Africana Studies Courses | 2024-2025 Graduate Catalog | SIU

(Same as HIST 401) This course examines the origins and development of the Atlantic basin as an intercommunication zone for African, European and American societies from the mid-15th century through the early-19th century. Themes include transformation of environments, forced and voluntary migrations, emergence of distinct Atlantic culture communities, development of Atlantic economics and formulation and implementation of Atlantic revolutionary ideologies.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as ANTH 410H) This course examines aspects of African expressive culture including the visual arts, music, dance, orature, cinema, drama, and ceremony from an anthropological perspective. Particular attention is given to analysis of African expressive culture in social context and the role of the arts in the practice of politics, religion, medicine, and other aspects of African life. Many of the expressive genres examined deal with historical representation and political resistance. Therefore, this course provides insights into African history and politics through the creation of African artists.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as ANTH 413) This course examines the history and social significance of African film from cultural, aesthetic, political, and economic perspectives.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CMST 416 and WGSS 416) Explore the roots, contemporary manifestations, and current embodiments of Black feminist thought. Explore the works of Black women to engage in critical thinking and thoughtful dialogue that positions the valuable knowledge, experiences and perspectives of women of color at the center of inquiry while simultaneously discovering spaces for multicultural alliances.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as THEA 460) Explores significant themes in African and African American drama, with special attention to performance styles and cultural issues.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as CMST 447) Via intercultural theories and methods, this course explores histories, relationships, interactions and recent events by positioning racial and ethnic perspectives at the center of inquiry. The course critically examines the complexities of race, racism and ethnicity by focusing on how people communicate across racial and ethnic differences in different contexts.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as MUS 452A, WGSS 452A) Examines the tradition of "uppity" women's blues from the so-called "classic" blues singers of the 19th century (Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, etc.) to the contemporary blues of Saffire, Denise LaSalle and others. Explores ways blues women challenge conventions of gender and sexuality, racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Restricted to junior/senior/graduate music major or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as MUS 452B) Traces the history, culture, and stylistic developments of blues and boogie woogie piano. Explores socio-cultural contexts and examines key players, pieces, and musical styles. Restricted to junior/senior/graduate music major or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as HIST 460) This course examines slavery and southern distinctiveness from the colonial period to 1861. Discussion topics include the plantation system, race relations, women and slavery, and southern nationalism.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as HIST 461) This course examines the history of African Americans in the American West. Taking both a chronological and thematic approach, it begins with a discussion of early black explores in the age of encounter, and ends with a focus on black western towns established in the United States by the 1880's.

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of the impact of western colonial rule on the societies and politics of Africa, the method by which these colonial areas became sovereign states in the post-World War II era, the role of domestic political institutions, African political thought and behavior, and the development of foreign policies regarding relations with other African states, continental and international organizations, and international organizations, and non-African states.

Credit Hours: 3

This course reviews the history and evolution of the construct of race as a psychological phenomenon. While the course will be largely psychological in nature, the pervasiveness of race in practically every sphere of life necessitates a multidisciplinary approach. The course will emphasize a theoretical and conceptual approach toward understanding the psychology of racialized thinking. Prerequisite: PSYC 211. Crosslisted with PSYC 470.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as HIST 473) A comparative study of slavery from antiquity to its abolition in the 19th century with the differing socio-cultural, political and economic contexts; organized chronologically, regionally, and thematically.

Credit Hours: 3

This course uses the best scholarship of cultural anthropology and social studies to look at the history of education in the African American community; how public education affects African American families; how school shape cultural change and how racial, ethnic peer group, and gender issues help determine curriculum issues. For graduate credit.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as HIST 478) An examination of Southern African history with emphasis on South Africa from 1652 to 1994. Topics to be covered include conflicts and wars, migrations and state formations, the economics of minerals, industrialization and the Anglo-Boer War, intertwined histories of race relations, the politics of exclusion and apartheid, and the making of modern South Africa.

Credit Hours: 3

Special topics, focused on research needs of students who are regularly enrolled in upper-division courses, especially graduate students doing research in Africana related topics in other departments and programs. May be repeated for up to six credit hours. Special approval needed from the director of the AFR program.

Credit Hours: 3

This course provides the theoretical framework for research in the field of Africana Studies. Students will investigate the foundations of the field of Black Studies, from the arguments of Maulena Karenga and Molefi Asante, to the challenges of scholars such as Manning Marable, James Turner and other recent scholars. Students will pursue individual research projects appropriate to various academic disciplines which constitute the field of Africana Studies. May be taken for graduate credit.

Credit Hours: 3

Study abroad 4-6 week program is designed to introduce similarities in culture (food, dance, music, family traditions, religion) of people in Ghana and in the cultures of people in the African diaspora. Class begins on the SIUC campus and will relocate to Elmina and Cape Coast, Ghana, during the first year of a three-year sequence. Other years will locate in areas of the West Indies, Caribbean & Central America. May be taken for graduate credit. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3-9

Using compilations of the 19th and early 20th century body of work known as "Slave Narratives", students will organize research projects that discover selected major themes of Africana Studies. The course will be useful to students from various academic disciplines (such as Psychology; Music; Sociology; History; Philosophy; Education; Literature; and Theology, among others) as they place Slave Narratives in the center of Africana and American Studies scholarship. May be taken for graduate credit.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as HIST 487) This course provides an overview of the history of the Civil Rights Movement while engaging major debates in the field of Black Freedom Studies. Central themes will include the impact of the Cold War, the roles of women, and the relationship of civil rights to black power. We will also discuss the difference between popular memory and historical scholarship as well as the meaning of such discussions for contemporary issues of racial and economic justice.

Credit Hours: 3

Topics vary and are announced in advance. May be repeated as the topic varies. No prerequisites.

Credit Hours: 3-9

(Same as PHIL 451) A survey of major thinkers and themes in the history of African American Philosophy from colonial times to the 20th century.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PHIL 455) A survey of critical examination of a range of theories on the nature and meaning of "race", the intersection of race with class and gender, and the promotion of racial progress. Such theories include racial realism and idealism, racial biologism, cultural race theory, social constructivist theory, integrationism, separatism, racial eliminativism, cosmopolotianism, and especially critical race theory.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PHIL 459) A seminar on varying topics, themes, and figures in African, African American, and/or Caribbean Philosophy, e.g., "W.E.B. Du Bois and His Contemporaries," "Pan Africanism," "Philosophies of Liberation," "Black Feminism," " Contemporary African Philosophy," "Philosophies of the Caribbean.

Credit Hours: 1-6

In the seminar, a deep appreciation of the various texts that are the testimonies of the enslaved Africans in the United States help shape the research strategies of students who wish to do focused studies of African American and American culture, by discovering the themes of resistance, persistence and transcendence as these themes were articulated and employed by generations of enslaved Africans in what is now the United States. Students engage in close critical and cultural readings of slave narratives; folklore texts; musical testimonies (folk songs and Spirituals), petitions and other records.

Credit Hours: 3

The course deals with issues of human diversity broadly defined to include race, ethnicity, culture, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and ability. It explores the contours of difference and the dynamics of diversity, privilege, and oppression in domestic and global contexts. It also examines authentic cultural voices, understanding these voices, how to interact with them and be able to find individual and group cultural voices in a diverse society and how to apply the knowledge in a larger global sphere.

Credit Hours: 3

A seminar on varying topics, themes, and figures in African, African American, and/or Caribbean Philosophy, e.g., "W.E.B. Du Bois and His Contemporaries," "Pan-Africanism," "Philosophies of Liberation," "Black Feminism," "Contemporary African Philosophy," "Philosophies of the Caribbean.

Credit Hours: 3