An interdisciplinary introduction to African American Studies that combines the teaching of core thinkers, concepts, and debates in the field with instruction in critical reading and writing. After exploring the field's institutionalization in US higher education, students engage foundational texts in African American Studies such as works by Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Toni Morrison, the Combahee River Collective, Malcolm X, Audre Lorde, and James Baldwin. After taking this course, students should emerge with rich and textured insights into African American history, thought, and culture that provides them with critical lenses for analyzing contemporary social issues impacting African Americans.

Description: A chronological study of the African/Black experience from a number of perspectives: history, politics, economics, sociology, psychology, religion, art, music, including a study of the evolution of black political and social thought, political engagement and protest, and the struggle to enact social change. Notes: Offered in fall and spring.