This course will examine the social, cultural, political, and economic history of African Americans from emancipation and Reconstruction through the present. Emphasis will fall on postwar southern social and economic developments, the rise of segregation, northern migrations, black class stratification, nationalism, the twentieth-century civil rights movement, and current trends in African American political, social, and economic life.

"Black Metropolis" refers to the more than half a million black people jammed into a South Side ghetto in Chicago at mid-twentieth century that featured an entrenched black political machine, a prosperous black middle class, and a thriving black cultural scene in the midst of massive poverty and systemic inequality. This course will follow the political, economic, and cultural developments of what scholars considered to be the typical urban community in postwar United States.

This reading- and writing-intensive course draws upon the intellectual traditions of African American, African, and African diasporic studies in order to explore the connections and disjunctures among people of African descent. While the course pays attention to national, regional, and historical contexts, it asks this question: what do African descended people have in common and when and how are their experiences and interests different? What can we glean from contemporary discourses grounded in the consideration of global black lives?

This course examines the structural evolution of Romance languages from Vulgar Latin to contemporary forms. A chronological account will be organized around themes of persistence (inheritance from Latin) and innovation (structural change). We will begin by exploring different theories about linguistic change. Then, using concrete examples, we will analyze the main stages of development of Romance languages by focusing on different features at all linguistic levels and relating them to historical and sociological factors.

This course will survey arts of China from the neolithic period to the twentieth century. Class lectures will analyze ceramics, bronze vessels, sculpture, architecture, calligraphy, and painting in relation to various religious ideas and political formations that took place in China's long history.

This course will look at the history, theory and practice of art museums as well as the numerous issues they face today. Students will be introduced to issues such as community access, cultural ownership, and repatriation. We will consider the biases that are present in any exhibition through the work of artists such as Andrea Fraser and Fred Wilson. Through hands on projects and field trips students will gain valuable insight and experience in the museum field.

Concentration on individual artistic development. Emphasis will be placed on experimentation, thematic development, and critical review. Students may elect to take this course more than once.

Indian popular film, known commonly as Bollywood, is usually understood to have weak storylines interrupted with overblown cinematic spectacles and distracting dance numbers. The course explores the narrative and visual structure of Bollywood for what scholar Lalitha Gopalan has called a "constellation of interruptions." We will analyze a selection of films closely, read scholarly articles, participate in debates, write guided assignments, and pursue independent research papers.

Through investigation of major works produced in the Muslim world between the seventh and seventeenth centuries from Spain to India, this course explores the ways in which art and architecture were used to embody the faith, accommodate its particular needs, and express the power of its rulers. Topics include the calligraphy of the Qur'an, illustrated literature, the architecture of the mosque, and the aristocratic palace.