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  • AFR 104: Travel Narratives and African History

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    In a way, all historical thinking and writing deals with travel accounts given that, as many scholars have noted, the past can be likened to a foreign country and the historian can be viewed as a traveler in foreign places. Nevertheless, actual travel narratives--narratives about the actual physical visits of writers to distant lands--call for careful and critical analysis because they can be seductive, and they can shape the ways we think about the present--and the past--of distant lands and cultures. This course discusses Arab, Indian, European, African and African American travel narratives about various regions of Africa since the 14th century. We will mine the travel accounts for descriptions of local contexts. We will also explore what travel writing says about the author's perceptions of self, home, and "other." Ultimately, we will investigate the authors' biases and how the narratives influence both our perception of Africa and the writing of African history. This course is highly interdisciplinary and draws heavily on literary, anthropological, geographical, and historical methodologies. Prerequisite:    First-year or sophomore standing
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  • AFR 108: What Passes for Freedom?: Mixed-Race Figures in U.S. Culture

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    The idea of a distinct category of individuals identified as "biracial," "multiracial," or "mixed-race" has become increasingly prominent over the past few decades, despite the inescapable fact that the existence of children of interracial couples is by no means new. Indeed, historically speaking, notions of "racial purity" are a relatively recent invention--what might now be called "race-mixing" is older than the concept of "race" itself. Why, then, has the figure of the mixed-race person been receiving so much attention? Why is this figure imagined as somehow novel or unprecedented? Is there something different about the contemporary social experience of children of interracial couples? Why do people who do not share this experience take so much interest in it? Our pursuit of these questions will take us back to earlier periods in U.S. history, and to different figures appearing at the borders of established racial categories, such as the "tragic mulatta" or the "passing" figure. Most of our readings will be drawn from African American literature and works by other writers of color, but you should also expect a substantial amount of scholarly writing on theories and histories of race. These readings will lead to some highly charged discussions--which will not always end comfortably, or with everyone in agreement. Because this course is writing-intensive, we'll spend significant time developing writing skills, with an emphasis on collaborative learning.
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  • AFR 113: Musics of Africa

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    This course introduces a selection of musical cultures from the geographical breadth of Africa. Following an introductory exploration of the fundamental aesthetic and social parameters governing African musical practice, we will proceed to examine in more depth regional case studies from North, South, East, West and Central Africa. Attention will be given to both traditional and urban music-making contexts, and styles covered will include Shona mbira music, Tuareg rock, West African highlife, Ba'Aka vocal polyphony and South African kwela. Through readings, writing, lecture-demonstrations, and hands-on participation, this course satisfies the EDI requirement by investigating the intersection of African music with politics, gender, advocacy, globalization and other broad themes. Prerequisite:    No prerequisites: prior musical background is not essential for this class
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  • AFR 129: Twentieth-Century Black Poets

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    From Langston Hughes to contemporary poets such as Amiri Baraka and Angela Jackson, African American poets have been preoccupied with the relations of poetry to other traditions. Vernacular speech, English poetry, jazz and other musical forms, folk humor and African mythology have all been seen as essential sources for black poetry. This course will survey major poets such as Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Countee Cullen, Robert Hayden, Gwendolyn Brooks, Baraka, Jackson, and Yusef Komunyakaa, reading their poems and their essays and interviews about poetic craft. We will ask how black poetry has been defined and whether there is a single black poetic tradition or several.
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  • AFR 132: Contemporary Africana Social and Political Philosophy

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    This introductory seminar investigates the relationship between three major schools of thought in contemporary Africana social and political philosophy, namely the African, Afro-American, and Afro-Caribbean intellectual traditions. We will discuss a range of thinkers including Aime Cesaire, Angela Y. Davis, Edouard Glissant, Lewis R. Gordon, Kwame Gyekye, Paget Henry, bell hooks, Charles W. Mills, Nkiru Nzegwu, Lucius Outlaw, Oyeronke Oyewumi, Tommie Shelby, and Sylvia Wynter. A primary goal of the course is to provide students with the intellectual resources to decipher problems central to philosophical discourse and to allow students an opportunity to apply what they learn to critical issues in current geopolitics. This seminar is part of the Exploring Diversity Initiative, and as such we shall investigate--via the authors mentioned--comparative philosophical analyses, critical theorization, and the plurality of global thinking in contemporary social and political philosophy. Prerequisite:    Open to all
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  • AFR 155: John Coltrane and the Revolutionary Tradition in African American Music

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    This course will examine protest and freedom songs and music from the 1950s and 1960s Civil Rights Movement with an emphasis on the music of John Coltrane (1926-1967). We will begin with a brief historical look at protest and freedom songs from the 1800's through the 1950's, including genres such as jazz and Black classical music. We will focus on the Civil Rights era, and we will ask why the music of John Coltrane became identified with the 1960's movement. Avery Sharpe, a distinguished jazz bassist, spent over 20 years performing with John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner. He will provide for students a first-hand experience with this revolutionary music and its practitioners. He will take students to Harlem, where they will tour the historic Apollo Theater, visit the Abyssinian Baptist Church, and attend a jazz club performance. They will also be given the chance to do original oral interviews with Aisha Tyner and other intimates of the Coltrane circle. Students will also study and experience a public performance of Avery Sharpe's new work based on the life of Sojourner Truth,famous abolitionist, political activist, and freedom fighter. This EDI course explores the musical expressions of the culturally diverse peoples of African descent in the New World, as well as the myriad ways in which representations of jazz and protest music challenge institutional power and dominant U.S. and/or European hierarchies of race, gender and class.
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  • AFR 156: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Jazz

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    Taking its title from the Wallace Stevens poem, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," which interprets the blackbird in different ways, this course similarly explores a more complex, multi-layered perspective on jazz, from jazz and American democracy to jazz in visual art. Accordingly, the course introduces students to several genres, including historical documents, cultural criticism, music, literature, film, photography and art. The course does not draw on a musicological method but rather a socio-cultural analysis of the concept, music and its effect--so students are not required to have any prior musical knowledge or ability. In this writing intensive course, students will write short close analyses of multiple types of media, ultimately building up to an argumentative essay. This EDI course explores the musical expressions of the culturally diverse peoples of African descent in the New World, as well as the myriad ways in which representations of jazz signify on institutional power, reaffirm dominant U.S. and/or European hierarchies of race, gender and class, and signal inequality in order to contest it.
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  • AFR 200: Introduction to Africana Studies

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    This course introduces students to the content and contours of Africana Studies as a vibrant field of knowledge. Through exploration of the genealogy, disciplinary diversity, and evolution of the field, we will examine the depth and range of experiences of African-descended peoples throughout the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa. We will also give some attention to how members of the Diaspora remember and encounter Africa, as well as their diverse responses to the history of enslavement, colonialism, apartheid, racism, and globalization. Through materials that embrace both historical and contemporary perspectives, we seek to help students develop critical frameworks for understanding African diasporic experience while simultaneously illumining disjunctures and challenges for the field. This course features two pedagogical strategies: 1) a rotational, interdisciplinary approach that includes the expertise, methods, and specializations of Africana faculty; and 2) the incorporation of aesthetic materials--film, photography, music, dance, performance, and artwork--to enhance student ability to draw ongoing connections between visual and textual sources covered in the course. Close textual analysis, vibrant debate, and engaging discourse are expected.
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  • AFR 201: African Dance and Percussion

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    Students will learn dance and music traditions from the African continent. To more fully understand the art form, students will also study the culture and history of the African regions in which selected dance and music evolved. This course can be taken for academic and /or PE credit Prerequisite:    Dance 100 or permission of instructor
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  • AFR 203: A Survey of Modern African History

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    This course surveys the history of 19th and 20th century Africa. The first section of the course focuses on the European conquest of Africa and the dynamics of colonial rule--especially its socio-economic and cultural consequences. The second section looks at how the rising tide of African nationalism, in the form of labor strikes and guerrilla wars, ushered out colonialism. The third section examines the postcolonial states, focusing on the politics of development, recent civil wars in countries like Rwanda and Liberia, and the growing AIDS epidemics. The last section surveys the history of Apartheid in South Africa up to 1994.Course materials include fiction, poetry, memoirs, videos, newspaper articles, and outstanding recent scholarship. The course is structured around discussions. This EDI course explores the experiences and expressions of the culturally diverse peoples of African descent in the New World (and the Old), as well as the myriad ways in which they confront, negotiate, and at times challenge dominant U.S. and/or European hierarchies of race, culture, gender and class. Prerequisite:    No prior knowledge of African history required; open to all
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