Prerequisites None
Number of courses 12 term courses (incl senior req) Specific courses required AFAM 160, 162, 410
Distribution of courses 1 relevant humanities course and 1 relevant social science course, both approved by DUS; 5 courses in area of concentration
Substitution permitted Relevant course with DUS permission
Senior requirement Senior colloq (AFAM 480) and senior essay (AFAM 491)
*AFAM 040a/FILM 040a, Spike Lee Terri Francis For description see under Film Studies.
*AFAM 095b/AMST 001b/HIST 001b, African American Freedom Movements in the Twentieth Century Crystal Feimster
For description see under History.
AFAM 112a/HSAR 379a, New York Mambo: Microcosm of Black Creativity Robert Thompson
For description see under History of Art.
AFAM 160a/HIST 184a, Slavery and Abolition in Atlantic History, 1500–1888 Edward Rugemer
For description see under History.
[AFAM 162b/AMST 162b/HIST 187b, African American History: From Emancipation to the Present]
AFAM 167a/AMST 317a/WGSS 167a, African American Women’s History Crystal Feimster
The history of African American women from the eighteenth century to the present.
Themes include work, family, community, sexuality, politics, religion, and culture. hu
*AFAM 172a/HIST 119a, The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845–1877 David Blight
For description see under History.
AFAM 178b/AFST 188b/HSAR 378b, From West Africa to the Black Americas:
The Black Atlantic Visual Tradition Robert Thompson For description see under History of Art.
AFAM 183b/HSAR 375b, Afro-Modernism in the Twentieth Century Kobena Mercer
For description see under History of Art.
AFAM 189a/HSAR 373a, African American Art: Colonial Period to 1941 Erica James For description see under History of Art.
AFAM 190b/HSAR 374b, African American Art: 1941 to the Present Erica James For description see under History of Art.
*AFAM 191a/AFST 330a/FREN 230a/LITR 266a, Francophone African and Caribbean Literature Christopher L. Miller
For description see under French.
AFAM 194b/AMST 194b/DEVN 194b/ENGL 194b, African American Arts Today Elizabeth Alexander
For description see under DeVane Lecture Courses.
AFAM 241a/AFST 262a/MUSI 262a, Traditional and Contemporary Musics of Sub-Saharan Africa Michael Veal
For description see under Music.
*AFAM 242a/FILM 370a, Spectacle, Stereotypes, and Black Film Terri Francis For description see under Film Studies.
*AFAM 245a/ENGL 229a, Representing U.S. Slavery Anthony Reed For description see under English Language & Literature.
AFAM 250b, Blacks and the Law Flemming Norcott
An exploration of the ways in which legislative and judicial policy has affected the legal and socioeconomic status of African Americans from slavery to the present. Constitutional concepts of equality and integration. so
*AFAM 277b/FILM 373b, Blaxploitation Reexamined Terri Francis
Examination of African American visual culture of the “blaxploitation” era. Issues of authorship, performance, and audience relative to black creativity; the question of what is included and excluded by genre; and how particular works engage the idea of a black aesthetic tradition.
*AFAM 279a/AMST 273a/WGSS 342a, Black Women’s Literature Naomi Pabst Examination of black women’s literary texts, with a focus on the post–civil rights era. Explo-ration of the ways writers construct and contest the cultural, ideological, and political param-eters of black womanhood. Topics include narrative strategy, modes of representation, and textual depictions of the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, color, ethnicity, nationality, class, and generation. Texts placed within the context of black women’s literary legacies. hu AFAM 282a/ECON 280a, Poverty under Postindustrial Capitalism Gerald Jaynes Political economy of contemporary social welfare policy as it has been affected by economic restructuring, the development of the underclass, and the effects of immigration on the economy and its social structure. Prerequisite: introductory microeconomics. so
*AFAM 285b/AMST 357b, Racial Violence in America Crystal Feimster
Examination of racial violence against African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans. Attention to major historical events and individual expe-riences. Ways in which racist ideologies and violence have worked to keep different groups of people socially, politically, or economically oppressed in given historical moments. hu
*AFAM 290b/HSAR 473b, Caribbean Art History Erica James For description see under History of Art.
*AFAM 291a/HSAR 470a, Pop Art and African American Culture Kobena Mercer For description see under History of Art.
*AFAM 292b/AMST 292b, Interracial Literature Naomi Pabst
Examination of interracial and black subjectivity as represented within a selection of postemancipation literary texts. Focus on black/white color line crossing, the trope of the tragic mulatto, and theories of difference and hybridity. hu
*AFAM 294a/ENGL 294a, African American Literature I: 1740–1900 Robert Stepto The literary reaction to slavery; the evolution in form from slave narratives to auto-biographies and fictions; the incorporation of folk and popular materials into formal literature. Authors include Phyllis Wheatley, Jupiter Hammon, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Charles Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and James Weldon Johnson. hu
*AFAM 295b/AMST 295b/ENGL 295b, African American Literature II: 1900–1970 Jacqueline Goldsby
An examination of modern African American literature, including poetry, fiction, and plays. Topics include canon formation and genre practices; literary presentations of migra-tion and urbanizamigra-tion, and racial and gender representamigra-tion and identity; the literary
“renaissances” of the twentieth century; and book art and decoration. Works by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine Hansberry, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and August Wilson. hu
*AFAM 304b/AMST 309b/WGSS 309b, Toni Morrison Naomi Pabst
Analysis of Toni Morrison’s speeches, interviews, essays, and eight novels. Examination of race, gender, class, sexuality, identity, and memory in Morrison’s work. wr, hu
*AFAM 317b/ANTH 303b, Field Methods in Cultural Anthropology Kamari Clarke
For description see under Anthropology.
*AFAM 327a/AMST 373a/ENGL 339a/WGSS 336a, American Literary Nationalisms GerShun Avilez
The influence of nationalist frameworks on American artistic production in 1960s and 1970s. The treatment of gender expression in nationalist sentiments. Focus on writings by and about the Black Arts Movement, the Chicano Movement, the Young Lords Party, Asian American nationalism, and feminist and queer organizing. Works by Arturo Islas, Alice Walker, Frank Chin, Gloria Anzaldua, Amiri Baraka, and Maxine Kingston. hu
*AFAM 344a/ENGL 304a/WGSS 331a, Black Women Writers of the 1940s and 1950s Jacqueline Goldsby
For description see under English Language & Literature.
*AFAM 349a/AMST 326a/WGSS 388a, Civil Rights and Women’s Liberation Crystal Feimster
The dynamic relationship between the civil rights movement and the women’s liberation movement from 1940 to the present. When and how the two movements overlapped, intersected, and diverged. The variety of ways in which African Americans and women campaigned for equal rights in the twentieth century. Topics include World War II, free-dom summer, black power, the Equal Rights Amendment, feminism, abortion, affirmative action, and gay rights. hu
*AFAM 368a/AMST 321a, Interraciality and Hybridity Naomi Pabst
Examination of mixed-race matters in both literary and critical writings, primarily within the black/white schema. Historical and current questions of black and interracial identity;
the contemporary “mixed race movement” and the emerging rubric of “critical mixed race studies”; historical genealogy of interraciality and hybridity. Analysis of long-standing debates on race mixing in the realms of legal classification, transracial adoption, census taking, grassroots movements, the discursive, the ideological, and the popular. hu
*AFAM 369b/AMST 378b/ENGL 364b/LITR 271b/THST 369b, African American Theater Paige McGinley
For description see under Theater Studies.
*AFAM 389b/ENGL 371b/WGSS 389b, Sexuality in African American Literature and Popular Culture GerShun Avilez
Sexual imagery and content in African American literature and popular culture. Ways that artists and social critics understand the relationship between sexual identity and racial identity. Writers and artists include Alice Walker, Gayl Jones, Spike Lee, Marlon Riggs, Essex Hemphill, Patricia H. Collins, Mark Anthony Neal, and Audre Lorde. hu
*AFAM 406bG/AMST 405bG/ENGL 405b, Autobiography in America Robert Stepto For description see under American Studies.
*AFAM 408aG/AMST 460aG/ENGL 443aG, African American Poets of the Modern Era Robert Stepto
The African American practice of poetry between 1900 and 1960, especially of sonnets, bal-lads, sermonic, and blues poems. Poets include Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker, and Robert Hayden. Class sessions at the Beinecke Library for inspection and discussion of original editions, manuscripts, letters, and other archival material. hu
*AFAM 410a/WGSS 410a, Interdisciplinary Approaches to African American Studies Deborah Thomas
An interdisciplinary, thematic approach to the study of race, nation, and ethnicity in the African diaspora. Topics include class, gender, color, and sexuality; the dynamics of reform, Pan-Africanism, neocolonialism, and contemporary black nationalism. Use of a broad range of methodologies. hu, so Junior sem
*AFAM 414b/WGSS 438b, Women, Law, and the Black Freedom Movement Kathleen Cleaver
Writings and scholarship of women are used to examine struggles against slavery, racial segregation, economic exploitation, and gender discrimination in the United States. Focus on women who were abolitionists, civil rights leaders, and freedom fighters. so
*AFAM 423bG/AMST 384b/ENGL 306bG, American Artists and the African American Book Robert Stepto
The visual art in African American books since 1900. Artists include Winold Reiss, Aaron Douglas, E. S. Campbell, Tom Feelings, and the FSA photographers of the 1940s. Topics include Harlem Renaissance book art, photography and literature, and children’s books.
Research in collections of the Beinecke Library and the Yale Art Gallery is encouraged. hu
*AFAM 434a/ENGL 442a, Music and Poetics in the African Diaspora Anthony Reed For description see under English Language & Literature. (Formerly AFAM 302)
*AFAM 471a and 472b, Independent Study: African American Studies Edward Rugemer
Independent research under the direction of a member of the department on a special topic in African American studies not covered in other courses. Permission of the director of undergraduate studies and of the instructor directing the research is required. A proposal signed by the instructor must be submitted to the director of undergraduate studies by the end of the second week of classes. The instructor meets with the student regularly, typically for an hour a week, and the student writes a final paper or a series of short essays. May be elected for one or two terms.
*AFAM 480a, Senior Colloquium: African American Studies Deborah Thomas A seminar on issues and approaches in African American studies. The colloquium offers students practical help in refining their senior essay topics and developing research strategies. Students discuss assigned readings and share their research experiences and findings. During the term, students are expected to make substantial progress on their senior essays; they are required to submit a prospectus, an annotated bibliography, and a draft of one-quarter of the essay.
*AFAM 491a or b, The Senior Essay Edward Rugemer
Independent research on the senior essay. The senior essay form must be submitted to the director of undergraduate studies by the end of the second week of classes. The senior essay should be completed according to the following schedule: (1) end of the sixth week of classes: a rough draft of the entire essay; (2) end of the last week of classes (fall term) or three weeks before the end of classes (spring term): two copies of the final version of the essay.