Information For:

Courses for Fall 2019

  • 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
    Hamlin

  • Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement

    Most of the rich written history of the civil rights movement originates from first-hand accounts documented in oral histories and autobiographies. This interdisciplinary course plots the milestones of the civil rights movement through the lens of several autobiographies. The aim is to critique autobiography as a historical document as well as use it to tell the stories of the civil rights movement. We will compare and contrast different texts, analyze content and map a history of the era. Students will work with a writing fellow to develop one critical paper and one autobiographical paper. Enrollment limited to 19 first year students.
    AFRI 0110C S01
    Primary Instructor
    Hamlin

  • Afro Latin Americans and Blackness in the Americas

    This course focuses on the position of Blacks in the national histories and societies of Latin America from slavery to the present-day. Emphasis is on a multidisciplinary engagement with issues and the exposure of students to the critical discussion of national images and realities about blackness and Africa-descended institutions and practices. The role of racial issues in national and transnational encounters and the consequences of migration of people and ideas within the hemisphere are explored.
    AFRI 0210 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Dzidzienyo

  • 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

  • Fela Kuti: African Freedom from Afrobeat to Afrobeats

    Miles Davis famously described Fela Kuti (1938-1997) as “the future of music.” Beyoncé’s attempt “to do something that sounds like Fela” saw her compose an unpublished 20-track album. Arguably Africa’s most prolific and controversial artist of the twentieth century, Fela continues to be invoked as musical genius and as icon of popular struggle. This course invites students to explore the complexities of Fela’s art and activism. We mobilize his life/work as a springboard for examining emergent debates about African identity—from postcolonial masculinity to the creative logics of African cities, from contemporary African youth culture to the gendered politics of cultural memory.
    AFRI 0980 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Ayobade

  • Race, Rights and Rebellion

    Provides an in-depth examination of different kinds of social movements. Emphasis will be placed on the theoretical and methodological distinctions among the various kinds of social protests and social movement actors. From anti-slavery revolts to struggles for independence to anti-apartheid movements, key concepts will include power, resistance, subaltern, hegemony, identity politics and consciousness.
    AFRI 1020D S01
    Primary Instructor
    Perry

  • Contesting the Carceral State

    This course introduces students to the study of crime and justice through Black, feminist, queer and prison abolitionist frameworks, with a particular focus on narratives by people of African descent in the U.S. since 1965.
    AFRI 1030 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Biggs

  • 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

  • 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

  • Haiti: A New World, A Free World

    Course examines the dual Haitian Revolution as a pivotal moment in the making of the modern world. It reviews the various historical interpretations of Haitian events, examines how these events contribute to or troubles our ideas about modern politics and notions of freedom as well as our conceptions of revolution. Course engages in these issues by working through three archives: Vodou Religion; The Art of the Revolution and the conventional historiography about the revolution, and will be tied to a joint Brown/RISD exhibition on Haitian Art. Enrollment limited to 15 juniors/seniors concentrating in Africana Studies, Visual Art, History; 15 RISD students.
    AFRI 1190 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Bogues

  • Afro-Brazilians and the Brazilian Polity

    Explores the history and present-day conditions of Afro-Brazilians, looking specifically at the uses of Africana in contemporary Brazil, political and cultural movements among Afro-Brazilians, domestic politics and its external dimensions, and Brazilian race relations within a global comparative framework. Texts from a variety of disciplines. A reading knowledge of Portuguese is not required but students so advantaged should inform the instructor.
    AFRI 1210 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Dzidzienyo

  • Health Inequality in Historical Perspective

    Seminar takes a historical perspective to explore causes of health inequality in the US. Draws on studies from the 19th century-present. Examines socio–political and economic context of health/disease, focusing on how race, class, and gender shape the experience of health, disease causality, and public health responses. Includes health consequences of immigration, incarceration, race-based medicine, the Chicago heatwave, and Katrina. Enrollment restricted to 20, second and third-year students.
    AFRI 1920 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Braun

  • 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 Critique: Black Critical Theory - History, Literature, Politics, the Human Sciences of Being

    This class is about re-figuring black radical thought as a field of interdisciplinary critical theory. Working with the corpus of writers like Sylvia Wynter, WEB Du Bois and Frantz Fanon the course will seek to grapple with the practices, questions and ideas of Black thinkers around questions of the human, the figure of the black fugitive, the significance of enslaved labor to the capitalism, Black internationalism, black feminism and the ways in which questions of history have been reconfigured in Black thought. The course is an reading intensive one and is open to all graduate students.
    AFRI 2300 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Bogues

  • 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.

    English
    ENGL 0700E Postcolonial Literature
    ENGL 1711N Monsters in Our Midst: The Plantation and the Woods in Trans-American Literature
    Political Science
    POLS 1335 Slavery and Freedom: Selections from African American Political Thought
    POLS 1820E Pragmatism in Black and White: Race, Domination and Democratic Faith
    Religious Studies
    RELS 0822 Social Justice and the Musical Afrofuture
    AFRI XLIST 0