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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.

Throughout the history of modern Africa, Africans have specified their desired future - development, understood broadly - and identified the major obstacles in achieving it. Debates about development have intensified in the post-colonial period, especially as African countries have replaced the independence era leaders. Amidst the general critique of the imposition of external values and rules, Africans have differed, sometimes sharply, on priorities, process, and programs. While for some the challenge is to catch up with development elsewhere, for others it is essential to leap ahead, to set the pace, to initiate a radical social, economic, and political transformation. To ground and extend the common approaches to studying development that emphasize economics and that rely largely on external commentators, we will explore African perspectives. Our major task will be a broad overview, sampling the analyses of Africa¿s intellectuals in several domains. Course participants will review, compare, and analyze major contributions, developing an understanding of contemporary intellectual currents.

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?

This course will focus on the history of slavery in the British, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch Atlantic world(s), from the late 1400s to the 1800s. Its main focus will be on the experiences of enslaved Africans and their descendants. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Europeans forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans to the Americas. Drawing on methodologies used by historians, archaeologists and anthropologists, the course will reconstruct the daily lives and the socio-economic, cultural and political histories of these captives. We will seek to hear their voices by investigating a variety of historical testimonies and recent scholarship. The course will examine slavery in the context of broader trends in Atlantic World studies, a field that has grown considerably in recent years, providing new ways of understanding historical developments across national boundaries. We will seek to identify commonalities and differences across time periods and regions and the reasons for those differences. Covered topics will include slave ship voyages, labor, agency, the creation of new identities (creolization), religion, race, gender, resistance, legacies, and memory.

This course aims to equip students with an understanding of the cultural, social, and political aspects at play in the literatures of Francophone Africa and the Caribbean of the 20th and 21st century. Our primary readings will be Francophone novels and poetry. We will also read some theoretical texts. The assigned readings will expose students to literature from diverse French-speaking regions of the African/Caribbean world. This course will also serve as a "literary toolbox," with the intention of facilitating an understanding of literary genres, and terms. Students can expect to work on their production of written and spoken French, in addition to reading comprehension. Special guest: Moroccan author Meryem Alaoui. Required readings include: Aime Cesaire, Maryse Condé, Fatou Diome, Dany Laferriere, Leonara Miano, Albert Memmi. Taught in French. Prerequisite: FRENLANG 124 or consent of instructor.

The excitement around social innovation and entrepreneurship has spawned numerous startups focused on tackling world problems, particularly in the fields of education and health. The best social ventures are launched with careful consideration paid to research, design, and efficacy. This course offers students insights into understanding how to effectively develop, evaluate, and scale social ventures. Using TeachAIDS (an award-winning nonprofit educational technology social venture used in 78 countries) as a primary case study, students will be given an in-depth look into how the entity was founded and scaled globally. Guest speakers will include world-class experts and entrepreneurs in Philanthropy, Medicine, Communications, Education, and Technology. Open to both undergraduate and graduate students.

This seminar is part of a broader program on Social Entrepreneurship at CDDRL in partnership with the Haas Center for Public Service. It will use practice to better inform theory. Working with three visiting social entrepreneurs from developing and developed country contexts students will use case studies of successful and failed social change strategies to explore relationships between social entrepreneurship, gender, democracy, development and justice. It interrogates current definitions of democracy and development and explores how they can become more inclusive of marginalized populations. This is a service learning class in which students will learn by working on projects that support the social entrepreneurs' efforts to promote social change. Students should register for either 3 OR 5 units only. Students enrolled in the full 5 units will have a service-learning component along with the course. Students enrolled for 3 units will not complete the service-learning component. Limited enrollment. Attendance at the first class is mandatory in order to participate in service learning.

This course identifies and considers new keywords for the study of contemporary African music and sound. Each week we will foster discussion around a keyword and a constellation of case studies. The sonic practices we will encounter range from South African house music to Ghanaian honk horns; from Congolese rumba bands to Tunisian trance singers; from listening to the radio in a Tanzanian homestead to making hip hop music videos on the Kenyan coast. By exploring the unexpected interconnections between contemporary African musical communities, we will discuss new keywords arising in current scholarship, including technologies like the amplifier and the hard drive, spaces like the studio and the city, and analytics like pleasure and hotness. We will also engage with established concepts for the study of postcolonial African cultures, including nationalism, cosmopolitanism, globalization, diaspora, and Pan-Africanism. This is a seminar-based course open to graduate students, upper level undergraduate students, and other students with consent of the instructor. Proficiency in music is not required. WIM at 4 units only.

This is a student driven, dialogue based, and intellectual community focused course. We will explore and challenge the taken-for-granted framing of key African issues and debates. Engagement with discussion leaders drawing on their own research and case studies from across the African continent will guide us across shifting terrain. This course centers the scholarship and voices of African students. Topics include: Afropolitanism, Brain Drain/ Gain, Education, Leadership, Global Health, AI Application in Africa, Economic Development, Industrial Policy, LGBTQI Rights, Gender and Sexuality.