Emory University Department of African American Studies

Content: This course introduces the field of African American Studies by surveying some of its major areas of development in historical studies, literary studies, social sciences, religious studies and the arts including music and the visual arts. Cutting across these specific disciplines are topics of enduring interest in the field, including the black student movement that birthed Black Studies as an academic program. Other topics fall within the following three categories: (1) Africa and Diaspora-- i.e., the history of ancient African civilizations or the consequences of the transatlantic slave trade; (2) expressive arts and culture-- i.e., the arts of the Black Atlantic world including oral, musical, and literary creativity; and (3) identities, ideologies, and institutions-- i.e., the freedom struggle or gender and class issues within Black religious and social developments. Representing the organization of the major itself, AAS 100 will introduce students to such concepts and topics as the diaspora, the African slave trade, abolitionism, slavery and the literary imagination, womanism, and the black aesthetic. Spanning several centuries and many disciplines, the course will be anchored in such political and cultural movements as abolitionism, the Niagara Movement, the New Negro Movement, Negritude, Black Feminism and the Black Power Movement. While the context and examples reflect the complexity and richness of Americans of African descent, throughout the course we will focus upon the role of ideologies in the creation of black identities and institutions.

* To introduce students to the major disciplines and topics that comprise the field.
*   To sharpen the writing and research skills of students as well as their knowledge
      of new technologies that enhance the processes of writing and research.
*   To provide students with a knowledge of research databases in AAS.
*   To provide orientation to AAS faculty and to the institutional resources available at the
     university for research projects in the field, particularly for majors and minors.
*   To initiate a dialogue centering upon the complex fate of being an American with the
     history and culture of African Americans as the chief frame of reference.
*   To provide a common academic framework and experience for collaboration and
     community building between and among AAS faculty and interested students.

Course Requirements: One-page weekly response essays; a mid-term examination; and a final research paper.

AAS 115: JAZZ, ITS EVOLUTION and ESSENCE

Content: The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to the various styles and genres associated with the music commonly referred to as jazz. Critical issues related to the social and cultural history of African-Americans will be discussed and aligned with corresponding musical developments. The main challenge in this course is to become familiar with the important formal and stylistic traditions within jazz as well as with its creators. Although no prior musical knowledge is presumed, students will be responsible for the musical terms and concepts presented in class. Jazz musicians studied include Armstrong, Ellington, Parker, Monk, and Miles Davis.

Particulars: In addition to lectures and readings, each student is expected to spend considerable time listening to the repertoire under discussion. Prepared tapes are on reserve in Candler Library. There will be a mid-term, final, and two short quizzes.

AAS 190S: AUTOBIOGRAPHY of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT:
(The Way we Read, Write and Remember the Past)

Content: What was the South like over fifty years ago when Black people decided to end Jim Crow apartheid and brought to a head black resistance from the Reconstruction to the nineteen fifties? In this seminar we will read and discuss texts that present a first-hand account of the modern Civil Rights Movement from the perspective of both black and white women and men who lived the change taking place before their very eyes. We will analyze various genres including autobiography, memoir and novel. The course will include a trip to the King Center and the National Historic Site in Atlanta as well as to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Particulars: Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement by James Forman; Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson; Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody; The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. by King and Clayborne Carson; Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement by Blance Cook; 1959 : A Novel, by Thulani Davis; Carry me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter; A Stone ofHope: Prophetic Religion and the death of Jim Crow by David Chappell, and Leaving Birmingham: Notes of a Native Son by Paul Hemphill.

One-page response papers due for each book 40% of grade; Midterm Examination (Essay) 20% of grade; Final Examination 25% of grade; Oral presentations 15 % of grade

AAS 190S: HISTORY of AFRICAN AMERICAN EDUCATION

W 2:00-4:00 pm GADSDEN
MAX: 15

Content: This seminar course is organized to explore the history of African American education in the United States after emancipation. We will pay special attention to the problem of segregation and inequality in American primary and secondary education, the meaning of education in African American culture, and the various means by which civil rights activists, educators, and others challenged discriminatory practices and struggled to expand educational opportunities for all children.

Tentative List of Texts and Materials: James Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 David S. Cecelski, Along Freedom Road: Hyde County, North Carolina and the Fate of Black Schools in the South Davison Douglas, Jim Crow Moves North: The Battle over Northern School Segregation, 1865-1954 Peter Irons, Jim Crow's Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision Jonathan Kozol. The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America.
CANCELLED

AAS 190S: TRANSNATIONAL BLACK EXPERIENCE through HISTORICAL and CONTEMPORARY FILM (Same as HIST 190S)

W 1:00-3:00 pm DAVIS
MaX: 12 AAS (6) HIST (6)

Content: This course begins with a working definition of “black transnationalism,” and then proceeds to comparatively examine black experiences through historical and contemporary national cinemas in the “Black Atlantic World.” We closely scrutinize several movies and documentaries, and contrast cinema productions with historical and contemporary “realities.”Using cinema as an analytical tool, we specifically look at themes of identity formation (national and transnational), the role of popular culture, constructions of race and class and the intersections of gender, religion and other variables.

Texts: Will Be Announced in Class:

Particulars: Requirements include mandatory class attendance, weekly response papers, and a final paper. Final grades will also reflect informed and detailed class discussions. There are no examinations.

AAS 190S: THE HURRICANE SEASON and the GULF COAST (Same as HIST 190S)

W 2:30-5:30 pm L. HARRIS
Max: 12 AAS (6) HIST (6)

Content: This course explores the issues of race, class, history and environment that were highlighted by the 2005 Hurricane Season. Using New Orleans as a case study, students will read about the history of the city preceding 2005, and then explore how individuals andgroups have tried to understand what happened during and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the New Orleans area and the Gulf Coast. Students will also develop their own individual and group histories of the storms and their aftermath. There may also be an opportunity for travel to New Orleans during fall break. Research developed during this class may become part of a permanent website on the 2005 Hurricane Season being developed byProfessor Leslie Harris; and Carmelita Pickett, African American Studies Subject Liaison; and Jana Lonberger, U.S. History Subject Liaison, Woodruff Library.

Texts May include: Arnold Hirsch and Joseph Logsdon, Creole New Orleans Peirce Lewis, New Orleans : The Making of an Urban Landscape J. Mark Souther, New Orleans on Parade Craig Colten, ed., Transforming New Orleans and Its Environs: Centuries of Change Ivor van Heerden, TheStorm: What went Wrong and Why Michael Eric Dyson, Come Hell or High Water David Dante Troutt, After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina Betsy Reed, Unnatural Disaster: The Nation on Hurricane Katrina

Particulars: no more than 6 lines. (Particulars includes all info other than content and text: such as, papers [number, length], grading, quizzes, exams, permission required.)Participation and attendance required; oral presentations; two short writing assignments; one research paper, either traditional format or web format.

AAS 190S: RACE and the 2008 ELECTION (Same as POLS 190S)

W 4:00-7:00 pm GILLESPIE
Max: 10 AAS (5) POLS (5)

Content: From the beginning, the 2008 presidential election cycle shaped up to be a transformative race. The candidacies of Bill Richardson and Barack Obama were particularly notable because they underscored the important role that racial and ethnic minorities play in American politics today. In this course, students will learn the historical role of racial and ethnic minorities (blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans) in elections and apply their historical and theoretical knowledge to the current election cycle through collaborative assignments.

Texts: TBA

Particulars: TBA

AAS 190S: AMERICAN SLAVERY, AMERICAN FREEDOM (Same as HIST 190S, ENG 190S, IDS 190S)

W 4:00-6:30 pm DESROCHERS
Max:12 AAS (2) HIST (6) ENG (2) IDS (2)

Content: From the seventeenth century through the founding era and down to the Civil War, the rise of liberty and equality in America occurred alongside the rise of slavery, in a symbiotic relationship that the historian Edmund S. Morgan called the “central paradox of American history.” How are we to understand this peculiar marriage of freedom and slavery? In Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study , sociologist Orlando Patterson suggested that because freedom, “an ideal cherished in the West beyond all others,” emerged as a necessary consequence of slavery, we must either “esteem slavery for what it has wrought,” or else “challenge our conception of freedom and the value we place on it.” Taking its intellectual cues from Morgan’s paradox and Patterson’s enigma, this seminar encourages students to think about the relationship between freedom and slavery in American history, and explores some of the ways in which contested commitments to both shaped the development of democracy in America.

Particulars: TBA

Course materials will include books, articles, short articles, first-person narratives, and films. Requirements include seminar participation and weekly response papers.

AAS 247: RACIAL and ETHNIC RELATIONS (Same as SOC 247)

Tu, Th 8:30-9:45 am CHERRBI
Max: 40 AAS (20) SOC (20)

Content: This course focuses on historical and contemporary examples of race and ethnic relations and ethnic conflict. We discuss the changing ethnic and racial makeup of the US, in the context of theoretical debates in the literature and attention to comparative and historical analyses, and social structure. We also consider examples of ethnic relations and ethnic conflict abroad, focusing on country case studies. Readings: Electronically available articles and selected books.

Particulars: Attend class and engage in class discussions (10%), Mid term exam (30%), final exam (30%), 8 10 page research paper (30%)

AAS 338: AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY to 1865 (Same as HIST 338)

M,W,F 10:40-11:30 am L. HARRIS
Max: 40 AAS (20) HIST (20)

Content: This course covers the development of the group of people known as African Americans. The development of this group of people is rooted in the cultures of Africa, Europe and the " New World;" the experience of the African slave trade; and the founding of the United States as a nation distinct from the rest of the Americas. Moving from the broader African Diaspora to focus on African descendants in the United States, the course ends with the abolition of slavery in the United States.Texts: TBA

Particulars: no more than 6 lines. (Particulars includes all info other than content and text: such as, papers [number, length], grading, quizzes, exams, permission required.)

Take-home midterm; take-home final; one 5-7 page History on Trial paper and presentation; class attendance and participation required.

AAS 345: AFRO-AM FREEDOM STRUGGLE (Same as AMST 385/HIST 385)

Tu, Th 2:30-3:45 pm GADSDEN
Max: 20 AAS (10) AMST (5) HIST (5)

Content: The Black Freedom Struggle stands as one of the most important social movements of the twentieth century. In this course, students will be asked to engage in a broad consideration of what historians have called the “Long Civil Rights Movement,” beginning in the early twentieth century. We will trace to origins of the struggle, as African Americans and their allies mounted a broad rejection of the politics of accommodation and began to turn their attention to more direct challenges to systems of segregation and racial discrimination. We will begin with a consideration of the rise of the NAACP, explore the evolution of pre-WWII black nationalism, and chart the rise and decline of the civil rights unionism and black popular front. After the mid-term exam, we will then trace developments through the “classical” phase of the struggle—the period that, as popularly remembered, began with Brown v. Board of Education, proceeded through the Montgomery bus boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides, marches, and other public protests in the U.S. South, and culminated with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. These exercises will be followed by considerations of “post-movement” expressions of Black Power, Black Nationalism, and welfare activism. The course is organized to assist students in developing the skills and background to identify the most salient historical and historiographic themes and patterns that define African American political insurgencies. We will pay special attention to the ways that class and gender intersect with race in various expressions of black political protest. The challenge for students will be to develop sets of analytical tools necessary for appreciating the complexities inherent in African American socialmovements, think critically about the relationship between activists and the communities they purport to represent, and formulate strategies for explaining “success” and “failure” as activists challenged institutionalized forms of racism.

Tentative List of Texts and Materials: Eric Arnesen, Black Protest and the Great Migration: A Brief History with Documents Martha Biondi, To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Struggle Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy Alex Haley, ed. The Autobiography of Malcolm X Elaine Brown, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story Rhonda Williams, The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women's Struggles against Urban Inequality

Particulars: TBA
CANCELLED

AAS 379: AFRICAN AMERICAN ART & CULTURE (Same as ARTHIST 379)

M,W,F 10:40-11:30 am M. HARRIS
Max: 20 AAS (10) ARTHIST (10)

Content: This course is a survey class that will explore the development of African American art and culture from the vernacular expression of the antebellum period through the complicated issues of the twentieth century. Some attention will be paid to folk expression aswell as the development of painting, drawing, and sculpture as African Americans joined themainstream of contemporary art beginning in the nineteenth century. Cultural and historical issues will be discussed to contextualize the art expression.

Text: African American Art by Sharon Patton.

AAS 385: BLACK MUSIC: CULTURE, COMMERCE and the RACIAL IMAGINATION (Same as MUS 470)

AAS 385: RACE, GENDER and VISUAL REPRESENTATION

Content: This course will examine how imagery helped support and sustain racial ideologies, and create and maintain social hierarchies in American society. Also, we will explore how the suppression of certain classes of women in the larger society was coded visually using the same modes used to suppress blacks. How artists from the affected groups have responded will be an important part of the discussion.

Text: Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representation by Michael D. Harris

AAS 385: AFRICAN AMERICAN IMAGES in the MEDIA

Content: This course examines the central tensions underlying race and ethnic relations. We will focus primarily on intergroup relations in the U.S., although we will devote some attention to ethnic conflict more globally. More specifically, we will consider the theoretical debates in the conceptualization and analysis of race and ethnicity; develop an understanding of the social and political meaning of race and ethnicity; as well as, develop an understanding of howvarious racial and ethnic groups construct their social identity.

Particulars: Attend class and engage in class discussions (10%). Two in-class exams (20% each), final exam (25%). 8-10 page research paper (25%).

AAS 385S: THE 'OTHER' AFRICAN AMERICANS (Same as AMST 346S)

Contents: This seminar examines the diversity within black America via case studies of immigrants from the Caribbean, Africa and Latin America. This means seeing the black community as several overlapping communities including African-Americans, as well as blacks who identify as West Indians, diasporic Africans, and Afro-Latinos. Doing so raises manyquestions that many of us would not even think to ask: Who is African-American? How has the presence of black immigrants in the US influenced black American culture, history, and discourses on race, racism, protest and black advancement? Do these "other" blacks view themselves as distinct from native-born African-Americans? Are they perceived differently by others? How do these groups challenge popular and scholarly notions about who black Americans are?

Possible texts: Violet Johnson, The Other Black Bostonians; Paule Marshall, Brown Girl, Brownstones; Claude McKay, Home to Harlem; Mary Waters, Black Identities; Irma Watkins-Owens, Blood Relations.

Particulars: Requirements include active participation in class discussion, an independentresearch project, several short essays, and an end of semester “symposium” presentation.

AAS 385WR: MALCOLM X and THE MAKING of TWENTIETH-CENTURY RADICIAL CELEBRITY (Same as ENG 359WR)

Content: This course will examine the remarkable life and public career of Malcolm X and in the process shed light on the phenomenon of myth-making, political reputation, and the culture of celebrity in twentieth century United States. Specifically, the course hopes to answer this question: How did Malcolm X, an ex-convict and convert to a tiny religious cult, become one of the most influential political revolutionaries of the twentieth century? We will examine the life and work of Malcolm X (1925-1965) from two distinct angles. First, we will try to understand Malcolm X, the charismatic political figure, in his own time. We will listen to and read many of the speeches given by the popular Minister during his years as the national spokesman for the Nation of Islam and then we will focus special attention to X’s work as a black internationalist revolutionary after November 1963 until his death in February 1965.

The second portion of the course will be devoted to El Hajj Malik Shabazz’s meaning and influence in the United States and abroad after 1965. This portion of the course is explicitly concerned with the process of celebrity image manufacture, both by institutions anxious to quell political dissent as well as by artists and political insurgents hoping to inspire radical opposition. To carry out this part of our investigation, we will examine popular media such as film and music.

Particulars: Include a major presentation, a weekly journal, a midterm examination, and a final paper.

AAS 398R: DIRECTED READING

Content: Aspects of African American history and culture are the subject of in depth reading and study for a semester. In collaboration with a faculty member, a student conceptualizes a research project and completes a reading list. The research project will reflect the research and teaching strengths of program faculty, and may be in such disciplines as history, sociology, literature, art history, music, and health.

Particulars: A reading list pertinent to the area of study os approved during the first week of the semester. A schedule of meeting times is developed for continuous discussion and analyses of the selected area of study. STUDENTS MUST HAVE WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM PROGRAM DIRECTOR TO ENROLL IN THIS COURSE.

AAS 100: INTRODUCTION to AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES