Subject: AFST

Term: Fall 2024

AFST 202: Race and Ethnic Minorities in The United States (100/11457)

MWF 11:40-12:30 PM Aug 26-Dec 06

Oladimeji, A

This course explores interactions between racial and ethnic majority and minority groups in the United States. We examine the historical origins and formation of racial/ethnic hierarchies, the institutional and normative processes for reproducing these hierarchies, and the social and economic significance of stratified racial and ethnic group identities. The course is taught from a macro perspective that examines larger structural forces (e.g., colonization, slavery, and immigration) to explain inter-group relations, and a constructionist perspective to understand the way that power fashions the social meaning of identities (e.g., symbolic violence and hegemonic discourse), social categories (e.g., panethnic Asian and Hispanic groups), and everyday interactions (e.g., stereotypes and white racial frame). Specific topics include the formation and significance of white and black identities, reactive ethnicity, the racial privilege of whiteness, the politics of immigration, and the intersectionality of class, race and gender. Offered as AFST 202 and SOCI 202.

AFST 212: History of Rock and Roll (100/4897)

TR 04:00-05:15 PM Aug 26-Dec 06

Illyas-Watson, R

This course surveys the musical practices of the rock and roll era, broadly defined to include much popular music since the 1950s. Music majors are to enroll in MUHI 312. Offered as AFST 212 and MUGN 212.

AFST 212: History of Rock and Roll (101/4898)

TR 04:00-05:15 PM Aug 26-Dec 06

Mitchell, K

This course surveys the musical practices of the rock and roll era, broadly defined to include much popular music since the 1950s. Music majors are to enroll in MUHI 312. Offered as AFST 212 and MUGN 212.

AFST 315: History of Jazz and American Popular Music (100/4899)

TR 10:00-11:15 AM Aug 26-Dec 06

Ferguson, P

Musical styles and structures of jazz and American popular music; emphasis on music since 1900. Recommended preparation: MUTH 202 or MUHI 302. Offered as AFST 315 and MUHI 315.

AFST 318: History of Black Women in the U.S. (100/11789)

TR 01:00-02:15 PM Aug 26-Dec 06

Voltz, N

This course focuses on the history of black women in the United States. Moving from enslavement to the present, this course is designed to give you an overview of the lived experiences of women of African descent in this country. This course will focus on themes of labor, reproduction, health, community, family, resistance, activism, etc., highlighting the diversity of black women's experiences and the ways in which their lives have been shaped by the intersections of their race, gender, sexuality, and class. Throughout the course, students will be exposed to lectures, readings, films, and class discussion that will enable them to analyze the impact of various forms of human difference on lived experiences and individual and collective choices made by black women throughout American history. Offered as AFST 318, ETHS 318, HSTY 318, and WGST 318.

AFST 365F: Afrofuturism and the Black Imaginary: Legacies and Futures (100/11613)

TR 11:30-12:45 PM Aug 26-Dec 06

Berger, M

This course explores the theoretical, literary and cultural expressions of Afrofuturism. The term Afrofuturism was developed in 1993 by scholar Mark Dery and is an all-encompassing term used to describe creative work - literature (especially science fiction), music, art - that focuses on Afro-diasporic ways of being and knowing. The course explores the multiple meanings and expressions of Afrofuturism and how it expands various literary traditions. Traditional speculative fiction canons have often distorted and/or erased the existence of people of color in the future. This course recenters these experiences. Readings will delve into the legacies of slavery, colonialism, entrenched inequalities to understand their impact on real and imagined technological futures. Students will spend time exploring how Afrofuturist writers and cultural workers imagine new possibilities that expand our sense of liberation and justice. Recommended preparation: Academic Inquiry Seminar (AIQS) or SAGES First Seminar. Offered as AFST 365F, ENGL 365F, ETHS 365F, RLGN 365F, WGST 365F and WLIT 365F.

AFST 393: Advanced Readings in the History of Race (100/11251)

TR 04:00-05:15 PM Aug 26-Dec 06

Flores, J

This course examines the concept of race as a social construction that carries political and economic implications. We begin by examining the histories of the early racial taxonomists (e.g., Bernier, Linnaeus, and Blumenbach among others) and the contexts that informed their writings. We then assess how the concept of race changed from the nineteenth to the twentieth century in the United States. We conclude by evaluating how the ideology of race has influenced U.S. domestic life and foreign policy at specific historical moments. Offered as AFST 393, HSTY 393, HSTY 493, and ETHS 393.