Designed to introduce students to the methods of inquiry used for research in Africana Studies. Through intensive study of a single topic (past examples: Toni Morrison's Beloved, the American South, The Black Seventies) students consider the formation of the field, engage canonical texts, attend lectures and learn from scholars whose work is based in a variety of disciplines. Focus is on the challenges and opportunities made possible by doing multi- and interdisciplinary research: how and why scholars ask and approach research questions and have conversations with each other.

Offered as AFR 170 and ENG 235. 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.

An examination of the broad contours of the history of African American people in the United States from ca. 1600 to 1960. Particular emphasis is given to how African Americans influenced virtually every aspect of U.S. society, slavery and Constitutional changes after 1865, debates on the meaning of freedom and citizenship, and the efforts to contest discrimination, segregation and anti-Black violence.

An introduction to some of the major perspectives, themes and issues in the field of Afro-American studies. The focus is on the economic, social and political aspects of cultural production, and how these inform what it means to read, write about, view and listen to Black culture.

Economic Development is the process of structural transformation in developing countries, or more simply, the ways that poor countries can become rich. In the course we will survey the theory and practice of economic development since World War II, including such topics as development ethics (e.g. what is development? development by whom and for what?), industrialization, agricultural development, rural-urban migration, and a global Green New Deal including such issues as Climate Reparations.

This course explores race, queerness, and the politics of play within the games industry and games community. By critically investigating racial stereotypes, gendered constructs, and ableist assumptions within the varied field of gaming (digital, table-top, LARPing), we can begin to understand and analyze how race, gender, and normativity structure our desires and code our cultures. This course will employ Game Studies, Cultural Studies, Queer Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Disability Studies. Questions to be considered include: What role does capitalism play in the production of games?

This course examines questions of race, gender/sexuality, and disability in science fiction, horror, and fantasy film and television. It investigates how and why people in different social positions have been constructed as foreign, freakish, or monstrous. In addition to exploring the relationship between sex/gender norms and hierarchies based on race/species or class/caste, we will also consider the following questions: Does the figure of the alien/freak/monster reconfigure the relationship between bodies, technology, and the division of labor?

This course focuses on the broad fundamentals of western music and music theory, including music literacy (how to read western music notation). We will look at theoretical concepts (pitch, rhythm, timbral nuances, texture, intervals, chords, harmony, etc.) and develop our sense of music cognition through ear training and solfege singing. This course will connect music to theory by teaching students the basics of music composition. No prior music training or literacy is required.

In this course, students will read and try their hand at different types of music writing. We will learn the basics of music journalism. literary non-fiction, and the musical memoir. We will focus on developing and strengthening proposal writing, outlining, setting up an argument, and the process of editing/revision. In addition to learning basic music terminology and concepts to strengthen how we communicate about music, we will also learn about "deep listening" with regards to musical structure, style, and lyrical meaning.

Due to the growing availability of "big data" and the high computational speeds and storage capacity of modern computers, data science has become a highly influential field that impacts every aspect of our lives. Endeavors as disparate as facial recognition, climate modeling, and training computers to write poetry are linked by the fact that in each case researchers are using computers to find and exploit patterns in data. These patterns can be used to make predictions, test hypotheses, and to simulate real-world phenomena to an eerily accurate degree.