Course Listing

Core Courses
Courses

Core Courses

AF AM ST 210-1,2 Survey of African American Literature
Two-quarter sequence on the literature of blacks from
slavery to freedom. Works of major writers and significant
but unsung bards of the past.

AF AM ST 236-1,2 Introduction to African American
Studies
Key texts and concepts in African American studies
from a range of disciplinary perspectives. 1. Africa, slavery,
rural and urban life, class division, and the constructs of
"race," "racism," and "blackness." 2. The institutional
development of politics, church, education, culture, women/
family, and the social conditions that give rise to such formations.
Both 1 and 2 will connect their respective themes
to the historical and contemporary liberation struggle,
featuring occasional guest lectures by faculty members.

AF AM ST 245-0 The Black Diaspora and Transnationality Examination of events, movements, theories, and texts that have shaped development of the African diaspora. Topics include slavery; abolitionism; Pan-Africanism; linkages among gender, sexuality, and diasporic sensibilities; the culture/politics nexus; hip-hop; and AIDS.

Courses

AF AM ST 212-1,2 Introduction to African American History
Key concepts in African American history from 1700 to 1861. Includes African origins, the Atlantic slave trade, origins of slaving and racism in the United States, life under slavery in the North and South, religion, family, culture, and resistance. 2. Key concepts in African American history from emancipation to the beginnings of the civil rights era. Focus on constructions of class, gender, and community; the rise of Jim Crow; strategies of protest; and migration and urbanization.

AF AM ST 214-0 Comparative Race Studies in the United States
Problems and experiences of racialized minorities: blacks, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans. Comparative exploration of their relationships to each other and to the majority society. May be repeated for credit with change of comparative racial groups or time period explored.

AF AM ST 220-0 Civil Rights and Black Liberation
The Northern and Southern civil rights movements and the rise of black nationalism and feminism, 194572.

AF AM ST 225-0
African American Culture Survey of African American culture from slavery to the present. Relation of African American culture to African and Euro-American cultures, the Black Atlantic as a unit of analysis, representations of blackness in the public imagination.

AF AM ST 226-0 Introduction to Transnational Black Cultures
An interdisciplinary introduction to history, cultural production, or politics of societies whose relationships to each other extend beyond national boundaries.

AF AM ST 250-0 Race, Class, and Gender
Introduction to scholarship and key theories that treat race, class, and gender as intersecting social constructs. Race, class, and gender in work, family and reproduction, education, poverty, sexuality, and consumer culture. How race, class, and gender inform identity, ideology, and politics to incite social change.

AF AM ST 259-0 Introduction to African American Drama
Thematic and historical survey of African American drama.
Sociopolitical context, the aesthetic reflected in the work,
impact on African American and general theater audiences.

AF AM ST 316-0 African American Folklore
African American folklore in a variety of genres and forms of presentation, from both rural and urban communities. Includes
folk narratives, folksongs, the dozens, toasts, jokes and
humor, folk beliefs, preachers, folk heroes, and the literary
transformation of folk materials.

AF AM ST 319-0 Race, Ethnicity, and the American Constitution
Investigation of how race and ethnicity have influenced the evolution of the U.S. Constitution and legal debate and practice. Topics include affirmative action, school integration, and the death penalty. Prerequisite: 220, POLi SCI 220, or POLi SCI 230.

AF AM ST 320-0 The Social Meaning of Race
Race as a social concept and recurrent cause of differentiation in multiracial societies. Impact of race on social, cultural, economic, and political institutions. Discussion of prejudice, racism, and discrimination.

AF AM ST 321-0 Researching Black Communities
Introduction to the methodology and findings of qualitative research on black communities in the United States. Topics include black migration, urban geography, black culture, class and gender stratification, racial identity.

AF AM ST 325-0 Race, Poverty, and Public Policy in America
Examination of the scope of poverty in America, competing theories about its causes, and how racial stratification creates and perpetuates economic marginalization. Public-policy responses to the plight of the poor; debates about the future of antipoverty policy, with emphasis on the relationship between racial and economic stratification. Prerequisite: 236-1 or SocIOL 110.

AF AM ST 327-0 Politics of African American Popular Culture
Examination of the debates within African American communities about the proper role and function of black art and artists in relation to black politics. Prerequisite: 236-1 or 236-2.

AF AM ST 330-0 Black Women in 20th-Century United States
Experiences and leadership of African American women in major events in recent history, including antilynching, womens suffrage, civil rights movements, and World War II.

AF AM ST 331-0 The African American Novel
Readings in classic black American fiction. The author as creator and
participant. Works of Wright, Ellison, Baldwin, and others.
Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

AF AM ST 332-0 Black Feminist Theories
In-depth survey of major constituents of black feminist theory, utilizing interdisciplinary approach with readings from history, sociology, literature, popular culture, and religious studies.

AF AM ST 334-0 Gender and Black Masculinity
Perceptions and constructions of black masculinity within African American and Americancultures in the United States; readings in gender studies, feminist theory, African American studies, and cultural studies.

AF AM ST 335-0 Race and Literature in 19th-Century America
Examination of the evolution and persistence of the notion of racein 19th-century America, with attention to the origins of the idea of race in the West. Focus on the multiracial character of 19th-century America.

AF AM ST 340-0 Slavery and Abolitionist Discourse
Investigation of the rise of abolitionist discourse in the
West, including the evolution of the debates over slavery
from the latter part of the 18th century to the late 19th
century. May also count toward historical and comparative
studies concentration.

AF AM ST 342-0 Comparative Slavery
Traces slavery across historical epochs and geographic contexts, with an emphasis on Latin America, the Caribbean, and the territories that became the United States.

AF AM ST 345-0 Race and Literature in 19th-Century
America
Examination of the evolution and persistence of
the notion of "race" in 19th-century America, with attention
to the origins of the idea of race in the West. Focus
on the multiracial character of 19th-century America.
May also count toward historical and comparative studies
concentration.

AF AM ST 348-0 Africans in Colonial Latin America
Explores the history of African-descended people throughout Latin America during the period from 1492 to 1800, emphasizing the varied experiences of slavery and freedom, the emergence of race and colonial categories of difference, and the gendered lives of racialized colonial subjects.

AF AM ST 350-0 African American Literary Criticism and
Theory
Advanced introduction to African American literary
cultural criticism and theory. Topics include the "black
aesthetic"; black writers as critics; black feminism, representation,
and sexuality; critiques of the roles of black intellectuals;
and the uses of and resistance to poststructuralist
theory in African American criticism.

AF AM ST 355-0 20th-Century Intellectual and Popular
Culture
Examination of the rise and persistence of the
notion of black cultural/racial authenticity in the 20th
century through the lens of various forms of intellectual
and popular culture. May also count toward politics, society,
and policy concentration.

AF AM ST 357-0 Performing Memory in the Black World
Exploration of the ways in which peoples of the Black Atlantic remember slavery and fashion identities through novels, film, folktales, and drama.

AF AM ST 360-0 Major Authors
In-depth examination of a selected author's body of work. Choice of author varies. May be repeated for credit with change of author.

AF AM ST 365-0 Black Chicago
Surveys the social, cultural, and political history of African Americans in Chicago, including the Great Migration, the black political machine, black Chicago music, racial segregation, internal class stratification, and the role of black churches.

AF AM ST 370-0 Black Activist Debates
Analysis of African American political thought and advocacy since Reconstruction. Major ideological and tactical debates among Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Marcus Garvey; the shift from civil rights to Black Power in the black liberation movement; the rise of black feminism and the gay and lesbian rights movement; the rise of black conservatism and the contemporary struggle for reparations for slavery and segregation.

AF AM ST 378-0 The Harlem Renaissance
African American political and social movements and cultural production in theater, music, visual arts, and literature from
1915 to 1930. Prerequisites: consent of instructor and
210-1,2 or another African American literature course.

AF AM ST 379-0 African American Women Playwrights
Texts written from approximately 1916 to the present.
Use of the stage as an arena of social activism, theatrical
representations of "the folk," the family, respectability, and
feminism. Prerequisites: consent of instructor and 259
and/or other African American literature courses.

AF AM ST 380-0 Topics in African American Studies
Advanced work on social, cultural, or historical topics. May be repeated for credit with different topic. Prerequisite: advanced student or senior.

AF AM ST 381-0 Topics in Transnational Black Culture
Examination of middle-passage texts such as novels, poetry, film, drama, slave narratives, and historical texts in order to explore comparatively how artists from across the African diaspora have approached this historically and emotionally loaded event. Prerequisite: advanced student or senior.

AF AM ST 390-0 Research Seminar in African American Studies Methods of researching the African American experience.
Identification of research problems; location, selection, and critique of relevant literature; data gathering and analysis; report writing. Topics vary. Prerequisite: advanced student or senior.

AF AM ST 396-0 Internship in African American Studies
Analysis of social and cultural institutions through field study and participant observation. Entails a research project sponsored by a Northwestern faculty member. Prerequisite: advanced student or senior.

AF AM ST 399-0 Independent Study
Open to advanced students with consent of instructor. Prerequisite: advanced student or senior.

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