles and productions of artists, including Bessie Smith, Eubie Blake, James P.

The purpose of this seminar is to begin to explore similarities, differences, connections and convergences between the Dalit population of India and African Americans in the United States. We will read short histories of both peoples, studies that focus on examples of historic interactions, and studies comparing leading figures of both groups. Most of the reading will center on the 20th century i.e. India during the periods of colonization, anti-colonization, and independence; and on African Americans from emancipation to the end of legal segregation.

Not available at this time

A survey of the politics of black people and their struggle for citizenship rights from 1787 to the present. The history of black political development and the theories to which it has given rise; and the two party struggles since the passage of 1965 Voting Rights Act--such as the rise of the Republican Right, Jesse Jackson's two 1980's presidential campaigns and the 2008 path-breaking election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States. (Gen. Ed. SB, DU)

Relevant forms of Black cultural expressions contributing to the shape and character of contemporary Black culture; the application of these in traditional Black writers. Includes: West African cultural patterns and the Black past; the transition-slavery, the culture of survival; the cultural patterns through literature; and Black perceptions versus white perceptions. (Gen.Ed. AL, DU)

Survey of AfricanAmerican literature of the 1920s: fiction, poetry, essays, folklore. Through the eyes and ideas of the writers, time, place, and socio historical and political contexts of 1920s revealed. Themes include: Harlem as symbol; identity of New Negro; and role and responsibility of black writers, male and female. (Gen.Ed. AL, DU)

Introductory level survey of Afro-American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the present, including DuBois, Hughes, Hurston, Wright, Ellison, Baldwin, Walker, Morrison, Baraka and Lorde. (Gen. Ed. AL, DU)