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AFRICAAM 18B: Jazz History: Bebop to Present, 1940-Present (AMSTUD 18B, MUSIC 18B)

Modern jazz styles from Bebop to the current scene. Emphasis is on the significant artists of each style.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; Low, M. (PI); Koplitz, D. (TA)

AFRICAAM 20A: Jazz Theory (MUSIC 20A)

Introduces the language and sounds of jazz through listening, analysis, and compositional exercises. Students apply the fundamentals of music theory to the study of jazz. Prerequisite: Music 19, consent of instructor, or satisfactory demonstration of basic musical skills proficiency on qualifying examination on first day of class. This class is closed by design. Please register on the waitlist and show up on the first day of class to receive a permission number for enrollment.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors: ; Nadel, J. (PI)

AFRICAAM 21: African American Vernacular English (CSRE 21, LINGUIST 65, LINGUIST 265)

Vocabulary, pronunciation and grammatical features of the systematic and vibrant vernacular English [AAVE] spoken by African Americans in the US, its historical relation to British dialects, and to English creoles spoken on the S. Carolina Sea Islands (Gullah), in the Caribbean, and in W. Africa. The course will also explore the role of AAVE in the Living Arts of African Americans, as exemplified by writers, preachers, comedians and actors, singers, toasters and rappers, and its connections with challenges that AAVE speakers face in the classroom and courtroom. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center). UNITS: 3-5 units. Most students should register for 4 units. Students willing and able to tutor an AAVE speaking child in East Palo Alto and write an additional paper about the experience may register for 5 units, but should consult the instructor first. Students who, for exceptional reasons, need a reduced course load, may request a reduction to 3 units, but more of their course grade will come from exams, and they will be excluded from group participation in the popular AAVE Happenin at the end of the course.
Last offered: Spring 2019 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 27H: Faculty Choreography: Aleta Hayes (DANCE 27H)

Creation, rehearsal, performance of faculty choreography by Senior Lecturer Aleta Hayes. Casting by audition/invitation.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 1-2 | Repeatable for credit (up to 99 units total)

AFRICAAM 30: The Egyptians (CLASSICS 82, HISTORY 48, HISTORY 148)

This course traces the emergence and development of the distinctive cultural world of the ancient Egyptians over nearly 4,000 years. Through archaeological and textual evidence, we will investigate the social structures, religious beliefs, and expressive traditions that framed life and death in this extraordinary region. Students with or without prior background are equally encouraged.
Last offered: Autumn 2020 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 31: RealTalk: Intimate Discussions about the African Diaspora

Students to engage in an intellectual discussion about the African Diaspora with leading faculty at Stanford across departments including Education, Linguistics, Sociology, History, Political Science, English, and Theater & Performance Studies. Several lunches with guest speakers. This course will meet in the Program for African & African American Studies Office in Building 360 Room 362B (Main Quad). This course is limited to Freshman and Sophomore enrollment.
Terms: Aut | Units: 1
Instructors: ; McNair, K. (PI)

AFRICAAM 37: Contemporary Choreography: Chocolate Heads 'Garden After Dark' Performance Project (DANCE 30)

The Chocolate Heads Movement Band will engage in an interdisciplinary project-based course to develop collaborative choreography and installation art with visual and musical components. How can we attune our senses to perceive the subtleties of our surroundings? How can we learn to perceive the magic hiding in plain sight? The Autumn '23-'24 project will make use of remixing strategies, deep listening practices, and outdoor exploration to animate these questions in a multisensorial performance piece. We will cultivate an imaginary garden full of wild, surprising, and mysterious entities. Taking inspiration from landscape architecture, textiles, lighting, and projection design, we will bring the outside world in to create a dance and performance ecology. The course will feature collaborations with guest scientists, artists, and somatic practitioners. Our garden is open to all forms of creative expression and all levels of experience; we invite dancers, movers, and emerging creators of all styles and backgrounds. WEEK 1: TU 9/26--Introduction to the Project & CHs Band; THU 9/28--1st Audition Workshop. Contact Aleta Hayes (ahayes1@stanford.edu) for more information.
Terms: Aut | Units: 1-2 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE | Repeatable for credit
Instructors: ; Hayes, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 39: Long Live Our 4Bil. Year Old Mother: Black Feminist Praxis, Indigenous Resistance, Queer Possibility (CSRE 39, FEMGEN 39, NATIVEAM 39)

How can art facilitate a culture that values women, mothers, transfolks, caregivers, girls? How can black, indigenous, and people of color frameworks help us reckon with oppressive systems that threaten safety and survival for marginalized people and the lands that sustain us? How can these questions reveal the brilliant and inventive forms of survival that precede and transcend harmful systems toward a world of possibility? Each week, this course will call on artists, scholars, and organizers of color who clarify the urgency and interconnection of issues from patriarchal violence to environmental degradation; criminalization to legacies of settler colonialism. These same thinkers will also speak to the imaginative, everyday knowledge and creative healing practices that our forebears have used for millennia to give vision and rise to true transformation.
Last offered: Spring 2020 | Units: 1-4 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 42: Clothing and Black Expressive Culture in African American History

This course will examine the long tradition of Black expressive culture through clothing practices. We will specifically focus on the material history of how clothing has been used to refashion and retain Black identities from slavery to the millennial era. More than simply clothing people, Black fashion and dress challenged proscribed race, sex, and gendered notions of self. In the course we will examine scholars whose research on Black sartorial practices centers the narratives of marginalized cultural workers, privileging their voices to illuminate the archive of images and objects. Whether of working-class upbringing, activist and political participants, Black bourgeoisie, or one who aspires to a particular lifestyle, African American clothing culture represents an instance of Black signifying (a spectrum of Black performance styles and expressive culture) that rewrites everyday sartorial practices to reimagine the Black subject. To do this we will apply concepts emerging out of Black performance theory and visual culture, history, and cultural studies.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; McNair, K. (PI)

AFRICAAM 43: Introduction to English III: Introduction to African American Literature (AMSTUD 12A)

In his bold study, What Was African American Literature?, Kenneth Warren defines African American literature as a late nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century response to the nation's Jim Crow segregated order. But in the aftermath of the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights movement, can critics still speak, coherently, of "African American literature"? And how does this political conception of African American literary production compare with accounts grounded in black language and culture? Taking up Warren's intervention, this course will explore African American literature from its earliest manifestations in the spirituals and slave narratives to texts composed at the height of desegregation and decolonization struggles at mid-century and beyond. English majors must take this class for 5 units.
Last offered: Spring 2022 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 45: Dance Improvisation from Freestyle to Hip Hop (DANCE 45)

In this dance improvisation class, we will develop techniques and practices to cultivate an improvisational practice in dance and domains beyond. This class is an arena for physical and artistic exploration to fire the imagination of dance improvisers and to promote collaborative and interactive intelligence. We will draw upon dance styles and gestural vocabularies, including contemporary dance, hip-hop, vogue and more. Students will learn how to apply these improvisational dance ideas to generate and innovate across disciplines. Accompanied by a live DJ, students will practice listening with eyes, ears, and our whole bodies. Open to students from all dance, movement, and athletic backgrounds. Beginners welcome.
Last offered: Spring 2022 | Units: 1-2 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE | Repeatable for credit

AFRICAAM 46: Cape to Cairo: Decolonization and African Urban Life 1940s-1960s (CSRE 46, HISTORY 46S, URBANST 144U)

Decolonization across Africa was complicated, messy and sometimes violent. It was also an important moment for (re) imagining and (re)structuring society resulting in fascinating historical encounters among different groups. This course explores decolonization through the lens of different African urban spaces. In doing so, we shall focus on the major conflicts, debates and issues that emerged in the moment of decolonization. Additionally, we shall explore the different ways Africans survived, lived and thrived in the cities. Finally, we shall explore the relationships between the colonial and postcolonial eras through African urban spaces.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 5

AFRICAAM 46N: Show and Tell: Creating Provenance Histories of African Art (AFRICAST 46N, HISTORY 46N)

Provenance refers to the chain of custody of a particular art object during its lifetime. Put another way, provenance refers to all the individuals, communities, and institutions who have owned (both legally and illegally), kept, stored, exhibited, displayed, managed, and sold an art object. Knowledge of provenance can both inflate and deflate the value of an art object and it can also shed light upon legal and ethical questions including assessing repatriation and restitution claims for African art objects. Furthermore, by telling the story of how a particular object moved through multiple pairs of hands, often over the course of centuries and across several continents, we gain nuanced appreciation of the social currency of artwork as well as of changing perceptions of aesthetic and monetary value, and insight into the extractive dynamics of colonialism and postcolonial global economies. For this class, you will have the unique opportunity to work first hand with an important African art collection in North America: the Richard H. Scheller Collection at Stanford University. You will select one object from the collection and create a detailed provenance history, documenting and detailing its origins, its movement across space and time, and its arrival to the Scheller collection in Silicon Valley. You will use archival materials from Scheller¿s collection, online databases and archives, and secondary literature. Your final project for the class will be to create a visual StoryMap that allows you to display your provenance history with narrative text and multimedia content. In this way, you will not only have completed a class assignment: you will also have constructed for posterity a remarkable hitherto unknown history of an important African art object.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 46S: Ancients and Moderns: Africa and South Asia in World Literature (CLASSICS 45)

How might we make sense of culturally significant texts and text equivalents? We'll compare different answers to abiding human questions, such as: Where do we come from? Why do origins matter? What role do different media (written, spoken, otherwise performed, or visual) play in conveying a sense of the past from one generation to another? In what ways is our access to such cultural productions framed by colonial histories, with their discrepant experiences and perspectives? Readings include the Ramayana; the Bhagavad-Gita; Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart; and Chimamanda Adichie, `The headstrong historian'. This course is part of the Humanities Core sequence.
| Units: 3

AFRICAAM 47: History of South Africa (CSRE 74, HISTORY 47)

(Same as HISTORY 147. HISTORY 47 is 3 units; HISTORY 147 is 5 units.) Introduction, focusing particularly on the modern era. Topics include: precolonial African societies; European colonization; the impact of the mineral revolution; the evolution of African and Afrikaner nationalism; the rise and fall of the apartheid state; the politics of post-apartheid transformation; and the AIDS crisis.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 47S: Black Earth Rising: Law and Society in Postcolonial Africa (AFRICAST 90, HISTORY 47S)

Is the International Criminal Court a neocolonial institution? Should African art in Western museums be returned? Why have anti-homosexuality laws emerged in many African countries? This course engages these questions, and more, to explore how Africans have grappled with the legacies of colonialism through law since independence. Reading court documents, listening to witness testimonies, analyzing legal codes, and watching cultural commentaries¿including hit TV series Black Earth Rising¿students will examine the histories of legal conflict in Africa and their implications for the present and future of African societies. This course fulfills the Social Inquiry and Engaging Diversity Ways requirements.
Last offered: Winter 2021 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 48Q: South Africa: Contested Transitions (HISTORY 48Q)

Preference to sophomores. The inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president in May 1994 marked the end of an era and a way of life for South Africa. The changes have been dramatic, yet the legacies of racism and inequality persist. Focus: overlapping and sharply contested transitions. Who advocates and opposes change? Why? What are their historical and social roots and strategies? How do people reconstruct their society? Historical and current sources, including films, novels, and the Internet.
Last offered: Winter 2020 | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI, Writing 2

AFRICAAM 49S: African Futures: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Beyond (HISTORY 49S)

This course examines decolonization and its aftermath in sub-Saharan Africa. With a "wind of change" sweeping the continent, how did Africans imagine their futures together? From W.E.B. Du Bois to Black Panther, this course will engage in historical readings of political essays, speeches, film, and literature to consider how Africans envisioned their communities beyond empire. Topics will include a variety of projects for African unity, from experiments with Pan-Africanism, to religious revivalism, to Afrofuturist art and aesthetics.
Last offered: Autumn 2019 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 50C: The United States in the Twentieth Century (HISTORY 50C)

(Same as HISTORY 150C. 50C is 3 units; 150C is 5 units.) 100 years ago, women and most African-Americans couldn't vote; automobiles were rare and computers didn't exist; and the U.S. was a minor power in a world dominated by European empires. This course surveys politics, culture, and social movements to answer the question: How did we get from there to here? Suitable for non-majors and majors alike.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 53S: Black San Francisco (HISTORY 53S)

For over a century African-Americans have shaped the contours of San Francisco, a globally recognized metropolis, but their histories remain hidden. While endangered, Black San Francisco is still very much alive, and its history is an inextricable piece of the city's social and cultural fabric. This course aims to uncover the often-overlooked history of African-Americans in the city of San Francisco. The history of Black San Francisco unravels the myth of San Francisco liberalism showing how systemic racial oppression greatly limited the social mobility of non-whites well into the 20th century. Conversely, this course will also highlight the rich cultural and artistic legacies of Black San Franciscans with special attention on their ability to create social. Starting with the small, but influential middle and upper classes of African-Americans, who supported abolitionism from the West in the mid-late nineteenth century, to the rapid growth of the black population during WWII and moving through post-war struggles against the forces of Jim Crow and environmental racism. This course will explore: What is Black San Francisco? How did African-Americans shape the culture and politics of San Francisco, and where does the history of Black San Francisco fit into the broader national historical narrative? Conversely, what is unique about San Francisco and similar black communities in the West? How do we reconstruct the past of people going South to West as opposed to South to North? And finally, as raised in the critically acclaimed 2019 film, The Last Black Man in San Francisco and eluded by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, where does black San Franciscans, go from here?
Last offered: Autumn 2021 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 54S: From Stanford to Stone Mountain: U.S. History, Memory, and Monuments (HISTORY 54S)

The future of America's memorial landscape is a subject of intense debate. How do societies remember? Who built the nation's monuments and memorials, and to what ends? Can the meaning of a memorial change over time? In this course, we will survey the history of memorialization in the United States, paying close attention to the interplay of race, gender, and nationalism. Case studies include: the political uses of textbooks and memoirs; Civil War memory and the Lost Cause; the re-interpretation of slavery at historic sites; and the renaming movement on Stanford's campus.
Last offered: Winter 2022 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 55F: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1830 to 1877 (AMSTUD 55F, AMSTUD 155F, HISTORY 55F, HISTORY 155F)

(History 55F is 3 units; History 155F is 5 units.)This course explores the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War. The Civil War profoundly impacted American life at national, sectional, and constitutional levels, and radically challenged categories of race and citizenship. Topics covered include: the crisis of union and disunion in an expanding republic; slavery, race, and emancipation as national problems and personal experiences; the horrors of total war for individuals and society; and the challenges--social and political--of Reconstruction.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 58A: Egypt in the Age of Heresy (AFRICAST 58, ARCHLGY 58, CLASSICS 58)

Perhaps the most controversial era in ancient Egyptian history, the Amarna period (c.1350-1334 BCE) was marked by great sociocultural transformation, notably the introduction of a new 'religion' (often considered the world's first form of monotheism), the construction of a new royal city, and radical departures in artistic and architectural styles. This course will introduce archaeological and textual sources of ancient Egypt, investigating topics such as theological promotion, projections of power, social structure, urban design, interregional diplomacy, and historical legacy during the inception, height, and aftermath of this highly enigmatic period. Students with or without prior background are equally encouraged.
Last offered: Autumn 2018 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 60: Spoken Word Poetry and Resistance: 1990's-Present (CSRE 42)

In the 1990's the Spoken Word movement exploded onto the public scene in multiple forms. The decade marked the birth of the Poetry Slam movement, the 'Golden Age' of rap, and the re-emergence of Poetry as Performance. In the contemporary moment Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer Prize-winning album, 'DAMN', Mahogany Browne's anthemic poem 'Black Girl Magic', and the rise of online Spoken Word platforms like 'Button Poetry' are all evidence of a similar present-day uprising in the centuries-old Spoken Word tradition. This course will combine workshop and seminar approaches to provide students with space to read and examine the Black Spoken Word tradition from the 1990s to the present, and to write and perform their own work.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 3

AFRICAAM 61: Theater and Social Justice: Skills for Rethinking Everything (CSRE 43, TAPS 61)

In this course we will employ theater foundations (writing, acting, staging and direction) to interrogate individual and collective belief systems prescribed through our lineage, geography, genetics, culture and class. We will ask big questions like: How do we rethink collective narratives? What can be made in the midst of ongoing pandemics and emergencies? Who am I within and beyond my current circumstances? Together we will learn from diverse practitioners within science fiction, documentary filmmaking, theater, site-specificity, and environmental activism to create performances that ignite our imaginations and skillsets for enacting social change.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 3

AFRICAAM 62Q: A Comparative Exploration of Higher Education in Jamaica (Anglo-Caribbean) and South Africa

How do developing (former colonized) nations feature in global conversations on the purpose of higher education in the Twenty-first Century and beyond? In this project-based seminar students will examine higher education systems in South Africa, and the Caribbean ¿ special emphasis on Jamaica. Together, we engage and explore fundamental questions such as: Is higher education purely a private good or a public good with private benefits? Are universities simply a means of social mobility in developing countries? What role does higher education play in the attainment of national development goals? How has student activism as evidenced by movements like #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall in South Africa, and The Rodney Riots at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Jamaica reshaped the higher education landscape and the national discourse.
Last offered: Winter 2021 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 68D: American Prophet: The Inner Life and Global Vision of Martin Luther King, Jr. (AMSTUD 168D, CSRE 68, HISTORY 68D, HISTORY 168D)

Martin Luther King, Jr., was the 20th-century's best-known African-American leader, but the religious roots of his charismatic leadership are far less widely known. The documents assembled and published by Stanford's King Research and Education Institute provide the source materials for this exploration of King's swift rise to international prominence as an articulate advocate of global peace and justice.
Last offered: Autumn 2019 | Units: 3-5

AFRICAAM 71: Introduction to Capoeira: An African Brazilian Art Form (DANCE 71)

Capoeira is an African Brazilian art form that incorporates, dance, music, self-defense and acrobatics. Created by enslaved Africans in Brazil who used this form as a tool for liberation and survival, it has since become a popular art form practiced around the world. In this course students will learn basic movements for both Capoeira Angola and Capoeira Regional, and the history of this rich and physically rigorous art form. Students will learn basic acrobatic skills, be introduced to Capoeira songs, and learn to play rhythms on the drum, pandeiro (tambourine), and the Berimbau -- a single stringed bow instrument. This course will be physically rigorous and fun! No previous experience necessary.
Last offered: Autumn 2018 | Units: 1 | UG Reqs: way_ce

AFRICAAM 76B: The Social Life of Neighborhoods (AMSTUD 276, CSRE 176B, SOC 176, SOC 276, URBANST 179)

How do neighborhoods come to be? How and why do they change? What is the role of power, money, race, immigration, segregation, culture, government, and other forces? In this course, students will interrogate these questions using literatures from sociology, geography, and political science, along with archival, observational, interview, and cartographic (GIS) methods. Students will work in small groups to create content (e.g., images, audio, and video) for a self-guided ¿neighborhood tour,¿ which will be added to a mobile app and/or website.
Last offered: Spring 2021 | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 80Q: Race and Gender in Silicon Valley (CS 80Q)

Join us as we go behind the scenes of some of the big headlines about trouble in Silicon Valley. We'll start with the basic questions like who decides who gets to see themselves as "a computer person," and how do early childhood and educational experiences shape our perceptions of our relationship to technology? Then we'll see how those questions are fundamental to a wide variety of recent events from #metoo in tech companies, to the ways the under-representation of women and people of color in tech companies impacts the kinds of products that Silicon Valley brings to market. We'll see how data and the coming age of AI raise the stakes on these questions of identity and technology. How can we ensure that AI technology will help reduce bias in human decision-making in areas from marketing to criminal justice, rather than amplify it?
Last offered: Autumn 2022 | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 92BP: Contemporary Black Poetry and Poetics (ENGLISH 92BP)

In this poetry workshop, students will write and read closely, exploring various aspects of poetic craft, including imagery, metaphor and simile, line, stanza, music, rhythm, diction, and tone. The course reading will focus on the rich diversity of contemporary poetry from the global Black diaspora, with a special emphasis on poetry that investigates the intersections of race, cultural identity, nationhood, gender, and sexuality. Note: No prior knowledge of Black poetry and poetics is required.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 5 | Repeatable 2 times (up to 10 units total)

AFRICAAM 95: Liberation Through Land: Organic Gardening and Racial Justice (CSRE 95, EARTHSYS 95)

Through field trips, practical work and readings, this course provides students with the tools to begin cultivating a relationship to land that focuses on direct engagement with sustainable gardening, from seed to harvest. The course will take place on the O'Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm, where students will be given the opportunity to learn how to sow seeds, prepare garden beds, amend soils, build compost, and take care of plants. The history of forced farm labor in the U.S., from slavery to low-wage migrant labor, means that many people of color encounter agricultural spaces as sites of trauma and oppression. In this course we will explore the potential for revisiting a narrative of peaceful relation to land and crop that existed long before the trauma occurred, acknowledging the beautiful history of POC coexistence with land. Since this is a practical course, there will be a strong emphasis on participation. Application available at https://goo.gl/forms/cbYX3gSGdrHgHBJH3; deadline to apply is September 18, 2018, at midnight. The course is co-sponsored by the Institute for Diversity in the Arts (IDA) and the Earth Systems Program.
Last offered: Autumn 2018 | Units: 2

AFRICAAM 101Q: Black & White Race Relations in American Fiction & Film (AMSTUD 42Q, CSRE 41Q)

Movies and the fiction that inspires them; power dynamics behind production including historical events, artistic vision, politics, and racial stereotypes. What images of black and white does Hollywood produce to forge a national identity? How do films promote equality between the races? What is lost or gained in film adaptations of books? NOTE: Students must attend the first day; admission to the class will be determined based on an in class essay.
Last offered: Winter 2020 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 104: Introduction to African American Studies: Black Religion, Culture, and Experience to the Civil War (AMSTUD 104A)

Beginning in 16th century West Africa and ending in the 19th century United States, this course will survey the religious, cultural, and experiential histories of African-descended people in the Atlantic world. From the early histories of the slave trade to the violence of American racial hierarchies, we will delve into the cosmologies, practices, rituals, aesthetics, and other cultural expressions of free and enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Americas, with a particular emphasis on the United States. What did Africa mean to those displaced from their ancestral homelands? How did African descended people perceive, navigate, and resist their racialization? How did they reshape the Americas through their intellect, creativity, and culture? Prioritizing the voices, thought, and sensory registers of the persons involved in these historical processes, this course will explore African Americans' experiences - from the spectacular to the quotidian - as windows into the human experience.
Terms: Aut | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
Instructors: ; Wells-Oghoghomeh, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 105: Intro to Black Studies/Intro to African American Studies II

Beginning in post-1865 and ending in the present-day, this course examines African American life, history, culture and the development of the field of African American Studies. This interdisciplinary course will explore various historical, political, social, and artistic themes that impact our understanding of Black life and identity. To do this, we will draw from a broad range of scholarship to introduce students to the intellectual history of African American Studies as a field of study--its genealogy, development, and major debates. Though most of the course will focus on the United States, time will be dedicated to how to place the history of African Americans in the United States within a global context. Students will be exposed to a range of topics to develop a critical understanding of various movements in Black history and key concepts such as Black feminisms, mass incarceration, transformative and restorative justice, Afrocentricity, Pan-Africanism, and the African Diaspora.
Terms: Aut | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 106: Race, Ethnicity, and Linguistic Diversity in Classrooms: Sociocultural Theory and Practices (CSRE 103B, EDUC 103B, EDUC 337)

Focus is on classrooms with students from diverse racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Studies, writing, and media representation of urban and diverse school settings; implications for transforming teaching and learning. Issues related to developing teachers with attitudes, dispositions, and skills necessary to teach diverse students. Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center.
Terms: Win | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 111: AIDS, Literacy, and Land: Foreign Aid and Development in Africa (AFRICAST 112, AFRICAST 212)

Foreign aid can help Africa, say the advocates. Certainly not, say the critics. Is foreign aid a solution? or a problem? Should there be more aid, less aid, or none at all? Africa has developed imaginative and innovative approaches in many sectors. At the same time, many African countries have become increasingly dependent on foreign aid. How do foreign aid and local initiatives intersect? We will examine several contentious issues in contemporary Africa, exploring roots, contested analyses, and proposed solutions, examining foreign aid and the aid relationship. As African communities and countries work to shape their future, what are the foreign roles, and what are their consequences?
Last offered: Winter 2020 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 112: Urban Education (CSRE 112X, EDUC 112, EDUC 212, SOC 129X, SOC 229X, URBANST 115)

(Graduate students register for EDUC 212 or SOC 229X). Combination of social science and historical perspectives trace the major developments, contexts, tensions, challenges, and policy issues of urban education.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 113A: African American Ecologies (ENGLISH 113A)

African American perspectives on the environment have long been suppressed in mainstream ecological discourse, despite the importance of questions of land, labor, and resource to the historical and ongoing experiences of Black people in the United States. Against this exclusion, this course takes up African American literature as a unique site of ecological knowledge and environmental thought. Drawing on texts, art, music, and film from the late nineteenth century to the present, this course considers planetary problems of ecological catastrophe and climatic change in relation to the everyday structures of U.S.-American racial politics. Through close analyses of texts and films set on plantations and steamships, in gardens and coal mines, students will explore the environmental dimensions of African American literature, and gain a deeper understanding of the real-world histories with which these works engage. Texts will include novels by Zora Neale Hurston, Percival Everett, and Toni Morrison, short stories and essays by Charles Chesnutt, Jamaica Kincaid, Katherine McKittrick, and adrienne marie brown, and films and multimedia works by Julie Dash, Stephanie Dinkins, and Jordan Peele. Important topics will include the ecology of the plantation, black feminist ecological thought, and the significance of water in African American life and culture.
| Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 118X: Critical Family History: Narratives of Identity and Difference (AMSTUD 118, ASNAMST 118S, CSRE 118S)

This course examines family history as a site for understanding identity, power, and social difference in American society. Focusing in particular on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, we approach the family as an archive through which we might write alternative histories to the ones that dominate the national historical consciousness. To do this, we examine memoirs, oral histories, and first-person documentaries as historical texts that can be used to foreground marginalized historical voices. Students will then be asked to apply course readings and theories to their own family histories as a means of better understanding issues of identity and difference.
Last offered: Winter 2020 | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 121B: "The Will to Adorn": An Anthropology of Dress (ANTHRO 121B, ANTHRO 221B, ARCHLGY 121B, ARCHLGY 221B)

This seminar explores sartorial practices as a means for examining formations of identities and structural inequalities across space and time. Building off the definition of dress, pulled from Mary Ellen Roach-Higgins and Joanne B. Eicher, this course examines sartorial practices as social-cultural practices, shaped by many intersecting operations of power and oppression including racism, sexism, and classism, that involve modifications of the corporal form (i.e., scarification, body piercings, and hair alteration) as well as all three-dimensional supplements added to the body (i.e., clothing, hair combs, and jewelry). The emphasis on intersecting operations of power and oppression within this definition of dress draws on Kimberlé Crenshaw's conceptualization of intersectionality. Through case studies and examples from various parts of the world, we will explore multiple sources of data - documentary, material, and oral - that have come to shape the study of dress. We examine how dress intersects with facets of identity, including race, age, ethnicity, sexuality, and class.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 121N: How to Make a Racist (CSRE 21N, PSYCH 21N)

How does a child, born without beliefs or expectations about race, grow up to be racist? To address this complicated question, this seminar will introduce you to some of the psychological theories on the development of racial stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Together, these theories highlight how cognitive, social, and motivational factors contribute to racist thinking. We will engage thoughtfully and critically with each topic through reflection and discussion. Occasionally, I will supplement the discussion and class activities with a brief lecture, in order to highlight the central issues, concepts, and relevant findings. We will share our own experiences, perspectives, and insights, and together, we will explore how racist thinking takes root. Come to class with an open mind, a willingness to be vulnerable, and a desire to learn from and with your peers. Students with diverse opinions and perspectives are encouraged to enroll.
Last offered: Autumn 2022 | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 123: Introduction to Global Black Diaspora Studies I: Diaspora, Literature, Cosmopolitanism

While centering the Black experience, this course will also take a comparative view of Diaspora Studies to establish modes of confluence and difference between the Black diaspora and other worldwide diasporas. Issues to be discussed will include questions of definition and nomenclature. What is a diaspora and what are its essential features? What are the differences between victim diasporas, labor diasporas, trade diasporas, and ethno-political diasporas? What is the relationship between place and belonging, between territory and memory? How have the experiences of migration and dislocation challenged the modern assumption that the nation-state should be the limit of identification? What effect has the emergence of new communications media had upon the coherence of cultural and political boundaries? How do these questions relate to ideas about cosmopolitanism and its relation to ethical universalism? All of these questions and many more form the subject matter of Global Black Diaspora Studies. The second part of the course will continue to examine the historical and contemporary movements of peoples and the complex issues of identity and experience to which these processes give rise, as well as the creative possibilities that flow from movement and being moved. This will be done through literary examples. Texts to be discussed will include Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Nella Larsen, Passing, Dionne Brand, What We All Long For, and NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names. This class focuses on literature but will also include film, non-fiction, and scholarly articles. No experience in literary study is expected, and grades are based on class discussion, short reflection papers, and an extended essay or creative project. There are no exams in this class.
Terms: Aut | Units: 1-4

AFRICAAM 124: Caribbean Questions: Exploring the Caribbean (AFRICAAM 224, CSRE 223)

When asked to conjure up an image of the Caribbean, what comes to mind? The geographies? The political climate? Its people? Its histories? In this course we will complicate and investigate the notion of 'the Caribbean' by addressing various questions each week concerning the region and its inhabitants. The central theme of this course is concerned with Caribbean identities and the weekly readings aim to recognize and honor the immense diversity of the region, notably by taking care to include work on the English, French, Spanish, and Dutch Caribbean. The knowledge of historical experiences and the resulting formations are necessary to wholly understand the creation and expression of contemporary identities. We will start attempting to define the Caribbean and then going into the three main theories of Caribbean identity and society formation: plantation society theory, plural society theory, and creole theory. We start with this because literature on identity formation in the Caribbean is often based off of understandings of these models. We will also examine the construction of national, pan-Caribbean, and diasporic identities. Throughout the semester we will also address various questions about specific Caribbean identities and how we understand them.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 4-5

AFRICAAM 125: The Archaeology of Africa and African Diaspora History and Culture (ANTHRO 137A, ANTHRO 237A, ARCHLGY 137A, ARCHLGY 237A)

In recent decades, there has been a surge in archaeological research related to the African diaspora. What initially began as plantation archaeology and household archaeology to answer questions of African retention and identity, has now developed into an expansive sub-field that draws from collaborations with biological and cultural anthropologists. Similarly, methodological approaches have expanded to incorporate geospatial analysis, statistical analysis, and, more recently, maritime archaeological practices. The growth of African diaspora archaeology has thus pushed new methodological and theoretical considerations within the field of archaeology, and, inversely, added new insights in the field of Africana Studies. This course covers the thematic and methodological approaches associated with the historical archaeology of Africa and the African diaspora. Students interested in Africa and African diaspora studies, archaeology, slavery, and race should find this course useful. In addition to an overview of the development of African diaspora archaeology, students will be introduced to the major debates within the sub-field as well as its articulation with biological and socio-cultural anthropology. The course covers archaeological research throughout the wide geographical breadth of the African diaspora in Latin America, North America, the Caribbean, East, and West Africa, and the Indian Ocean. The themes covered include gender, race, identity, religion, and ethics in relation to the material record. Lectures will be supplemented with documentary films and other multimedia sources.
| Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 127: Health Impact of Sexual Assault and Relationship Abuse across the Lifecourse (FEMGEN 237, HUMBIO 124, SOMGEN 237)

An overview of the acute and chronic physical and psychological health impact of sexual abuse through the perspective of survivors of childhood, adolescent, young and middle adult, and elder abuse, including special populations such as pregnant women, military and veterans, prison inmates, individuals with mental or physical impairments. Also addresses: race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other demographic and societal factors, including issues specific to college culture. Professionals with expertise in sexual assault present behavioral and prevention efforts such as bystander intervention training, medical screening, counseling and other interventions to manage the emotional trauma of abuse. Undergraduates must enroll for 3 units. To receive a letter grade in any listing, students must enroll for 3 units. This course must be taken for a letter grade and a minimum of 3 units to be eligible for Ways credit. Enrollment limited to students with sophomore academic standing or above or consent of the instructor. Human Biology students must enroll in HUMBIO 124 or AFRICAAM 127 or FEMGEN 237. Med/Grad students should enroll in SOMGEN 237 for 2 units.
Terms: Aut | Units: 2-3 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Stefanick, M. (PI)

AFRICAAM 128: Roots Modern Experience - Mixed Level (DANCE 128)

In this course students will be introduced to a series of Afro-contemporary dance warm ups and dance combinations that are drawn from a broad range of dance traditions of the African diaspora with a particular focus on Afro Brazilian, Afro Cuban and Haitian dance forms, modern dance techniques, and somatic movement practices. Our study of these dance disciplines will inform the movement vocabulary, technical training, class discussions, and choreography we experience in this course. Students will learn more about the dances and rhythms for the Orishas of Brazil and Cuba, and the Loa of Haiti. Dance combinations will consist of dynamic movement patterns that condition the body for strength, flexibility, endurance, musicality and coordination. Through this approach to our warm ups and class choreography, we will deepen our analysis and understanding of how African diaspora movement traditions are inherently embedded in many expressions of the broadly termed form known as contemporary modern dance.
Terms: Aut | Units: 1 | UG Reqs: way_ce | Repeatable 3 times (up to 3 units total)
Instructors: ; Smith, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 131: Racial Equity in Energy (CEE 130R, CEE 330)

The built environment and the energy systems that meet its requirements is a product of decisions forged in a context of historical inequity produced by cultural, political, and economic forces expressed through decisions at individual and institutional levels. This interdisciplinary course will examine the imprint of systemic racial inequity in the U.S. that has produced a clean energy divide and a heritage of environmental injustice. Drawing on current events, students will also explore contemporary strategies that center equity in the quest for rapid technology transitions in the energy sector to address climate change, public health, national security, and community resilience. Prerequisites: By permission of the instructor. Preferable to have completed Understand Energy ( CEE 107A/207A/ EarthSys 103/ CEE 107S/207S) or a similar course at another institution if a graduate student.
Terms: Aut | Units: 2-3

AFRICAAM 133: Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean (AFRICAST 132, COMPLIT 133, COMPLIT 233A, CSRE 133E, FRENCH 133, JEWISHST 143)

This course provides students with an introductory survey of literature and cinema from Francophone Africa and the Caribbean in the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will be encouraged to consider the geographical, historical, and political connections between the Maghreb, the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. This course will help students improve their ability to speak and write in French by introducing students to linguistic and conceptual tools to conduct literary and visual analysis. While analyzing novels and films, students will be exposed to a diverse number of topics such as national and cultural identity, race and class, gender and sexuality, orality and textuality, transnationalism and migration, colonialism and decolonization, history and memory, and the politics of language. Readings include the works of writers and filmmakers such as Aim¿ C¿saire, Albert Memmi, Ousmane Semb¿ne, Le¿la Sebbar, Mariama B¿, Maryse Cond¿, Dany Laferri¿re, Mati Diop, and special guest L¿onora Miano. Taught in French. Students are encouraged to complete FRENLANG 124 or successfully test above this level through the Language Center. This course fulfills the Writing in the Major (WIM) requirement.
Terms: Spr | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Seck, F. (PI); Yu, K. (TA)

AFRICAAM 134: Black Music Revealed: Black composers, performers, and themes from the 18th century to the present (CSRE 35N, MUSIC 35N)

Online seminar on the achievements of Black composers and performers in ragtime, jazz, and classical music, from Chevalier de Saint-Georges, whose music influenced Mozart, and George Bridgetower, for whom Beethoven composed his "Kreutzer" Sonata, to Anthony Davis's opera "The Central Park Five". Students will examine issues of cultural borrowing in operas by Mozart and Verdi, and shows like Showboat and Porgy and Bess. Guest speakers will include composers and performers. Students will work together in groups to produce materials on course topics in coordination with the African American Museum & Library at Oakland. (Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center)
| Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

AFRICAAM 138: Intersectional Feminisms (CSRE 133, FEMGEN 132, FEMGEN 332)

This course is focused on the feminist concept of intersectionality. As a mode of Black feminist thought, lived activist practice, and interdisciplinary research methodology, intersectionality allows us to think about overlapping forms of identity and the interlocking power structures that produce systematic oppression and discrimination. We will examine the origins and development of intersectional feminism and consider its far-reaching impact in social justice work and contemporary activist movements. As we learn the language, methods, and critiques of intersectionality, we will cover issues related to rights, ethics, privilege, and globalization while discussing social difference on micro- and macro-levels.
Last offered: Autumn 2022 | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 139: Black Geographies: An Orientation (ANTHRO 129B)

This introductory course examines racialization and antiblackness as spatial practices as well as the placemaking practices and sensibilities across and within Black communities throughout the Americas. Rather than focusing merely on where Black people live, this course explores the socio-political production of space and the ways Black subjectivity and Black social life imperatively produce a sense of place that often complicate traditional geographic rules. Putting into conversation key texts at the intersection of Anthropology, Human Geography, and Black Studies, we consider how space and place are bound up with contestations over citizenship, autonomy, environmental justice, and state violence - in addition to the alternative spatial imaginations produced therein - in rural and urban geographies across the Americas.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 3

AFRICAAM 140N: Visible Bodies: Black Female Authors and the Politics of Publishing in Africa (AFRICAST 51N, ENGLISH 54N, HISTORY 41N)

Where are the African female writers of the twentieth century and the present day? This Introductory Seminar addresses the critical problem of the marginalization of black female authors within established canons of modern African literature. We will explore, analyse and interrogate the reasons why, and the ways in which, women-authored bodies of work from this period continue to be lost, misplaced, forgotten, and ignored by a male-dominated and largely European/white publishing industry in the context of colonialism, apartheid and globalization. nnYou will be introduced to key twentieth-century and more contemporary female authors from Africa, some of them published but many more unpublished or out-of-print. The class will look at the challenges these female authors faced in publishing, including how they navigated a hostile publishing industry and a lack of funding and intellectual support for black writers, especially female writers. nnWe will also examine the strategies these writers used to mitigate their apparent marginality, including looking at how women self-published, how they used newspapers as publication venues, how they have increasingly turned to digital platforms, and how many sought international publishing networks outside of the African continent. As one of the primary assessments for the seminar, you will be asked to conceptualize and design an in-depth and imaginative pitch for a new publishing platform that specializes in African female authors. nnYou will also have the opportunity for in-depth engagement (both in class and in one-on-one mentor sessions) with a range of leading pioneers in the field of publishing and literature in Africa. Figures like Ainehi Edoro (founder of Brittle Paper) and Zukiswa Wanner (prize-winning author of The Madams and Men of the South), amongst others, will be guests to our Zoom classroom. One of our industry specialists will meet with you to offer detailed feedback on your proposal for your imagined publishing platform. nnYou can expect a roughly 50/50 division between synchronous and asynchronous learning, as well as plenty of opportunity to collaborate with peers in smaller settings.
Last offered: Winter 2021 | Units: 3-4 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 143: Black Divinities: Race, God, and Nation in the Photography of Deana Lawson (ARTHIST 243)

In recent years the Brooklyn-based photographer Deana Lawson (born 1979) has become rightly famous for her rapturous yet grounded large-sized photographs of everyday black people--those she meets in her neighborhood, as well as on her travels to Brazil, Jamaica, and the Congo. In this seminar we will look closely at Lawson's photographs, considering how she gains her subjects' trust, how she uses props and locations, how she explores her own feelings and the legacies and possibilities of being black.
Last offered: Autumn 2020 | Units: 5

AFRICAAM 145: Narratives of Enslavement (CLASSICS 145, CLASSICS 245, COMPLIT 145C)

Widely dispersed narratives by and about enslaved persons are our focus. We'll explore the concept of 'slave narrative' by comparing texts from the ancient Mediterranean, the Cape of Good Hope, West Africa and the United States. We'll consider famous autobiographies alongside less familiar material such as court trial records. What are the affordances, what are the limits of such narratives as historical evidence? What notions of enslaved experience emerge? How close can we come to understanding the experiences of the enslaved? How different do such experiences seem when compared across time and space? Note: graduates and advanced undergraduates wishing to read original Greek and Latin texts should register for Reading Greek and Roman Slavery (Classics 142/242) in addition.
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Parker, G. (PI)

AFRICAAM 145B: Introduction to African Studies I: Africa in the 20th Century (HISTORY 145B)

(AFRICAAM/HISTORY 45B is 3 units; AFRICAAM/HISTORY 145B is 5 units.) CREATIVITY. AGENCY. RESILIENCE. This is the African history with which this course will engage. African scholars and knowledge production of Africa that explicitly engages with theories of race and global Blackness will take center stage. TRADE. RELIGION. CONQUEST. MIGRATION. These are the transformations of the 20th century which we shall interrogate and reposition. Yet these groundbreaking events did not happen in a vacuum. As historians, we also think about the continent's rich traditions and histories prior to the 20th century. FICTION. NONFICTION. FILM. MUSIC. Far from being peripheral to political transformation, African creative arts advanced discourse on gender, technology, and environmental history within the continent and without. We will listen to African creative artists not only as creators, but as agents for change.
Terms: Aut | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 145S: Land and Power in the Anthropocene: Perspectives from Africa (CSRE 45S, HISTORY 45S)

How and why is land use a contested issue? How can we understand land injustice in light of the Anthropocene, that is, human-induced climate change? How do African knowledges, practices, and experiences inform global debates about environmental, political, and socio-economic well-being? This course considers how racial and colonial thinking and processes compounded discourses about land and examines examples of resistance, legacies of struggle, and possible futures. Centering African perspectives in a global context, we will examine how individual, institutional, and societal conceptions of land are revealed in narratives, practices, and policies created and circulated by Africans as well as outsiders in the continent. We will also analyze how these dynamics have had and continue to have repercussions across the globe. We will engage with diverse written, oral, audio-visual, and digital sources and associated methodologies to explore perceptions of land and land ownership, and discuss various forms of land use including agriculture, pastoralism, conservation, mining, and urbanization, and potential futures.
Terms: Aut | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
Instructors: ; Ndegwa, J. (PI)

AFRICAAM 147: History of South Africa (CSRE 174, HISTORY 147)

(Same as HISTORY 47. HISTORY 147 is 5 units; HISTORY 47 is 3 units) Introduction, focusing particularly on the modern era. Topics include: precolonial African societies; European colonization; the impact of the mineral revolution; the evolution of African and Afrikaner nationalism; the rise and fall of the apartheid state; the politics of post-apartheid transformation; and the AIDS crisis.
Terms: Spr | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 149: African Voices: Literature and Arts in 20th Century South Africa (HISTORY 48S)

How did South African Black intellectuals and artists utilize literature and other artistic forms to articulate their increasingly precarious position in the country's political landscape in the 20th century? What hopes and visions were captured through their works? Engaging with numerous sources ranging from speeches, newspapers, short stories, novels, music, film, paintings to photographs, we will explore what Ntongela Masilela calls "New African modernity"--a movement pioneered by different generations of Black intellectuals and artists. We will grapple with the notion of art as political, and the salience of Black women's works in contexts of double marginalization. This class lies at the intersection of intellectual, cultural, and literary histories.
| Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 150C: The United States in the Twentieth Century (AMSTUD 150C, HISTORY 150C)

(Same as HISTORY 50C. 50C is 3 units; 150C is 5 units.) 100 years ago, women and most African-Americans couldn't vote; automobiles were rare and computers didn't exist; and the U.S. was a minor power in a world dominated by European empires. This course surveys politics, culture, and social movements to answer the question: How did we get from there to here? Suitable for non-majors and majors alike.
Terms: Spr | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 151: Ethical STEM: Race, Justice, and Embodied Practice (ARTSINST 151C, CSRE 151C, ETHICSOC 151C, STS 51D, SYMSYS 151D, TAPS 151D)

What role do science and technology play in the creation of a just society? How do we confront and redress the impact of racism and bias within the history, theory, and practice of these disciplines? This course invites students to grapple with the complex intersections between race, inequality, justice, and the STEM fields. We orient to these questions from an artistically-informed position, asking how we can rally the embodied practices of artists to address how we think, make, and respond to each other. Combining readings from the history of science, technology, and medicine, ethics and pedagogy, as well as the fine and performing arts, we will embark together on understanding how our STEM practices have emerged, how we participate today, and what we can imagine for them in the future. The course will involve workshops, field trips (as possible), and invited guests. All students, from any discipline, field, interest, and background, are welcome! This course does build upon the STS 51 series from 2020-21, though it is not a prerequisite for this course. Please contact the professor if you have any questions!
Terms: Win | Units: 4-5

AFRICAAM 152G: Harlem Renaissance (AMSTUD 152G, ENGLISH 152G)

Examination of the explosion of African American artistic expression during 1920s and 30s New York known as the Harlem Renaissance. Amiri Baraka once referred to the Renaissance as a kind of "vicious Modernism", as a "BangClash", that impacted and was impacted by political, cultural and aesthetic changes not only in the U.S. but Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. Focus on the literature, graphic arts, and the music of the era in this global context.
Last offered: Autumn 2015 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 153P: Black Artistry: Strategies of Performance in the Black Diaspora (CSRE 153P, TAPS 153P, TAPS 353P)

Charting a course from colonial America to contemporary London, this course explores the long history of Black performance throughout an Atlantic diaspora. Defining performance as "forms of cultural staging," from Thomas DeFrantz and Anita Gonzalez's Black Performance Theory, this course takes up scripted plays, live theatre, devised works, performance art, and cinematic performance in its survey of the field. We will engage with theorists, performer, artists, and revolutionaries such as Ignatius Sancho, Maria Stewart, William Wells Brown, Zora Neale Hurston, Derek Walcott, Danai Gurira, and Yvonne Orji. We will address questions around Black identity, history, time, and futurity, as well as other essential strategies Black performers have engaged in their performance making. The course includes essential methodological readings for Black Studies as well as formational writings in Black performance theory and theatre studies. Students will establish a foothold in both AAAS (theory & methodology) and in performance history (plays and performances). As a WIM course, students will gain expertise in devising, drafting, and revising written essays.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5

AFRICAAM 154G: Black Magic: Ethnicity, Race, and Identity in Performance Cultures (AFRICAAM 254G, CSRE 154D, FEMGEN 154G, TAPS 154G, TAPS 354G)

In 2013, CaShawn Thompson devised a Twitter hashtag, #blackgirlmagic, to celebrate the beauty and intelligence of black women. Twitter users quickly adopted the slogan, using the hashtag to celebrate everyday moments of beauty, accomplishment, and magic. The slogan offered a contemporary iteration of an historical alignment: namely, the concept of "magic" with both Black people as well as "blackness." This course explores the legacy of Black magic--and black magic--through performance texts including plays, poetry, films, and novels. We will investigate the creation of magical worlds, the discursive alignment of magic with blackness, and the contemporary manifestation of a historical phenomenon. We will cover, through lecture and discussion, the history of black magic representation as well as the relationship between magic and religion. Our goal will be to understand the impact and history of discursive alignments: what relationship does "black magic" have to and for "black bodies"? How do we understand a history of performance practice as being caught up in complicated legacies of suspicion, celebration, self-definition? The course will give participants a grounding in black performance texts, plays, and theoretical writings. *This course will also satisfy the TAPS department WIM requirement.*
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Robinson, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 158: Rebelión: Black Resistance in the Caribbean (COMPLIT 158, HISTORY 177C)

In 1978, Afro-Columbian artist recorded his hit song "Rebelión," including lines such as "esclavitud perpetua," a reference to the 1455 Romanus Pontifex Papal Bull, and lines like "No le pegue a la negra," which evince a slave resistance based on a bond of kinship and affection. This is an introductory course in Caribbean history with a focus on labor and rebellion. In this course, we will discuss slave revolts and revolutions in the Caribbean from the beginning of the Transatlantic Slave trade through present-day labor strikes in the Caribbean. Using Caribbean resistance music as the backdrop to many of our discussions, this course will engage with the metaphors and motifs found in riotous iconography, such as the machete (i.e. "El machete de Maceo," in Celia Cruz¿s "Guantanamera"). Revolts covered include the 1500s slave revolts in Quisqueya, the Haitian Revolution, the 1843 La Escalera conspiracy in Cuba, the 1831 Christmas Rebellion in Jamaica, the Cuban Ten Years War, Little War, and present-day labor strikes in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We will review and study historical records, as well as take in archival and musical sources. No prior knowledge in Caribbean history is required.
Last offered: Autumn 2022 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 159: James Baldwin & Twentieth Century Literature (AMSTUD 159, ENGLISH 159, FEMGEN 159)

Black, gay and gifted, Baldwin was hailed as a "spokesman for the race", although he personally, and controversially, eschewed titles and classifications of all kinds. This course examines his classic novels and essays as well his exciting work across many lesser-examined domains - poetry, music, theatre, sermon, photo-text, children's literature, public media, comedy and artistic collaboration. Placing his work in context with other writers of the 20C (Faulkner, Wright, Morrison) and capitalizing on a resurgence of interest in the writer (NYC just dedicated a year of celebration of Baldwin and there are 2 new journals dedicated to study of Baldwin), the course seeks to capture the power and influence of Baldwin's work during the Civil Rights era as well as his relevance in the "post-race" transnational 21st century, when his prescient questioning of the boundaries of race, sex, love, leadership and country assume new urgency.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Elam, M. (PI)

AFRICAAM 164A: Race and Performance (CSRE 164A, CSRE 364A, TAPS 164)

How does race function in performance and dare we say live and in living color? How does one deconstruct discrimination at its roots?n nFrom a perspective of global solidarity and recognition of shared plight among BIPOC communities, we will read and perform plays that represent material and psychological conditions under a common supremacist regime. Where and when possible, we will host a member of the creative team of some plays in our class for a live discussion. Assigned materials include works by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Amiri Baraka, Young Jean Lee, Ayad Akhtar, Susan Lori Parks, David Henry Hwang, Betty Shamieh, Jeremy O. Harris, and Christopher Demos Brown.n nThis class offers undergraduate students a discussion that does not center whiteness, but takes power, history, culture, philosophy, and hierarchy as core points of debate. In the first two weeks, we will establish the common terms of the discussion about stereotypes, representation, and historical claims, but then we will quickly move toward an advanced conversation about effective discourse and activism through art, performance, and cultural production. In this class, we assume that colonialism, slavery, white supremacy, and oppressive contemporary state apparatuses are real, undeniable, and manifest. Since our starting point is clear, our central question is not about recognizing or delineating the issues, but rather, it is a debate about how to identify the target of our criticism in order to counter oppression effectively and dismantle long-standing structures.n nNot all BIPOC communities are represented in this syllabus, as such claim of inclusion in a single quarter would be tokenistic and disingenuous. Instead, we will aspire to understand and negotiate some of the complexities related to race in several communities locally in the U.S. and beyond.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Al-Saber, S. (PI)

AFRICAAM 165: Identity and Academic Achievement (CSRE 165, PSYCH 165)

How do social identities affect how people experience academic interactions? How can learning environments be better structured to support the success of all students? In this class, we will explore how a variety of identities such as race, gender, social class, and athletic participation can affect academic achievement, with the goal of identifying concrete strategies to make learning environments at Stanford and similar universities more inclusive. Readings will draw from psychology, sociology, education, and popular press. This class is a seminar format.
Last offered: Spring 2017 | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 167: Animated By Origins: Africa and The Americas (ARTSTUDI 167M)

When working with experimental animation, what can we learn from the Shangaan about compositing, layering and collaging, from the Dogon about counter-rhythms and remixing, or from the Lakota about observation and improvisation? In this class, we will gain a deep understanding of and draw connections between experimental creative practices in selected indigenous/vernacular cultures across Africa and the Americas. We will do this in order to reimagine frameworks for approaching, creating and experiencing experimental media art outside Western canons. Assignments will require students to engage either their own origin stories, histories and/or other archives of their choice or interest. This source material can be personal, collective, public, general, formal, informal, real or imagined. We will look at different ways of approaching archival material (photographs, sound, video, writing, memory) for the purposes of connecting disparate elements into brief and cohesive or anti-cohesive animations. This is an introductory experimental animation class, so no prior experience of animation or video/sound editing is needed.
Terms: Win | Units: 2 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE

AFRICAAM 169A: Race, Ethnicity, and Water in Urban California (AMSTUD 169, CSRE 260, URBANST 169)

Is water a human right or an entitlement? Who controls the water, and who should control the water, in California? Private companies? Nonprofits? Local residents? Federal, state, or local governments? This course will explore these questions in the context of urban California more generally, the players and the politics to make sense of a complex problem with deep historical roots; one that defines the new century in California urban life. The required readings and discussions cover cities from Oakland to Los Angeles, providing a platform for students to explore important environmental issues, past and present, affecting California municipalities undergoing rapid population change. In addition, our research focus will be on the cities located on the Central Coast of California: agricultural Salinas, Watsonville, and Castroville and towns along the Salinas Valley; tourist based Monterey, Pebble Beach, Carmel, Pacific Grove; the bedroom community of Prunedale to the north, and former military towns, Marina and Seaside, as all of these ethnically, socioeconomically diverse communities engage in political struggles over precious, and ever scarcer water resources, contend with catastrophic events such as droughts and floods, and fight battles over rights to clean water, entitlement, environmental racism, and equity. Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center.
Terms: Spr | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
Instructors: ; McKibben, C. (PI)

AFRICAAM 171: Peering into darkness: critical research practices in contemporary art & astrophysics (CSRE 171)

We were peering into this darkness, crisscrossed with voices, when the change took place: the only real, great change I've ever happened to witness, and compared to it the rest is nothing --Italo Calvino `Peering into darkness is an interdisciplinary undergraduate research seminar guest taught by IDA visiting artist Janani Balasubramanian & collaborator Afra Ashraf. Together, we will joyfully open up science as a space to interrogate social questions and personal subjectivity. Students will explore weekly research themes such as observing, ghosts, abolition, fragmentation, and fables through critical texts, guest lectures, and practices of astrophysics and artmaking. Prerequisites include curiosity and play.
Last offered: Spring 2021 | Units: 4

AFRICAAM 172: Transformative Art-Practices for Engaging Community (CSRE 172, TAPS 172)

This course is presented by IDA, the Institute for Diversity in the Arts. In this course, we will explore how artists are addressing and transforming issues central to communities of color such as housing, healthy food access, abolition, human trafficking, land back and cultural sovereignty. Our explorations will include visits from local and nationally recognized artists, activists and scholars as well as site visits to surrounding communities to understand how the cultivation of relationships creates unprecedented conditions for collective healing and repair.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 1-5

AFRICAAM 173: Still Waters Run Deep, Troubling The Archive with filmmaking and photography (CSRE 173)

Using lens-based filmmaking and photography as a form of storytelling, students will create individual projects that explore their own family, community, environmental histories, and narratives. How has your identities or historical context been flattened, simplified, or erased? How have they been shaped, transformed, and uplifted? How has your relationship to the land affected your current social, political, or environmental circumstances? What tools can we employ as creatives to re-dress the past and rebuild new relationships to self and community? We will watch works by artists of color and read essays by Saidiya Hartman, Alice Walker, and Fred Moten. We will explore how our narratives challenge knowledge production while connecting past to present. Students will identify an archive to use as source material for a personal project. They will use filmmaking and or photography to intervene in or trouble that archive. No experience required. This course is presented by the Institute for Diversity in the Arts (IDA)
Last offered: Winter 2022 | Units: 3-4

AFRICAAM 178S: The Haitian Revolution: Slavery, Freedom, and the Atlantic World (FRENCH 178, HISTORY 78S)

How did the French colony of Saint-Domingue become Haiti, the world's first Black-led republic? What did Haiti symbolize for the African diaspora and the Americas at large? What sources and methods do scholars use to understand this history? To answer these questions, this course covers the Haitian story from colonization to independence during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Our course will center Africans and people of African descent, both enslaved and free, as they negotiated and resisted systems of racial and economic oppression in the French Caribbean. Our inquiry will critically engage with conceptions and articulations of human and civil rights as they relate to legal realities and revolutionary change over time, as well as the interplay between rights and racial thinking. Tracing what historian Julius Scott called the "common wind" of the Haitian Revolution, we will also investigate how the new nation's emergence built on the American and French Revolutions while also influencing national independence movements elsewhere in the Atlantic World. Priority given to history majors and minors; no prerequisites and all readings are in English.
Last offered: Winter 2022 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 179A: Crime and Punishment in America (AMSTUD 179A, CSRE 179A, SOC 179A, SOC 279A)

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the way crime has been defined and punished in the United States. Recent social movements such as the Movement for Black Lives have drawn attention to the problem of mass incarceration and officer-involved shootings of people of color. These movements have underscored the centrality of the criminal justice system in defining citizenship, race, and democracy in America. How did our country get here? This course provides a social scientific perspective on Americas past and present approach to crime and punishment. Readings and discussions focus on racism in policing, court processing, and incarceration; the social construction of crime and violence; punishment among the privileged; the collateral consequences of punishment in poor communities of color; and normative debates about social justice, racial justice, and reforming the criminal justice system. Students will learn to gather their own knowledge and contribute to normative debates through a field report assignment and an op-ed writing assignment.
Last offered: Autumn 2021 | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 180D: Designing Black Experiences (ENGR 180)

This discussion-rich course is for students to learn design thinking to more confidently navigate life and careers as members and allies of the Black community. This course will allow students to navigate identity while building community to uplift Black voices through design thinking tools to help leverage their experiences and gain a competitive edge. Students will gain a deeper understanding of intersectionality, how to create and cultivate alignment, and learn to effectively navigate life design schemas, ideas, and options.
Terms: Win, Spr | Units: 2 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE

AFRICAAM 183: Black Feminism and the SciFi of Octavia Butler (ENGLISH 188, FEMGEN 188)

Octavia Butler's novels often begin with the question, 'how am I going to survive?' In short order, they usually ask next: what is trying to kill me?' In Butler's hands, these two questions produce theories of power and resistance, anarchy and tyranny, the death of planets and the birth of species. For the Black women at the center of Butler's novels, race and gender are explicitly inseparable from these questions, naming the violent systems imposed by an antagonistic world and the imperatives which give rise to strategies of response. At this intersection, Butler explores the fiercely practical and interpersonal politics of survival that women like her have had to fashion since the birth of the modern world. And with grim clarity, Butler invents worlds capable of holding a mirror to this one, extrapolating entire systems from those daily threats which test the limits of what can be thought and known. Are 'race' and 'gender' used to categorize humanity, or are they the tools used to invent the very category of 'the human'? Is culture constrained by our biology or is 'biology' a cultural construction? Can humanity harness our collective intelligence to avert the end of the world? Or is our collective intelligence what's killing us? These novels evoke a long tradition of Black feminist community organizing and have inspired contemporary strategies of organizing in turn. And they join Black feminist cultural theorists in untangling the predicaments of the 19th-21st centuries, not flinching at apocalyptic visions of futures we have already failed to prevent. Studying both of these Black feminist traditions alongside four of Octavia Butler's novels, we ask how such strategies of knowing and doing can possibly relate to one another, and what use we can put them to in the classroom and beyond.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 3-5

AFRICAAM 184: Racialized Identity & Embodiment in the Caribbean (CSRE 184)

Looks do matter, notably when it comes to how one is perceived and treated in society. In this course we will investigate how various groups within the Caribbean region experience racialization and the methods they utilize to perform their various identities. In the first part of the class, we will address how race and color function in the Caribbean. How does an individual's appearance and how they are subsequently racialized affect their position and experiences in society? This will include an in-depth examination of racism and colorism: how they operate and how they differ. The second part of the class will be dedicated to ethnographic research that addresses how people in the Caribbean work to modify how they are racialized or perceived in their societies, often for a particular benefit or need. From skin bleaching in Jamaica, to hair straightening in the Dominican Republic, to codeswitching in Aruba, we will examine various examples of how different individuals in the Caribbean transform themselves to perform calculated (though sometimes simultaneously authentic) identities.
Terms: Win | Units: 4-5
Instructors: ; Ramadan-Santiago, O. (PI)

AFRICAAM 185: Racial Inequality across the Lifespan (CSRE 185C, PSYCH 185)

Imagine two children, one Black and one White, born on the same day and in the same country. By adulthood, these two will likely have had two remarkably different social experiences (e.g., the Black child will have received less education, income, health, and years to live). Why? Students in this course will tackle this complicated question from a psychological perspective. Together, we will examine how thinking, feeling, and behaving in ways that perpetuate stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination contribute to racial inequality across the lifespan. The course will be conducted as a seminar, such that much of what you learn will be through group discussions, activities, and readings. A critical component of this class will be to practice writing about psychological research and social issues for the general audience. That is, students will write weekly opinion pieces that address and explain a particular area of inequality to a non-scientific audience.
Last offered: Spring 2019 | Units: 3

AFRICAAM 186: Black Experimental Narrative (ARTSTUDI 186)

How do Black video artists and filmmakers use materials, space, and language to construct the subjective space of storytelling? Black Experimental Narrative surveys the aesthetics, history, and theories that characterize experimental Black cinema and video art through a comprehensive range of filmmakers and artists that have contributed work to the canon. As a class project, we will work collectively to design and publish an original publication featuring a selection of work created during the course.
Last offered: Autumn 2022 | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE

AFRICAAM 187: African Archive Beyond Colonization (AFRICAST 117, ARCHLGY 166, CLASSICS 186, CLASSICS 286, CSRE 166)

From street names to monuments, the material sediments of colonial time can be seen, heard, and felt in the diverse cultural archives of ancient and contemporary Africa. This seminar aims to examine the role of ethnographic practice in the political agendas of past and present African nations. In the quest to reconstruct an imaginary of Africa in space and time, students will explore these social constructs in light of the rise of archaeology during the height of European empire and colonization. Particularly in the last 50 years, revived interest in African cultural heritage and preservation raises complex questions about the problematic tensions between European, American, and African theories of archaeological and ethnographic practice.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Derbew, S. (PI)

AFRICAAM 189: Zora Neale Hurston (AMSTUD 187)

An exploration of the life, times, and works of Zora Neale Hurston, who died in obscurity in 1960 despite having published more books than any other African American woman. We will encounter the diversity of Hurston's interests across a range of media - her training as an anthropologist, her work in the folk cultures of the American South and the urban environment of the North, her diasporic interest in Black expression in the US, the Caribbean, and Africa. We will read Hurston's plays, short stories, folklore, essays, anthropology, and novels, and consider her interest in - and contributions to - photography, film, and music."
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 191B: African American Art (ARTHIST 191, CSRE 191)

This course explores major art and political movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and #BlackLivesMatter, that have informed and were inspired by African American artists. Students will read pivotal texts written by Black artists, historians, philosophers and activists; consider how artists have contended with issues of identity, race, gender, and sexuality; and learn about galleries, collections, and organizations founded to support the field. Attendance on the first day of class is a requirement for enrollment.
Last offered: Spring 2021 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 192B: Poetry Is Not a Luxury (ENGLISH 192B, FEMGEN 192B)

Poetry Is Not a Luxury * These places of possibility within ourselves are dark... The titles of this course are words thought and dreamed by Audre Lorde in her essay "Poetry Is Not a Luxury" (a version of which was first published in 1977). In this essay she writes: "For within living structures defined by profit, by linear power, by institutional dehumanization, our feelings were not meant to survive. Kept around as unavoidable adjuncts or pleasant pastimes, feelings were expected to kneel to thought as women were expected to kneel to men. But women have survived. As poets. And there are no new pains. We have felt them all already. We have hidden that fact in the same place where we have hidden our power. They surface in our dreams, and it is our dreams that point the way to freedom. Those dreams are made realizable through our poems that give us the strength and courage to see, to feel, to speak, and to dare." In this course we will consider the powers, resuscitations, and strategies found in the texts of a constellation of contemporary Black poets whose work emerges out of Black feminist thought and practices. My hope is that we will together listen toward the possibilities of this work, and through experiments in reading and writing, realize some of what these texts make it possible for us to think and feel and write and be.
Terms: Aut | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Girmay, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 193: Black and Brown: American Artists of Color (ARTHIST 293, CHILATST 293, CSRE 293)

This course explores the art history of African American and Latina/o/x artists in the United States, Latin America & the Caribbean. Focused on particular exhibition and collection histories, students will consider the artistic, social and political conditions that led Black and Brown artists to learn from each other, work together, and unite around issues of race, civil rights, immigration, and justice.
Last offered: Winter 2022 | Units: 4-5

AFRICAAM 195: Independent Study

Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 2-5
Instructors: ; Dieter, K. (PI)

AFRICAAM 197: Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Alternative Futurisms and Radical Worldbuilding (CSRE 194DS9, PWR 194DS9)

Presented by IDA, the Institute for Diversity in the Arts. In this course we will explore science fiction and speculative fiction as readers, writers, creators, and organizers to learn how artists engage with futurist thinking to reimagine and build better worlds in the present. Together we will draw from scholarship across Indigenous, Latinx, Pasifika, Arab, African and Afro futurisms; as well as science fiction and other creative traditions to imagine and build better worlds rooted in liberation and solidarity. Students will explore the groundbreaking television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as one example of alternative futurisms and will be joined by a special visiting artist and actor from the show's original cast. Visits by guest artists from across genres will round out this year's IDA Spring Class. Does not fulfill the WR1 or WR2 requirement.
Terms: Spr | Units: 1-4
Instructors: ; Banks, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 198B: Digital Traces (ANTHRO 198B)

What stories do data tell? In this course, we will follow digital traces by excavating, interrogating, and pursuing the digital evidence in data. What is the relationship between narratives and digital evidence? How do we address the tension between computational data models, the complexity of the lived experience, and the plurality of voices and methods? How can we understand and identify biases in data structures, archives, and repositories? The course offers the opportunity for extensive hands-on practical work with records, archives, and data collections. Supported by readings on archival practice, data colonialism, and the socio-cultural context of algorithms we will discuss what a critical anthropological perspective can contribute to this debate.
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 200N: Funkentelechy: Technologies, Social Justice and Black Vernacular Cultures (CSRE 314, EDUC 314, STS 200N)

From texts to techne, from artifacts to discourses on science and technology, this course is an examination of how Black people in this society have engaged with the mutually consitutive relationships that endure between humans and technologies. We will focus on these engagements in vernacular cultural spaces, from storytelling traditions to music and move to ways academic and aesthetic movements have imagined these relationships. Finally, we will consider the implications for work with technologies in both school and community contexts for work in the pursuit of social and racial justice.
Terms: Spr | Units: 4-5

AFRICAAM 200P: Doing Religious History (AFRICAST 200, HISTORY 200P, RELIGST 210X)

What is religion, and how do we write its history? This undergraduate colloquium uses case studies from a variety of regions and periods - but with a specific focus on the African continent - to consider how historians have dealt with the challenge of writing accounts of the realm of religious and spiritual experience. We will explore the utility of oral history alongside written documentary sources as well as explore issues of objectivity and affiliation in writing religious histories. (This course has been submitted for WAY-SI and WAY-ED certification.)
Last offered: Winter 2022 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 200X: Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Seminar

Required for seniors. Weekly colloquia with AAAS Director and Associate Director to assist with refinement of research topic, advisor support, literature review, research, and thesis writing. Readings include foundational and cutting-edge scholarship in the interdisciplinary fields of African and African American studies and comparative race studies. Readings assist students situate their individual research interests and project within the larger. Students may also enroll in AFRICAAM 200Y in Winter and AFRICAAM 200Z in Spring for additional research units (up to 10 units total).
Terms: Aut | Units: 5

AFRICAAM 200Y: Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Research

Winter. Required for students writing an Honors Thesis. Optional for Students writing a Senior Thesis.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Dieter, K. (PI)

AFRICAAM 200Z: Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Research

Spring. Required for students writing an Honors Thesis. Optional for Students writing a Senior Thesis.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Dieter, K. (PI)

AFRICAAM 205K: The Age of Revolution: America, France, and Haiti (HISTORY 205K, HISTORY 305K)

(History 205K is an undergraduate course offered for 5 units; History 305K is a graduate course offered for 4-5 units.) This course examines the "Age of Revolution," spanning the 18th and 19th centuries. Primarily, this course will focus on the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions (which overthrew both French and white planter rule). Taken together, these events reshaped definitions of citizenship, property, and government. But could republican principles-- color-blind in rhetoric-- be so in fact? Could nations be both republican and pro-slavery? Studying a wide range of primary materials, this course will explore the problem of revolution in an age of empires, globalization, and slavery.
Last offered: Winter 2020 | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 207: Emergent Thinking: Abolition and Climate Change (COMPLIT 207B, CSRE 207)

Gesturing toward adrienne maree brown's notion of 'emergent strategy,' this course asks us to think in the most radical and imaginative ways possible about two systemic failures that animate what Achille Mbembe has called 'necropolitics' decisions on who lives, and who dies: the police, and climate change. We will look at both the material aspects of police and prison abolition, and climate change and environmental justice, and theoretical approaches to the same. Using works by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Angela Davis, Alex Vitale, Dino Gilio-Whittaker, Candace Fukijane, Ben Ehrenreich, Amitav Ghosh, Ursula LeGuin and Octavia Butler, our texts put the imagination and the political will to work. This seminar course will be capped at 25 enrollments. I expect to offer this course annually.
Terms: Aut | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI)

AFRICAAM 208: Women of the Movement (AMSTUD 208, FEMGEN 208, FEMGEN 308, HISTORY 268, HISTORY 368, RELIGST 208, RELIGST 308)

This seminar will examine women and their gendered experience of activism, organizing, living, and leading in the Modern Civil Rights Movement. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 210: In Ha Mood: Contemporary Black Feminisms

This course examines core themes in contemporary Black feminisms in the United States. Each week the class will explore topics such as Black womxn's history, representation in new media, policy initiatives, and activism in areas of work and equal pay, relationships, family, mass incarceration, reproductive justice, and other topics. We will specifically focus on how the historical representation of marginalized womxn and girls have been used to shape legal, political and economic practice and social custom.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-4
Instructors: ; McNair, K. (PI)

AFRICAAM 212: How We Free Us: Race, Activism, and Community

This hybrid course is designed to provide an examination of activism through the lens of community. This course is part of the Community Engaged Learning Course curriculum in the Department of African & African American Studies and will introduce students to community-based organizing and activism and how community-ties can be harnessed to build viable movements in today's society.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; McNair, K. (PI)

AFRICAAM 213: Culture and Revolution in Africa (COMPLIT 213, FRENCH 213E, HISTORY 243E)

This course investigates the relationship between culture, revolutionary decolonization, and post-colonial trajectories. It probes the multilayered development of 20th and 21st-century African literature amid decolonization and Cold War cultural diplomacy initiatives and the debates they generated about African literary aesthetics, African languages, the production of history, and the role of the intellectual. We will journey through national cultural movements, international congresses, and pan-African festivals to explore the following questions: What role did writers and artists play in shaping the discourse of revolutionary decolonization throughout the continent and in the diaspora? How have literary texts, films, and works of African cultural thought shaped and engaged with concepts such as "African unity" and "African cultural renaissance"? How have these notions influenced the imaginaries of post-independence nations, engendered new subjectivities, and impacted gender and generational dynamics? How did the ways of knowing and modes of writing promoted and developed in these contexts shape African futures?
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors: ; Seck, F. (PI)

AFRICAAM 218: Musics and Appropriation Throughout the World (CSRE 118D, MUSIC 118)

This course critically examines musical practices and appropriation through the amplification of intersectionality. We consider musics globally through recourse to ethnomusicological literature and critical race theories. Our approach begins from an understanding that the social and political contexts where musics are created, disseminated, and consumed inform disparate interpretations and meanings of music, as well as its sounds. Our goal is to shape our ears to hear the effects of slavery, colonialism, capitalism, nationalism, class, gender difference, militarism, and activism. We interrogate the process of appropriating musics throughout the world by making the power structures that shape privileges and exclusions audible.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 221: Between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, JR.: Race, Religion, and the Politics of Freedom (AMSTUD 141X, CSRE 141R, HISTORY 151M, POLISCI 126, RELIGST 141)

Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz) and Martin Luther King, Jr. are both icons of the twentieth-century civil rights and black freedom movements. Often characterized as polar opposites - one advocating armed self-defense and the other non-violence against all provocation - they continue to be important religious, political, and intellectual models for how we imagine the past as well as for current issues concerning religion, race, politics and freedom struggles in the United States and globally. This course focuses on the political and spiritual lives of Martin and Malcolm. We will examine their personal biographies, speeches, writings, representations, FBI Files, and legacies as a way to better understand how the intersections of religion, race, and politics came to bare upon the freedom struggles of people of color in the US and abroad. The course also takes seriously the evolutions in both Martin and Malcolm's political approaches and intellectual development, focusing especially on the last years of their respective lives. We will also examine the critical literature that takes on the leadership styles and political philosophies of these communal leaders, as well as the very real opposition and surveillance they faced from state forces like the police and FBI. Students will gain an understanding of what social conditions, religious structures and institutions, and personal experiences led to first the emergence and then the assassinations of these two figures. We will discuss the subtleties of their political analyses, pinpointing the key differences and similarities of their philosophies, approaches, and legacies, and we will apply these debates of the mid- twentieth century to contemporary events and social movements in terms of how their legacies are articulated and what we can learn from them in struggles for justice and recognition in twenty-first century America and beyond.
Last offered: Spring 2022 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-ER

AFRICAAM 224: Caribbean Questions: Exploring the Caribbean (AFRICAAM 124, CSRE 223)

When asked to conjure up an image of the Caribbean, what comes to mind? The geographies? The political climate? Its people? Its histories? In this course we will complicate and investigate the notion of 'the Caribbean' by addressing various questions each week concerning the region and its inhabitants. The central theme of this course is concerned with Caribbean identities and the weekly readings aim to recognize and honor the immense diversity of the region, notably by taking care to include work on the English, French, Spanish, and Dutch Caribbean. The knowledge of historical experiences and the resulting formations are necessary to wholly understand the creation and expression of contemporary identities. We will start attempting to define the Caribbean and then going into the three main theories of Caribbean identity and society formation: plantation society theory, plural society theory, and creole theory. We start with this because literature on identity formation in the Caribbean is often based off of understandings of these models. We will also examine the construction of national, pan-Caribbean, and diasporic identities. Throughout the semester we will also address various questions about specific Caribbean identities and how we understand them.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 4-5

AFRICAAM 226: Mixed-Race Politics and Culture (AMSTUD 152K, CSRE 152K, ENGLISH 152K)

Today, almost one-third of Americans identify with a racial/ethnic minority group, and more than 9 million Americans identify with multiple races. What are the implications of such diversity for American politics and culture? This course approaches issues of race from an interdisciplinary perspective, employing research in the social sciences and humanities to assess how race shapes perceptions of identity as well as political behavior in 21st-century U.S. Issues surrounding the role of multiculturalism, immigration, acculturation, racial representation, and racial prejudice in American society. Topics include the political and social formation of race; racial representation in the media, arts, and popular culture; the rise and decline of the "one-drop rule" and its effect on political and cultural attachments; the politicization of census categories and the rise of the multiracial movement. If you have any questions about enrollment or need a permission number, please contact Farrah Moreno (farrahm@stanford.edu).
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Elam, M. (PI)

AFRICAAM 235: Print on Purpose (DESIGN 236P)

Operating at an intersection of visual expression and freedom of speech, Print on Purpose investigates how social justice is imprinted in our local, national, and global consciousness. From lawn signs to newspapers to zines to posters to pamphlets to stickers, print has long been a catalyst for social change. Students will learn the historical and contemporary contexts, from Noname Book Club to Emory Douglas's prints for the Black Panther Party, and social movements that leverage print, as well as printed-matter production methods. Then we will produce works in select mediums such as silkscreen, letterpress, risograph, offset, and digital printing. This course will also include visits by experts in a social movement and print production methods. Students will also work in teams to produce original work. This class is open to undergraduates, graduates and fellows. For those who are curious about experimenting with words/letters, art, graffiti, graphic design, design as a tool, and words as a catalyst this is the class for you. If you are interested but unsure about your eligibility, please send us an email.
Last offered: Autumn 2022 | Units: 2

AFRICAAM 238J: The European Scramble for Africa: Origins and Debates (HISTORY 238J, HISTORY 338J)

Why and how did Europeans claim control of 70% of African in the late nineteenth century? Students will engage with historiographical debates ranging from the national (e.g. British) to the topical (e.g. international law). Students will interrogate some of the primary sources on which debaters have rested their arguments. Key discussions include: the British occupation of Egypt; the autonomy of French colonial policy; the mystery of Germany¿s colonial entry; and, not least, the notorious Berlin Conference of 1884-1885.
Last offered: Winter 2020 | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 242: Black Religion in America (AMSTUD 241, RELIGST 241, RELIGST 341)

Since Africans arrived on North American shores, their religious cultures have anchored them to the traditions of their originating homelands; offered outlets for communal innovation; and structured their responses to the everyday realities of life in the United States. More than a cornerstone of Black American culture, religion has helped to define U.S. African-American identities. At the same time, performances identified with Black religions have transcended racial barriers and become ubiquitous features of the American religious landscape. In this course, we will trace the history of African-descended peoples in the United States through their religious expressions, explore major questions in the study of African-American religions, and analyze representations of African-American religiosity in the popular imagination. Zigzagging across regions and through chronological periods, we will engage primary "texts" ranging from the antebellum "confessions" of Nat Turner to the contemporary rituals of a Vodou priestess, in order to interrogate the questions: "Are there continuities and/or features that mark U.S. Black religions?" "If so, what are they?" "If not, what is the function of the category?" In doing so, we aim to discover the histories of the diverse traditions subsumed under the category of Black religion and register our voices in debates that continue to preoccupy scholars in the field.Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 244: Re(positioning) Disability: Historical, Cultural, and Social Lenses (CSRE 143, EDUC 144, PEDS 246D)

This course is designed to introduce undergraduate students of any major to important theoretical and practical concepts regarding special education, disability, and diversity. This course primarily addresses the social construction of disability and its intersection with race and class through the critical examination of history, law, social media, film, and other texts. Students will engage in reflection about their own as well as broader U.S. discourses moving towards deeper understanding of necessary societal and educational changes to address inequities. Successful completion of this course fulfills one requirement for the School of Education minor in Education.
Last offered: Autumn 2021 | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 245: Understanding Racial and Ethnic Identity Development (CSRE 245, EDUC 245, PSYCH 245A)

This seminar will explore the impact and relative salience of racial/ethnic identity on select issues including: discrimination, social justice, mental health and academic performance. Theoretical perspectives on identity development will be reviewed, along with research on other social identity variables, such as social class, gender and regional identifications. New areas within this field such as the complexity of multiracial identity status and intersectional invisibility will also be discussed. Though the class will be rooted in psychology and psychological models of identity formation, no prior exposure to psychology is assumed and other disciplines-including cultural studies, feminist studies, and literature-will be incorporated into the course materials. Students will work with community partners to better understand the nuances of racial and ethnic identity development in different contexts. (Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center)
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5

AFRICAAM 246: Introduction to African Studies II: Who Owns the Past? African Museum Collections in the Bay Area (HISTORY 245, HUMCORE 136)

The colonial era saw widespread extraction of cultural treasures by European powers across the globe. Greece, Egypt, and other countries have maintained that these objects belong at home rather than in the museums of London, Paris, and New York. This class invites you to consider the role of African art in debates about ownership, access, and aesthetics. Stanford University, for example, has a large collection of African objects in the Cantor Museum, while in nearby San Francisco, the renowned De Young Museum has a significant selection in its Africa gallery.Classes will chart the "scramble for art" that occurred in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among European colonial powers on the African continent. We will also examine the role of North American collectors in extracting African cultural treasures from the continent, and the burgeoning ethnographic museum culture that showcased these objects at universities and museums across the U.S. We will consider how practices of museum curation throughout the twentieth century shaped and defined fundamental categories including the notion of "African art" itself. Students will discuss pressing questions of agency, justice, and power. We will consider early calls from African countries for repatriation of their objects and the ongoing state of these debates today, including the current call for the return of the famed and controversial Benin Bronzes and the efforts of museums like the De Young, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard's Peabody Museum, and the UCLA Fowler Museum to ethically engage with their African holdings. Throughout the class, our guiding question will be: who owns the past? Are these cultural treasures the property of all humanity (as many museums would argue), or of the specific countries and communities who lay claim to them?
Terms: Win | Units: 3
Instructors: ; Cabrita, J. (PI)

AFRICAAM 247: Gender and Sexuality in African History (FEMGEN 247, FEMGEN 347, HISTORY 247, HISTORY 347)

This course examines the history of gender and sexuality in twentieth and twenty-first century Africa. It explores how concepts, identities, and practices of gender and sexuality have changed in shifting social, cultural, political, and economic contexts across the continent and in connection with global currents. This historical journey encompasses European colonialism, independence, postcolonial nation-building, and current times. Course materials include African novels, films, material culture and multinational scholarly research and primary sources. We will also engage multidisciplinary perspectives, methodologies, and theories as tools for critical thinking, writing and varied modes of producing knowledge. Gender and sexuality(ies) as examined in this course act as gateways to explore transformations in : selfhood, peoplehood, and life stage; health, medicine, reproduction, and the body; law and criminality; marriage, kinship, family, and community; politics, power and protest; feminism(s); popular culture; religion and belief; LGBTQI+ themes; and the history of emotions, including love, joy, desire, pain, and trauma.
Terms: Spr | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
Instructors: ; Jean-Baptiste, R. (PI)

AFRICAAM 248C: Curating the Image: African Photography and the Politics of Exhibitions (HISTORY 248C, HISTORY 348C)

This course will be built around a photography exhibition at the Cantor Art Center, featuring the images of South African photographer, Sabelo Mlangeni. The class will invite students to consider both the history and the present-day state of photography on the African continent, exploring themes such as social-realist documentary photography and an African tradition of studio photography. The class will also reflect upon curatorial questions, including how, where, and why certain photographic work is displayed, and the aesthetics as well as politics of museum display.
| Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

AFRICAAM 250J: Baldwin and Hansberry: The Myriad Meanings of Love (AMSTUD 250J, CSRE 250J, FEMGEN 250J, TAPS 250J)

This course looks at major dramatic works by James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry. Both of these queer black writers had prophetic things to say about the world-historical significance of major dramas on the 20th Century including civil rights, revolution, gender, colonialism, racism, sexism, war, nationalism and as well as aesthetics and politics.
Terms: Win | Units: 4
Instructors: ; Brody, J. (PI); Jones, T. (TA)

AFRICAAM 251J: American Slavery and Its Afterlives (AMSTUD 251J, HISTORY 251J, HISTORY 351J)

How did the institution of American slavery come to an end? The story is more complex than most people know. This course examines the rival forces that fostered slavery's simultaneous contraction in the North and expansion in the South between 1776 and 1861. It also illuminates, in detail, the final tortuous path to abolition during the Civil War. Throughout, the course introduces a diverse collection of historical figures, including seemingly paradoxical ones, such as slaveholding southerners who professed opposition to slavery and non-slaveholding northerners who acted in ways that preserved it. During the course's final weeks, we will examine the racialized afterlives of American slavery as they manifested during the late-nineteenth century and beyond.
Last offered: Autumn 2021 | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 252C: The Old South: Culture, Society, and Slavery (CSRE 252C, HISTORY 252C)

This course explores the political, social, and cultural history of the antebellum American South, with an emphasis on the history of African-American slavery. Topics include race and race making, slave community and resistance, gender and reproduction, class and immigration, commodity capitalism, technology, disease and climate, indigenous Southerners, white southern honor culture, the Civil War, and the region's place in national mythmaking and memory.
Last offered: Spring 2021 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 253: Caring Labor in the United States (FEMGEN 253L, HISTORY 253L)

Who cares for America's children, elderly, and infirm? How is the structure of these labor forces influenced by ideologies of race, gender, and class? Beginning with theories of reproductive and caring labor, we examine the history of coerced and enslaved care and then caring as free labor. We will look at housework, child care, nursing, and elder care, among others, and will also examine how activists, policy makers, and workers have imagined new ways of performing and valuing care.
Last offered: Spring 2020 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 254G: Black Magic: Ethnicity, Race, and Identity in Performance Cultures (AFRICAAM 154G, CSRE 154D, FEMGEN 154G, TAPS 154G, TAPS 354G)

In 2013, CaShawn Thompson devised a Twitter hashtag, #blackgirlmagic, to celebrate the beauty and intelligence of black women. Twitter users quickly adopted the slogan, using the hashtag to celebrate everyday moments of beauty, accomplishment, and magic. The slogan offered a contemporary iteration of an historical alignment: namely, the concept of "magic" with both Black people as well as "blackness." This course explores the legacy of Black magic--and black magic--through performance texts including plays, poetry, films, and novels. We will investigate the creation of magical worlds, the discursive alignment of magic with blackness, and the contemporary manifestation of a historical phenomenon. We will cover, through lecture and discussion, the history of black magic representation as well as the relationship between magic and religion. Our goal will be to understand the impact and history of discursive alignments: what relationship does "black magic" have to and for "black bodies"? How do we understand a history of performance practice as being caught up in complicated legacies of suspicion, celebration, self-definition? The course will give participants a grounding in black performance texts, plays, and theoretical writings. *This course will also satisfy the TAPS department WIM requirement.*
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Robinson, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 255: Racial Identity in the American Imagination (AMSTUD 255D, CSRE 255D, HISTORY 255D, HISTORY 355D)

From Sally Hemings to Michelle Obama and Beyonce, this course explores the ways that racial identity has been experienced, represented, and contested throughout American history. Engaging historical, legal, and literary texts and films, this course examines major historical transformations that have shaped our understanding of racial identity. This course also draws on other imaginative modes including autobiography, memoir, photography, and music to consider the ways that racial identity has been represented in American culture.
Terms: Spr | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Hobbs, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 256: Black Contemporary Filmmakers (AMSTUD 256, FILMEDIA 257)

Despite the systemic inequalities of the Hollywood system, there is a robust, stylistically diverse cohort of African-American writer/directors at work, including Barry Jenkins, Ava DuVernay, and Ryan Coogler. Jenkins' films (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk), are aesthetically lush, intimate, and understated. DuVernay (When They See Us) foregrounds racial history and injustice in her feature films, television, and documentary work. Coogler followed his realist Fruitvale Station with two powerful genre films with black protagonists (Creed, Black Panther - this last the highest-grossing film by a black director).
Terms: Spr | Units: 5

AFRICAAM 256E: The American Civil War: The Lived Experience (AMSTUD 256E, HISTORY 256E)

What was it like to live in the United States during the Civil War? This course uses the lenses of racial/ethnic identity, gender, class, and geography (among others) to explore the breadth of human experience during this singular moment in American history. It illuminates the varied ways in which Americans, in the Union states and the Confederate states, struggled to move forward and to find meaning in the face of unprecedented division and destruction.
Last offered: Summer 2021 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

AFRICAAM 257: Histories of Racial Capitalism (CSRE 253C, HISTORY 253C)

This colloquium takes as its starting point the insistence that the movement, settlement, and hierarchical arrangements of indigenous communities and people of African descent is inseparable from regimes of capital accumulation. It builds on the concept of "racial capitalism," which rejects treatments of race as external to a purely economic project and counters the idea that racism is an externality, cultural overflow, or aberration from the so-called real workings of capitalism. This course will cover topics such as chattel slavery, settler colonialism, black capitalism, the under-development of Africa, and the profitability of mass incarceration.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 5

AFRICAAM 258: Black Feminist Theater and Theory (CSRE 258, FEMGEN 258X, TAPS 258)

From the rave reviews garnered by Angelina Weld Grimke's lynching play, Rachel to recent work by Lynn Nottage on Rwanda, black women playwrights have addressed key issues in modern culture and politics. We will analyze and perform work written by black women in the U.S., Britain and the Caribbean in the 20th and 21st centuries. Topics include: sexuality, surrealism, colonialism, freedom, violence, colorism, love, history, community and more. Playwrights include: Angelina Grimke, Lorriane Hansberry, Winsome Pinnock, Adrienne Kennedy, Suzan- Lori Parks, Ntozake Shange, Pearl Cleage, Sarah Jones, Anna DeVeare Smith, Alice Childress, Lydia Diamond and Zora Neale Hurston.)
Terms: Spr | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 261: Black Aliveness (AMSTUD 261A, ARTHIST 261)

Based on Kevin Quashie's 2021 book "Black Aliveness, or A Poetics of Being," this seminar will explore moments of possibility, love, and being in works of literature and art. With Quashie as our guide, we will look closely at poems, stories, photographs, and paintings by, among others, Lucille Clifton, Audrey Lorde, Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, Toi Derricotte, Gordon Parks, and Henry Ossawa Tanner. Featuring intense discussion and emphasis on developing powers of black aliveness in one's own writing.
Terms: Aut | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Nemerov, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 261E: Black Mirror: Representations of Race & Gender in AI (ENGLISH 152E, ENGLISH 261E)

tba
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 3-5

AFRICAAM 262: Toni Morrison: Modernism, Postmodernism, and World Literature (AFRICAAM 362E)

This course will take a close look at Toni Morrison's oeuvre to explore question of Modernism, Postmodernism, and World Literature. Texts to be looked at will include The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Jazz, Paradise, Beloved, Love, and Playing in the Dark, among others.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 3-5

AFRICAAM 264: Crossing the Atlantic: Race Identity in the "Old" and"New" African Diasporas (COMPLIT 264, CSRE 265, FRENCH 264E)

In this course, we will think critically about what we have come to call the African diaspora. We will travel the world virtually while exploring a selection of classic and understudied texts, in order to interrogate the relationship between culture, race, gender and identity in the "old" and "new" African diasporas. From literary texts to popular culture, we will relate each weekly reading to a hot topic. Our goal is to think cross-culturally and cross-linguistically about the themes covered by putting exciting works in conversation. The diverse topics and concepts discussed will include race, class, gender, identity, sexuality, migration, Afro-Caribbean religions, performance, violence, the body, metissage, Negritude, Negrismo, multiculturalism, nationalism, Afropolitanism and Afropean identities.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Seck, F. (PI)

AFRICAAM 266: Classical Reception in the Black Diaspora (CLASSICS 366, CSRE 366)

From the ancient oral epics to contemporary literature from Africa, the Caribbean, and the USA, this seminar will examine the significance of Classics in the literatures and arts of Africa and the Black Diaspora. This course will also investigate the ways that Black diasporic artists have engaged with, revised and re-imagined Greco-Roman classics, both in order to expose and critique discourses of racism, imperialism, and colonialism, and as a fertile source of mythological material. It is the hope that the diverse array of material (collage, graphic novels, novels, oral literature, poetry) will invite diverse intellectual engagement. With this in mind, this course has been designed for students interested in Classics, African American Studies, African Studies, and Comparative Literature.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 3-5

AFRICAAM 267: Africa & China: Pasts and Presents

China's engagement with Africa during the last decade has generated media attention that generally portrays China as either Africa's economic saviour or as its new imperial overlord. This course will both survey these analyses but also suggest that the China-Africa phenomenon needs to be understood as a series of engagements ? economic, political, but also social and cultural ? between a range of Chinese and African actors that have both potential benefits and costs for all those involved. Interdisciplinary in nature, the course will explore the history of China's relationship with Africa and the continuities and breaks in this relationship. Instead of producing a monolithic picture for the whole African continent, the course will focus on various African countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, Congo, South Africa, Sudan, Ghana and Mali for more contextualised discussions. It will also problematise the idea of 'China' as solely representative of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It will begin with an overview of the literature in order to familiarise the students with the historiography. Then it will run in a chronological order, first discussing China's ancient connections with the African continent the before moving to the more crucial period of intense interactions in the mid-20th century. We will pay particular attention to questions such as socialist ideology, Afro-Asianism, economic competition, revolution, and liberation movements. The rest of the course will deal with China's political, economic and social activities on the African continent since early 2000 until today. The class will analyse economic relations in the form of mineral extraction, the extent and form of China's engagement with political change on the continent, and the ways in which Chinese migrants have interacted with African societies. It will also explore how Africans are seeking to shape their unequal relationship with Chinese influences and to negotiate advantages for themselves in both Chinese-influenced Africa and in China itself. The course will seek to locate China's recent engagement with Africa in the context of the continent's many centuries of interaction with global flows of goods, peoples, and ideas.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Sun, Y. (PI)

AFRICAAM 268: Black Temporality

Futurity, progress, futurism, and history have become contested ideas within the valence of Black life. This course examines both the speculative imagination and the aspirational and pessimistic stakes of temporality within the Black diaspora. While Afrofuturism often privileges outer space and science fiction as its premier site and grammar, this course seeks to magnify other articulations of Blackness and time that may fall out of its purview. In so doing, this course considers how past and current socio-political movements (e.g., Haitian Revolution and Black Lives Matter), memory, reparations, and geography have informed critical race theory, philosophy, and Black expressive arts.
Last offered: Spring 2020 | Units: 5

AFRICAAM 272: African American Child and Adolescent Mental Health: An Ecological Approach (CSRE 372, EDUC 372, PSYCH 261)

African American children and adolescents face a number of challenges (e.g., racism, discrimination, lack of access to resources, community violence) that can impact their mental health. Yet, they possess and utilize many strengths in the face of challenge and adversity. This seminar will explore the most salient historical, social, cultural, and ecological factors that influence the mental health and resilience of African American youth, with attention to contextual determinants that shape mental health. Applying an ecological systems approach, the course will focus on how families, schools, and communities are integral to youth's adjustment and well-being. By utilizing a culturally specific and context based lens in analyzing empirical, narrative, and visual content, students will better understand factors that can promote or inhibit the mental health and resilience of African American children and adolescents across development.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 3

AFRICAAM 278: Carceral Logics & Abolition in Education (CSRE 378, EDUC 478)

Abolition is a complex concept, often moving against the grain in a society fixated on punishment. What happens when we begin with the concept that life is valuable and that concept should be the center of society when building institutions and responding to harm? In this short course, we will explore how abolition has been conceptualized over time, particularly in relation to carceral logics, and how both relate to education. We will explore what educators can learn from community-driven abolitionist projects and how we can apply these conceptualizations and strategies to education spaces towards liberation.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 2-5

AFRICAAM 279: Introduction to Black Popular Culture

This course examines how Black Americans helped shape and have been shaped by American Popular Culture. We will examine the historical relationship of people of African descent to mainstream culture through a critical examination of "popular" representations of "Blackness." This course will include a discussion of new media and traditional media experienced in the digital age. This course will also consider the impact of U.S. "Black" popular culture on the African diaspora, and African diasporic influences on present-day "Black" popular culture. In this course, students should develop a critical consciousness and literacy regarding issues of popular representations of Black urbanity, Afro-Surrealism, Afrofuturism, and gendered issues of Black identity. To do this, we will draw from abroad range of scholarship, theory, and concepts in media studies, cultural studies, performance theory, visual culture, and history. We will engage in the work of scholars such as: Stuart Hall, Herman Gray, E. Patrick Johnson, Marlon Riggs, Mark Anthony Neal, Moya Bailey, Simone C. Drake, and Ann duCille.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-4
Instructors: ; McNair, K. (PI)

AFRICAAM 286: The Psychology of Racial Inequality (CSRE 186, PSYCH 186, PSYCH 286)

Our topic is the psychology of racial inequality - thinking, feeling, and behaving in ways that contribute to racial stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, and how these processes in turn maintain and perpetuate inequality between racial groups. We will examine how these processes unfold at both the individual and the institutional levels. Throughout this course, you will familiarize yourself with the psychological perspectives, methods, and findings that help explain racial inequality, and we will explore ways to promote racial equality. The course will be conducted as a seminar, but most of what you learn will be through the readings and discussions. That is, this course is minimally didactic; the goal is to have you engage thoughtfully with the issues and readings spurred in part by sharing perspectives, confusions, and insights through writing and discussion. Each student will facilitate at least one class session by providing an introductory framework for the readings (~10-minute presentation with handouts that overviews the concepts, issues, and controversies). Together, we will broaden our knowledge base on the subject and explain, from a psychological perspective, the pervasiveness of racial inequality. Prerequisites: PSYCH 1 and PSYCH 10
Last offered: Spring 2018 | Units: 3

AFRICAAM 291: Riot: Visualizing Civil Unrest in the 20th and 21st Centuries (AFRICAAM 491, ARTHIST 291, ARTHIST 491, CSRE 290, CSRE 390, FILMEDIA 291, FILMEDIA 491)

This seminar explores the visual legacy of civil unrest in the United States. Focusing on the 1965 Watts Rebellion, 1992 Los Angeles Riots, 2014 Ferguson Uprising, and 2020 George Floyd Uprisings students will closely examine photographs, television broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, and film and video representations of unrest. Additionally, students will visually analyze the works of artists who have responded to instances of police brutality and challenged the systemic racism, xenophobia, and anti-Black violence leading to and surrounding these events.
Last offered: Autumn 2021 | Units: 4-5

AFRICAAM 294: Black Brazil: Afro-Brazilian Music, Literature, and Art (CSRE 194, ILAC 194G)

More enslaved people from Africa were forced to Brazil than any other country and Brazil was the last country to abolish the practice of slavery in the Americas. How do these two facts impact the cultural history of Brazil? How and why was the country mythologized as a 'racial democracy' in the twentieth century? This class engages these questions to explore the origins, development, and centrality of Afro-Brazilian culture. We will immerse ourselves in the cities of Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, explore samba and Carnaval, take a dive into syncretic religious practices such as Candomblé, observe dances like capoeira, and study literary and artistic expressions from an anti-racist perspective to gain a fuller picture of Brazilian society today. Taught in English.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP

AFRICAAM 355: Black Feminism and Anti-Carceral Resistance (COMPLIT 255, FEMGEN 255A)

Black feminists throughout the Western Hemisphere have long resisted carcerality, a system that emerged as a response to antebellum Black fugitivity. In this course, we will review Black feminist theory and abolitionist activism, focusing on how the carceral state affects Black women in particular. We will draw from the work of academic scholars such as Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Angela Davis as well as the work of abolitionist activists and community leaders such as Mariame Kaba. Participants in this course will be introduced in depth to contemporary abolitionist demands and to the Black feminist theorists working in tandem with the abolitionist movement.
Last offered: Autumn 2021 | Units: 3-5

AFRICAAM 361: Comparative Methodologies in Black Gender Studies (COMPLIT 261, COMPLIT 361, FEMGEN 362)

This course takes a comparative methodological approach to Black Gender Studies, introducing students to the important terms and debates that animate this field, such as Spillers' "ungendering" and Saidiya Hartman's "critical fabulation". We will read academic articles, book chapters, and exhibition materials in the fields of literary criticism, history, anthropology, gender studies, and fine art that trace Black Women's and gender expansive people's experiences across the Western Hemisphere. The purpose of this course is to aid graduate students in growing as theorists in their own fields by engaging with the methodologies and terms present in contemporary Black queer and gender studies. We will also learn to conduct historical scholarship via archival sources. Particular attention will be paid to scholarship published in the past decade, especially as it relates to performance, literary criticism, and expansive gender throughout the modern history of the Western Hemisphere.This course is by application only. Please send a statement of interest and your CV to mlrosa@stanford.edu.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 3-5

AFRICAAM 362E: Toni Morrison: Modernism, Postmodernism, and World Literature (AFRICAAM 262)

This course will take a close look at Toni Morrison's oeuvre to explore question of Modernism, Postmodernism, and World Literature. Texts to be looked at will include The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Jazz, Paradise, Beloved, Love, and Playing in the Dark, among others.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Quayson, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 389C: Race, Ethnicity, and Language: Black Digital Cultures from BlackPlanet to AI (CSRE 385, EDUC 389C, PWR 194AJB)

This seminar explores the intersections of language and race/racism/racialization in the public schooling experiences of students of color. We will briefly trace the historical emergence of the related fields of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, explore how each of these scholarly traditions approaches the study of language, and identify key points of overlap and tension between the two fields before considering recent examples of inter-disciplinary scholarship on language and race in urban schools. Issues to be addressed include language variation and change, language and identity, bilingualism and multilingualism, language ideologies, and classroom discourse. We will pay particular attention to the implications of relevant literature for teaching and learning in urban classrooms.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-4
Instructors: ; Banks, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 428: Intersectional Justice in Education Policy and Practice (EDUC 428, FEMGEN 428)

This 3-5-unit, graduate course is designed to explore intersectionality as a "method and a disposition, a heuristic and an analytic tool" (Carbado, Crenshaw, Mays, & Tomlinson, 2013, p. 11). To do this we explore the intellectual lineage of intersectional thought from its Black Feminist roots and trace it through its use today in education research. Within these tracings, we will delve into the (mis)uses, contestations, and iterations of intersectionality in theory and empirical research. At the heart of this course is an examination of how perceptions of and beliefs about a myriad of intertwining inequities conspire to create vectors of oppressions that land in multiply "marginalized students" lives through the macrosociolpolitcal to the microinteractional. It interrogates the foundational ideological assumptions around culture, difference, deficit, and dis/ability in which education has traditionally been rooted. Students in the course will analyze the lineage and processes of intersectionality to understand how students at the intersections of multiple oppressions experience education within communities of practice that enact, reproduce, and resist policies and practices through their daily activities.
Last offered: Autumn 2022 | Units: 3-5

AFRICAAM 442: (Re)Framing Difference: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Disability, Race and Culture (CSRE 343, EDUC 442, FEMGEN 442, PEDS 242)

This course uses social theories of difference to examine the intersections of disability, race and culture. The course will examine these concepts drawing from scholarship published in history, sociology of education, urban sociology, cultural studies, disability studies, social studies of science, cultural psychology, educational and cultural anthropology, comparative education and special education. Implications for policy, research and practice will be covered.
Terms: Aut | Units: 4
Instructors: ; Artiles, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 488: Stanford Black Academic Lab: Community-Based Participatory Methods (CSRE 388, EDUC 488, LINGUIST 276E)

This lab-based course is an overview of research methods that are used in the development of Black educators, including survey research, individual and focus group interviews, ethnographic methods, and documentary activism. Lab participants will be guided through critical thinking about the professional and personal development of Black educators while assessing the utility and relevance of research-based responses to that development in partnership with a particular educational organization or agency.
Terms: Win | Units: 2-5
Instructors: ; Charity Hudley, A. (PI)

AFRICAAM 491: Riot: Visualizing Civil Unrest in the 20th and 21st Centuries (AFRICAAM 291, ARTHIST 291, ARTHIST 491, CSRE 290, CSRE 390, FILMEDIA 291, FILMEDIA 491)

This seminar explores the visual legacy of civil unrest in the United States. Focusing on the 1965 Watts Rebellion, 1992 Los Angeles Riots, 2014 Ferguson Uprising, and 2020 George Floyd Uprisings students will closely examine photographs, television broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, and film and video representations of unrest. Additionally, students will visually analyze the works of artists who have responded to instances of police brutality and challenged the systemic racism, xenophobia, and anti-Black violence leading to and surrounding these events.
Last offered: Autumn 2021 | Units: 4-5
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