Information For:

Courses for Fall 2018

  • An Introduction to Africana Studies

    This course introduces students to the vibrant and contested field of Africana Studies by critically exploring and analyzing the links and disjunctures in the cultural, political, and intellectual practices and experiences of people of African descent throughout the African diaspora. Beginning with a critical overview of the history, theoretical orientations, and multiple methodological strategies of the discipline, the course is divided into three thematic units that examine intellectuals, politics, and movements; identity construction and formation; and literary, cultural, and aesthetic theories and practices in the African diaspora.
    AFRI 0090 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Perry

  • Global Black Radicalism

    The decade from the mid-Sixties until the mid-Seventies witnessed the rise of Black Radicalism as a global phenomenon. The emergence of Black Power in the US, Brazil and the Caribbean, the consolidation of liberation struggles in Portuguese Africa and the rise of a Black Consciousness trend in Apartheid South Africa all represent key moments. What led young activists to embrace “Black Power?” What led to the emergence of Marxist movements in Portuguese Africa? What events in the Caribbean gave ascendancy to radical tendencies? And what forces contributed to the decline of these movements? This course seeks to answer these questions.
    AFRI 0670 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Meeks

  • Decolonized Bodies, Spirit Bodies: Tracing the Indigenous Knowledge of Africans

    This course is a comprehensive study of the indigenous bodies of knowledge of rituals as they permeate the wholeness of the existence of African people referencing Yoruba nation of West Africa. It will integrate visual art methods with Rites and Reason Theatre’s Research-to-Performance Method, where students will explore and trace the hidden legacies of the indigenous people of Africa in visual arts, music, dance, fashion, poetry, story-telling as a way of understanding the impacts of slavery, colonialism and decolonization of indigenous knowledge. Students will have the opportunity to study selected enduring indigenous festivals, organize and stage performance as knowledge production.
    AFRI 1040 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Atiku

  • An Introduction to Africa

    Africa invokes myriad images in the global imagination. It figures in debates on the evolution of humans; in the formation of capitalism, and even as a counterpoint to discourses on human progress. This course interrogates how “Africa” gets mobilized in popular discourse in the US and beyond. How might we reconcile the idea of Africa with contemporary conditions of the African continent? We will not only examine Africa through a broad range of disciplinary perspectives; but also become familiar with social, cultural, political and economic diversity of the African continent. We will engage the disciplines of history, economics, politics, cultural studies and gender studies among others.
    AFRI 1060U S01
    Primary Instructor
    Ayobade

  • Policy, Culture and Discourse that Shape Health and Access to Healthcare

    The global discourse on health and access to healthcare are shaped by narratives that often conflate health with being about the healthcare system rather than about where we live, the policies, the politics, and narratives/discourse that shape them. Global health also tends to promote a perspective that it is about those people over there and has nothing to do with us here. This course will create a platform that ties the global to the local. We will discuss how political and cultural discourse on race, class, and gender create the conditions that allow social inequalities to thrive.
    AFRI 1060W S01
    Primary Instructor
    Ritchie

  • African Development

    Course takes an interdisciplinary approach to introduce contemporary development issues in Africa. Drawing on literature from political sciences, economics, sociology and history, it explores the challenges of development in the continent since independence, as well as investigates the influences of governance, institutions, conflicts and external forces in Africa’s development trajectories. This is an applied course that would utilize both theoretical and policy analytical approaches to examine the political and socioeconomic dynamism in contemporary Africa. This course is guided by questions, such as: Why have most African countries remained underdeveloped, poor and susceptible to conflicts (many of which seem intractable)?
    AFRI 1060X S01
    Primary Instructor
    Agupusi

  • Race, Sexuality, and Mental Disability History

    This seminar investigates the fraught entanglement of mental disability with race and homosexuality beginning with late 19th Century ideas of scientific racism and the invention of the homosexual body in African American communities. By tracking changes in Psychiatry and Psychology through the 1960s and 1970s, the course examines the impact of the Civil Rights and Gay Rights movements on sustaining contemporary mental health diagnosis of "gender dysphoria" associated with Trans people. The course will further examine several approaches to queer, trans, and gay history from the fields of color critique, black feminism, and disability studies. Enrollment limit is 20.
    AFRI 1060Z S01
    Primary Instructor
    Ramos

  • Voices Beneath the Veil

    VBV is an interdisciplinary exploration of African-American history and cultures through the analyses of Black authored plays from 1858 to the present. The course focuses on the development of a thesis paper, which includes an incremental re-writing process.
    AFRI 1110 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Terry-Morgan

  • Framing Haiti: History, Culture, Politics + Literature

    In broadest terms, the objective of this multidisciplinary course will be to introduce students to the varied “nature” of the Haitian society and its fluid and dynamic culture, and then attempt to make historical and socio-anthropological sense of the country in relation to the region as a whole (particularly to the United States and Dominican Republic). Throughout the course we will discuss the dynamics of power in the realm of governance, with particular emphasis placed on the notion of struggle for sovereignty and the culture of resistance (through the arts) that forms the fundamental character of the national culture.
    AFRI 1190A S01
    Primary Instructor
    Sylvain

  • Gospel Music from the Church to the Streets

    Black gospel music has informed popular music artists including Beyoncé, Elvis, and Chance the Rapper. This course surveys African American gospel music as it is implemented for worship, evangelism, and popular consumption. Beyond analysis of key musical and lyrical characteristics of gospel, this class gives attention to the religious and sociocultural contexts that inform gospel composition and performance. Gospel music is integrally connected to the worship traditions of black American Pentecostals, Baptists, and Methodists. Consequently, this course is also a musical introduction to African American Christianity. Classes include interactive demonstrations in addition to discussion of audio/video recordings and required texts.
    AFRI 1200 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Barron

  • 1968: A Year in Review

    In 1968 students’ walked-out at Brown, leading to the 1969 creation of the Rites and Reason Theatre and later the formation of Afro-American Studies, now the Department of African Studies/Rites and Reason Theatre. 1968 was also a global year of contention, confrontation and change, with consequences that continue to resonate into the present. This class harnesses the multiple narratives and studies of our faculty across the campus and alumni who took part in the 1968 walk-out. Classes blend lecture and discussion. Speakers assign appropriate reading to coincide with their topics. Requirements include mandatory participation to planned anniversary events.
    AFRI 1968 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Hamlin

  • Independent Reading and Research

    Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.
    AFRI 1970 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Ayobade
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S03
    Primary Instructor
    Bogues
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S04
    Primary Instructor
    Braun
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S05
    Primary Instructor
    Perry
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S06
    Primary Instructor
    Meeks
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S07
    Primary Instructor
    Dzidzienyo
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S08
    Primary Instructor
    George
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S09
    Primary Instructor
    Henry
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S10
    Primary Instructor
    Guterl
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S11
    Primary Instructor
    Hamlin
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S12
    Primary Instructor
    Biggs
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S13
    Primary Instructor
    Terry-Morgan
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S15
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 1970 S16
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research

  • Theories of Africana Thought: Intellectual History and Critical Theory

    This course will be a close reading of the various ideas, theories and practices of the thinkers, writers, artists and activitists whose work and practices have constituted an Africana intellectual tradition. In conducting this review we will examine questions around the formation and the history of thought and intellectual traditions in general. We will also think about the various fields of knowldege which have shaped Africana thought. The course therefore will spend some time working through the different meanings of intellectual work and critical thought and theory. Enrollment limited to 12 graduate students.
    AFRI 2001 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Henry

  • Black Transnational Feminism

    This graduate seminar brings together methodological and theoretical approaches to interpreting the significance of race, gender, sexuality and nation in the feminist literature on transnationalism and diaspora. We'll explore how transnational studies can benefit from a critical analysis of global black feminist thought, placing special emphasis on canonical and emergent scholarship. The course materials include humanistic and social scientific texts that include literary criticism, ethnography, historical analysises, film and fiction. The texts illustrate ways in which black feminist scholarship has always been crucial for understanding critical geopolitical issues that shape the theorization of the transnational in the Africana world.
    AFRI 2010 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Perry

  • Preliminary Examination Preparation

    For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for a preliminary examination.
    AFRI 2970 S01
    Schedule Code
    E: Grad Enrollment Fee/Dist Prep

  • Graduate Level Independent Reading and Research

    A program of intensive reading and research. Section numbers may vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.
    AFRI 2980 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Bogues
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 2980 S02
    Primary Instructor
    Braun
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 2980 S03
    Primary Instructor
    Dzidzienyo
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 2980 S04
    Primary Instructor
    Guterl
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 2980 S05
    Primary Instructor
    Hamlin
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 2980 S06
    Primary Instructor
    Henry
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 2980 S07
    Primary Instructor
    Perry
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 2980 S08
    Primary Instructor
    Terry-Morgan
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 2980 S09
    Primary Instructor
    Rose
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    AFRI 2980 S10
    Primary Instructor
    Meeks
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research

  • Thesis Preparation

    For graduate students who have met the residency requirement and are continuing research on a full time basis.
    AFRI 2990 S01
    Schedule Code
    E: Grad Enrollment Fee/Dist Prep

  • Courses of Interest to Concentrators in Africana Studies

    The following courses may be taken for concentration credit. Please see the sponsoring department for the time and location of each course.

    Religious Studies
    RELS 1650 Gospel Music from the Church to the Streets
    AFRI XLIST 0