Same as ENG 184. An introduction to the themes, issues and questions that shaped the literature of African Americans during its period of origin. Texts include poetry, prose, and works of fiction. Writers include Harriet Jacobs, Frances Harper, Charles Chesnutt, Frederick Douglass and Phillis Wheatley.

Topics course: What role has grief played in the black freedom struggle? How have conceptions of race and gender been articulated, expanded, and politicized through public performances of collective mourning? This seminar explores the ways in which post-emancipation black politics developed through efforts, often led by women, to not only challenge but to also embody and inhabit trauma. We will consider a range of theoretical texts alongside historical documents from the late nineteenth century to today.

Same as AFR 245. A study of one of the first cohesive cultural movement in African-American history. This class focuses on developments in politics and civil rights (NAACP, Urban League, UNIA), creative arts (poetry, prose, painting, sculpture) and urban sociology (modernity, the rise of cities). Writers and subjects include Zora Neale Hurston, David Levering Lewis, Gloria Hull, Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen among others. Enrollment limited to 40.

Same as ENG 282. A study of one of the first cohesive cultural movements in Afican-American history. This class focuses on developments in politics, and civil rights (NAACP, Urban League, UNIA), creative arts (poetry, prose, painting, sculpture) and urban sociology (modernity, the rise of cities). Writers include Zora Neale Hurston, David Levering Lewis, Gloria Hull, Langston Hughes and Nella Larsen among others.

This course is designed to introduce students to the many methods of inquiry used for research in interdisciplinary fields such as Africana studies. Guided by a general research topic or theme, students are exposed to different methods for asking questions and gathering evidence.

This course examines historical, critical and theoretical perspectives on the development of Black feminist theory/praxis. The course draws from the 19th century to the present, but focuses on the contemporary Black feminist intellectual tradition that achieved notoriety in the 1970s and initiated a global debate on “Western” and global feminisms. Central to our exploration is the analysis of the intersectional relationship between theory and practice, and of race, to gender and class.

This course is designed to introduce students to key issues in film studies, focusing on cinema in the United States from the silent era to the present. We will pay particular attention to discourses of racial identity, gender difference, and sexuality on screen, reading early, classical, and recent films in the context of contemporary conversations about politics, equity, and social justice.

If Science is not purely objective and art not just for "Art's sake" what are we to do? From energy systems, to economic crises, to protection against terrorists; from supplying new food organisms, to drone warfare in the Middle East, to exploring meaning with all kinds of creative human endeavors, our modern society turns to the arts & sciences for solutions. But the sciences also proliferate side effects -- ranging from toxic military pollution, through unforeseen biological disruption, to global warming and political backlash.

Pattern and Color in Life: Natural organisms provide an unparalleled palette for almost every color and pattern imaginable. Why do organisms have stripes and spots? Why blue or red? This course will explore how and why various colors and patterns are produced in the biological world. We will investigate biochemical, genetic (and epigenetic), developmental, and environmental mechanisms as well as simple mathematical models to explain their production. Additionally, we will link patterns/colors to their functions, such as defense, warning, camouflage, communication, mate attraction, etc.

Pattern and Color in Life: Natural organisms provide an unparalleled palette for almost every color and pattern imaginable. Why do organisms have stripes and spots? Why blue or red? This course will explore how and why various colors and patterns are produced in the biological world. We will investigate biochemical, genetic (and epigenetic), developmental, and environmental mechanisms as well as simple mathematical models to explain their production. Additionally, we will link patterns/colors to their functions, such as defense, warning, camouflage, communication, mate attraction, etc.