Professor: Abusharaf Course format: Seminar Number of respondents: 11 Total Enrollment: 16 Class Composition: Froshs: 1 Sophs: 4 Jrs: 6 Srs: 5 Concs: ? Non-Concs: ? Don't Know: ?

Instructor Average: 1.75 Course Average: 1.62

“Africana Feminisms” explores the concepts of feminism from an Africana perspective. Accordingly, this course delves into how various societal factors influence the context through which Africana Feminisms are approached. There are no prerequisites for the course, although general knowledge of Africana studies, gender studies, and colonialist/post-colonialist themes would have been helpful.

Despite the occasional complaint, Professor Abusharaf received extremely positive reviews from the majority of her students. According to most survey participants, Professor Abusharaf was extremely friendly and approachable. She encouraged deeper analysis of the texts and introduced ideas using different mediums, such as documentary films, articles, and novels. Reviewers would have preferred for her to lecture more and for class discussions to be more focused. She was very good about taking students’ needs into account and tailoring the class to people’s abilities. She continually sought feedback from her students about the readings.

All of the readings were felt to be useful and important in understanding the issues discussed during the course. Different readings brought in unique interpretations of issues and represented different perspectives. In terms of grading criteria, the workload for this course consisted of weekly response papers and one twenty-page final paper. Correspondingly, reviewers indicate that these assignments were quite manageable.

Class members spent an average of about five hours per week for this course, increasing substantially when the final paper was due. This time commitment seemed match most people’s expectations prior to taking the course. In general, take this class if you are interested in actively participating in class discussions and thinking critically about issues of feminism from an Africana perspective!

View AF/0105 in the Brown Online Course Announcement.