Molecular Gastronomy

Living organisms require resources to fuel the processes necessary for staying alive. We require a certain number of calories to fuel metabolic processes and to provide building blocks to replace old cells and build new ones.  Our food should provide a balance of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals that we need to consume regularly for a healthy existence.

Childhood-Afr/Carib Lit

(Offered as ENGL 318 and BLST 362 [A/CLA].) The course will concentrate on Caribbean authors. It explores the process of self-definition in literary works from Africa and the Caribbean that are built around child protagonists. We will examine the authors’ various methods of ordering experience through the choice of literary form and narrative technique, as well as the child/author’s perception of his or her society. French texts will be read in translation.


Open to first-year students with consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Cobham-Sander.

Race & Educ Opportunity

(Offered as HIST 355 [US; or may be included in AF concentration, but not AF for distribution in the major] and BLST 341 [US].) This seminar is an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between race and educational opportunity in American history. Students will gain a historical understanding of the divergent educational experiences of various groups within American society. The course is divided into four units: ethnicity and educational access in early America, education and segregation in Jim Crow America, desegregation (implementation and opposition) after Brown v.

Colorblind Culture

(Offered as  BLST 336 [US] and SOCI 334) The passage of civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965 was a defining moment in American race relations. By comparison to what preceded it, the post-civil rights era amounted to a great social transformation, leading many to assert ours is now a “colorblind” culture.

Myth/Ritual West Africa

(Offered as BLST 315 [A] and ARHA 353.) Through a contrastive analysis of the religious and artistic modes of expression in three West African societies--the Asanti of the Guinea Coast, and the Yoruba and Igbo peoples of Nigeria--the course will explore the nature and logic of symbols in an African cultural context.

Black Studies Seminar

[R] This seminar prepares students to conduct independent research. Although it concentrates on the field of Black Studies, it serves as a good introductory research course for all students in the humanities and social sciences regardless of major. The first part of the course will intensively introduce students to the library through a series of readings, exercises, and discussions aimed at sharpening the ability to locate information precisely and efficiently.

Black Women's Narratives

(Offered as WAGS 202  and BLST 242 [US].)  Love, courtship, and putting a “ring on it” continue to be a central concern in African American women's literature and contemporary black popular culture.  Do these thematic issues around matrimony signal apolitical yearnings or an allegory for political subjectivity?  In this course we will examine what gender, race, class, and sexuality reveal about the politics of marriage and family.  Surveying the growing discourse in media outlets such as CNN and The Washington Post regarding the "crisis" o

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