Literature & Culture

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)

Uncle Tom's Cabin

This course will focus on Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, locating its roots in earlier publications such as slave narratives; discussing the novel in the context of the literary aesthetics of its era and its social and political impact in its times; and exploring how other writers, and Stowe herself, responded to the issues it raised and the criticism it provoked.

Arts and Cultural Identity

Explores the arts as they are used to express cultural identity. It will examine various genres of art by artists of color and their application of cultural and social issues to their work. Using the exhibits and performances presented in the Augusta Savage Art Gallery, the curator will draw on those presentations for discussions and critiques of the arts as reflective of culture and as historical record. The course will include readings by and about artists, video viewings, the creation of arts projects, and discussions about the relationship of creativity to cultural expression.

Black Women in U.S. History

The history of African American women from the experience of slavery to the present. Emphasis on the effect of racist institutions and practices on women. The ways in which women organized themselves to address the needs of African Americans in general and their own in particular. The achievements of such leaders as Mary Church Terrell, Harriet Tubman, Ella Baker, and Mary McLeod Bethune as well as lesser known women. (Gen.Ed. HS, DU)

S-HistoriographicalMthdAfro-Am

This course will introduce you to some of the basics of what it means to read, think, and write as an historian. We will explore what historians do and why as well as the "objectivity question," the development of African American history as an academic discipline, and one or two current controversies. We also will learn how to locate and use the resources of the Du Bois Library such as microforms, government documents, the papers of W.E.B.

DuBois Senior Seminar

AFROAM 494DI is an upper-division course that provides a structured context for students to reflect on their own learning in their General Education courses and the courses they have taken in the AFROAM major. In the course we will attempt to connect skills and knowledge from multiple sources and experiences and apply theory to practice in various real world settings; engaging diverse and even contradictory points of view; and, understanding issues and positions contextually as students prepare to write their senior thesis.
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