Courses

Courses

Fall 2006 Courses

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010. Racism
H. Partridge W 1:00 - 3:55
Examines issues of racism in the United States, with attention to the social psychology of racism, its history, its relationship to social structure, and its ethical and moral implications.
015. International Children's Literature
Elizabeth Muther T 1:00 - 2:25, TH 1:00 - 2:25
Explores imaginative writing for children in U.S. and South African contexts. Strong emphasis on history and national identity as reframed in children's literature since the Civil Rights era and the end of apartheid. Considers the uses of oral sources--riddles, folktales, legends, proverbs, magical lore; the politics and economics of children's book publishing; and literacy and access to texts in mother tongue languages. Students will experiment with elements of imaginative writing for children and will read and discuss poetry and stories with children of various ages.
101. Approaches to Africana Studies
Dan Moos T 11:30 - 12:55, TH 11:30 - 12:55
An introduction to the study of African Americans and the African Diaspora. Provides an examination of classical literature of the field as well as its major theoretical trends.
122. History of Jazz II
James McCalla M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
A survey of jazz’s development from the creation of bebop in the 1940s through the present day, e.g., from Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie through such artists as Joshua Redman, James Carter, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Emphasis is on musical elements, but includes much attention to cultural and historical context through readings and videos.
208. Race and Ethnicity
Seth Ovadia T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
The social and cultural meaning of race and ethnicity, with emphasis on the politics of events and processes in contemporary America. Analysis of the causes and consequences of prejudice and discrimination. Examination of the relationships between race and class. Comparisons among racial and ethnic minorities in the United States.
238. Reconstruction
Patrick Rael M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
Seminar. Close examination of the decade following the Civil War. Explores the events and scholarship of the Union attempt to create a biracial democracy in the South following the war, and the sources of its failure. Topics include wartime Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan, Republican politics, and Democratic Redemption. Special attention is paid to the deeply conflicted ways historians have approached this period over the years.
265. Africa and the Indian Ocean World
David Gordon T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
History of the Indian Ocean World from the perspective of the east African littoral, and in particular the Swahili islands of Zanzibar. Examines African engagement with the Indian Ocean World and the rise of African diasporas across the Middle East and South Asia. The course begins prior to Portuguese conquest, continues through Omani, British, and German colonialism, the Zanzibar revolution of 1964, and culminates in the rise of independent Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, and Somalia.
269. After Apartheid: South African History and Historiography
David Gordon T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25
Seminar. Investigates the diverse representations and uses of the past in South Africa. Begins with the difficulties in developing a critical and conciliatory version of the past in post-apartheid South Africa during and after the much-discussed Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Then turns to diverse historical episodes and sites of memory from the Great Trek to the inauguration of Nelson Mandela to explore issues of identity and memory from the perspectives of South Africa’s various peoples.
273. Queer Race
Mark Foster T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
Contemporary critics have argued that late nineteenth/early twentieth century understandings of same-sex desiring identities acquired early visibility through self-conscious analogies to racial categorization, i.e. a homosexual is like a mixed-race person: s/he is half one thing and half another. Such beliefs continue to endure to the present day. One of its legacies is the belief that struggles against racial oppression and sexual oppression are mutually exclusive. Through close readings of both popular and lesser known lesbigay/transgendered narratives of the era, this course explores the cultural and theoretical implications of these beliefs, as well as the challenges they have sometimes presented to conceptualizing and implementing radical social change. Possible authors/texts: Radclyffe Hall, Gore Vidal, James Baldwin, Ann Bannon, Rita Mae Brown, Ann Allen Shockley, Patricia Nell Warren, Leslie Feinberg, James Earl Hardy, E. Lynn Harris, Audre Lorde, Take Me Out: A Play , M Butterfly, and Noah’s Arc
283. Nineteenth Century Women's Prose: The Black Diaspora
Dan Moos T 1:00 - 2:25, TH 1:00 - 2:25
This course will engage the writings of black women in the nineteenth century. We will read poetry, novels, essays, activist literature, slave narratives, and autobiographies to understand the complicated position of nineteenth-century black women with reference to patriarchy, racism, slavery, abolitionism, education, the African Diaspora, and national affiliation, with special attention paid to the scholarly tensions with the more celebrated tradition of nineteenth-century prose by African American men. The reading list includes Harriet Jacobs, Mary Ann Shadd, France E. W. Harper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Pauline Hopkins, Hannah Crafts, Mary Prince, and others. Note: This course fulfills the literature of the Americas requirement for English majors.
333. Science and the Politics of Inequality
David Hecht T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
Examines theories of innate “difference” – in race, class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality – as they have developed in scientific investigation and American politics over the twentieth century. The course explores why such notions were created, to what political and social ends they have been used, and what the role of science has been in alternately validating and challenging them. Topics discussed include evolution, eugenics, the emergence of cultural anthropology, the growth of genetics under the shadow of Nazism, and the “Bell-Curve wars” of the 1980s.
334. Caribbean and African Theater from the Francophone World
Stephanie Berard M 6:30 - 9:25
Analysis of modern and contemporary theater written by Caribbean playwrights (Guadeloupe, Martinique and Haiti) as well as by Francophone African writers (Benin and Ivory Coast). Examines issues of colonialism and postcolonialism, reappropriation of history, exile and immigration, tensions between race, gender and social classes through subversive theatrical works which challenge Western literary canons. Readings include Aimé and Ina Césaire, Maryse Condé, Gerty Dambury, Koffi Kwahulé, José Pliya. The plays, originally written in French, will be read and analyzed in English.