Approaches to Africana Studies
V18.0101  Offered once a year.
Introduces students to a variety of topics and methodologies associated with Africana studies as a field academic inquiry, including the history of the field and its growth over the course of time. Specific topics may include the question of African retention in the Americas, the comparative study of slavery, the concept of creolization, an understanding of the Black Atlantic and the meaning of diasporic studies, as well as the use of history, sociology, linguistics, anthropology, literature, music and the arts as ways in which the experiences of black peoples have been documented and transmitted.

Introduction to Pan-Africanism
V18.0104  Formerly V11.0010. Offered once a year. 4 points.
Deals with the history of Pan-Africanism and its impact on the modern world. Focuses on the major themes of Pan-Africanism, including those of African unity, black rebellion against colonialism and racism, black diaspora, and black culture. Also considers the relations between Pan-Africanism and such movements as nationalism, Marxism, and Afrocentricity.

Introduction to Black Urban Studies
V18.0105  Formerly V11.0020. Identical to V57.0090. Offered once a year. 4 points.
Introduces students to the tools of cultural criticism and theory, with particular emphasis on black culture, urban environment, and black people’s relationships to a variety of social and cultural institutions and practices. The latter may include the mass media, class and poverty, the police, urban development, education, music, art, and sports.

Introduction to Swahili I
V18.0121  Formerly V11.0201. Offered once a year. 4 points.
Provides students with an elementary understanding of Swahili, a Bantu language with a rich oral and written tradition that is spoken by about 100 million people from Somalia to Mozambique and Zanzibar. After a short presentation of Swahili’s history, codification, and relation to other languages, students are drilled in phonetics and grammar. They are also introduced to some poems, songs, and oral narratives.

Elementary Swahili II
V18.0122  Formerly V11.0202. Prerequisite: V18.0121 or professor’s approval. Offered once a year. 4 points.
Expands on the basic knowledge of the pronunciation, vocabulary, useful expressions, and fundamental grammatical features acquired in Swahili I to allow essential communication skills to develop into conversational ability using simple and familiar situations. Building on the early grasp of the language, students expand the range of conversational ability and understanding of various grammatical concepts associated with this agglutinative language.

Intermediate Swahili I
V18.0123  Formerly V11.0203. Prerequisite: V18.0122 or professor’s approval. Offered once a year. 4 points.
This course builds on the basic knowledge of the pronunciation, vocabulary, useful expressions, and fundamental grammatical features already attained at introduction level to strengthen reading, writing, and conversation skills accessing a wide range of grammatical and literary knowledge of the language, its cultural context, and literary genre. The students are required to familiarize themselves with a novel and a play written in Kiswahili.

Intermediate Swahili II
V18.0124  Formerly V11.0204. Prerequisite: V18.0123 or professor’s approval. Offered once a year. 4 points.
The aim of this course is to enable students to communicate entirely in Kiswahili, to carry out bidirectional translation from Swahili to English and from English to Swahili, and to negotiate technical language. At this level, the students have mastered the intricacies of Kiswahili grammar, acquired a wide range of vocabulary, read Kiswahili fluently, understood Kiswahili poetry, idioms, and proverbs, and used idiomatic Kiswahili in creative writing and translation.

African American 20th-Century Novels and Narratives
V18.0139  Formerly V11.0139. Offered once a year. 4 points.
This seminar covers a historicized selection of black writers who over the latter half of the 20th century have inscribed in literature the cultural, social, and political experiences of African Americans in the United States. We critically explore, discuss, and write about a range of works varying from poetry to the short story and the novel. Our studies focus on the key topics, issues, innovations, and themes that have consistently been important to African American literary production. Some examples are the emancipation impulse, “double consciousness,” the black struggle for human rights, the rise of black women writers, postmodernism, sexual and gender politics, and contemporary expressions of the slavery motif.

The Strange Career of Blackness
V18.0151  Formerly V11.0302. To be given every two or three semesters. 4 points.
This course traces some of the conflicting and controversial perceptions about the significance of blackness as a social signifier in contemporary society. Starting with Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk at the turn of the 20th century, it notes some of the transformations represented by the New Negro movement, the negritude episode of international literature and art, and the revival coming out of the Black Arts movement of the 1960s. The bulk of the course deals with challenges and contradictions in the perception of blackness in the era of “postnationalism,” post–civil rights, postmodernism, and hip hop. These include campaigns to de-essentialize race, discourage blackness as self-segregation, as well as challenges from feminism, biracialism, queer theory, and immigrant psychology reflected in recent books such as The End of Blackness. Several works of poetry, fiction, cinema, and music are explored.

The Black Essay
V18.0152  Formerly V11.0403. Offered once a year. 4 points.
Examines the urban experience and black life and culture in New York through a series of writing assignments on African American neighborhoods, institutions, issues, and culture. Students are required to travel throughout the black community, conduct interviews, and do research for essays on the black experience in the city. They are introduced to the research and reporting techniques of journalism and given the chance to employ these techniques in their papers.

African Political Thought
V18.0160  Formerly V11.0411. Offered once every two years. 4 points.
An introduction to the works of the most significant African political thinkers and statesmen of the postcolonial era. Many prominent African nationalist leaders who came to power in the first decade of independence were also political philosophers imbued with a vision of the political, economic, social, and cultural development of their countries. These African political thinkers are divided into two main schools: (1) the African nationalists primarily concerned with internal African sociopolitical dynamics, and (2) the Pan-Africanists, who focused on external dynamics and constraints.

Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa
V18.0161  Formerly V11.0412. Offered once every two years. 4 points.
An in-depth exploration of the historical, political, social, cultural, and economic forces shaping contemporary African political processes, systems, and institutions. Different theories and approaches to the study of African politics are examined. The rise of African nationalism and the struggle for independence from colonial rule is examined as well as the first decade of independence, characterized by experiments with African Socialism. The period of the early ’70s was characterized by recurrent military coups and the advent of military regimes, followed in the mid-’70s by a surge of military Marxist regimes. Finally the early ’90s saw the development of democracy movements in practically every country on the continent.

International Relations of Africa
V18.0162  Formerly V11.0414. Offered once every two years. 4 points.
An introduction to the economic, political, and strategic dimensions of the external relations of the 54 African states from independence to the present. A historical overview of international actors in Africa and of foreign policies of the African states provides the backdrop for the examination of Africa’s evolving economic, political, and strategic relations with the major world powers during and after the cold war. The course concludes with an assessment of the status and role of Africa in the post–cold war international system.

Language and Liberation: At Home in the Caribbean and Abroad
V18.0163  Formerly V11.0801. Identical to V61.0026. Offered once a year. 4 points.
Explores the linguistic and cultural transformations that took place in the Commonwealth Caribbean from 17th-century slavery and bond-servitude to the present day. The focus is on the extent to which Caribbean people were given or demanded the freedom to create and maintain a postcolonial Caribbean identity. The sociohistorical conditions that led to the creation of new Caribbean languages called “pidgins” and “creoles” as the English language was transplanted from Britain to the Third World are discussed.

20th-Century Black Feminist Thought
V18.0165  Formerly V11.0303. Identical to V57.0679.
This course explores the production and practice of black feminist theory in 20th-century America. We examine the written work and the activism of African American women and look at the way that theory and practice historically intersect around questions of race and gender. Because this is a course on feminism, we also spend a good deal of time interrogating power and thinking about the ways in which systems of oppression both produce and block a black feminist consciousness. While much of our attention is historical, our readings are designed to facilitate a critical conversation about what a black feminist political practice might mean in the 21st century.

Topics in Black Urban Studies
V18.0180  Formerly V11.0300. Offered once a semester. 4 points.
Explores specific issues dealing with the black urban experience, focusing on social and cultural institutions. Possible themes, which vary from semester to semester, include class and poverty, the police, urban development, education, sports, music, and art.

Topics in Pan-Africanism
V18.0181  Formerly V11.0800. Offered once a semester. 4 points.
Deals with specific themes on Pan-Africanism and its impact on the modern world. Possible themes, which vary from semester to semester, include African unity, black rebellion, colonialism and racism, the black diaspora and culture, and relationships between Pan-Africanism and movements such as nationalism, Marxism, and Afrocentricity.

INDEPENDENT STUDY

Independent Study
V18.0197, 0198  Formerly V11.0997, 0998. Prerequisite: permission of the program director. Offered every semester. 1-4 points per term.

RELATED COURSES

The following courses in individual disciplines are open to Africana studies majors and minors. See the departmental sections for course descriptions.

ANTHROPOLOGY

African Literature
V18.0775  Formerly V11.0021. Identical to V14.0020.

Peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa: Culture and International Studies
V18.0776  Formerly V11.0101. Identical to V14.0101.

Peoples of the Caribbean: Culture and International Studies
V18.0777  Formerly V11.0106. Identical to V14.0102.

Transcultural Cinema
V18.0778  Formerly V11.0122. Identical to V14.0122.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

The Postcolonial in African Literature
V18.0779  Formerly V11.0128. Identical to V29.0128.

Topics in Caribbean Literature
V18.0780  Formerly V11.0132. Identical to V29.0132 and V41.0704.

Colonialism and the Rise of Modern African Literature
V18.0781  Formerly V11.0850. Identical to V29.0850.

ECONOMICS

Economics and Society in the Third World: Africa
V18.0782  Formerly V11.0125. Identical to V31.0125.

ENGLISH
18th- and 19th-Century African American Literature
V18.0783  Formerly V11.0250. Identical to V41.0250.

20th-Century African American Literature
V18.0784  Formerly V11.0160. Identical to V41.0251.

African American Drama
V18.0785  Formerly V11.0161. Identical to V41.0255 and V30.0255.

Contemporary African American Fiction
V18.0786  Formerly V11.0162. Identical to V41.0254.

FINE ARTS

Art and Architecture in Sub-Saharan Africa and the South Pacific
V18.0787  Formerly V11.0080. Identical to V43.0080.

HISTORY

Women and Slavery in the Americas
V18.0730  Formerly V97.0660 and V11.0660. Identical to V57.0660. Krauthamer. 4 points.

See description under History (57).

History of African Civilization to the 19th Century
V18.0788  Formerly V11.0055. Identical to V57.0055.

History of African Civilization During the 19th and 20th Centuries
V18.0789  Formerly V11.0056. Identical to V57.0056.

The History of Religions in Africa
V18.0790  Formerly V11.0566. Identical to V57.0566.

History of Contemporary Africa
V18.0791  Formerly V11.0567. Identical to V57.0567. Hull. 4 points.

History of Southern Africa
V18.0792  Formerly V11.0568. Identical to V57.0568.

Seminar: Modernization and Nation-Building in Sub-Saharan Africa
V18.0793  Formerly V11.0585. Identical to V57.0585.

Seminar: History of African Towns and Cities from Medieval to Modern Times
V18.0794  Formerly V11.0598. Identical to V57.0598.

African American History to 1865
V18.0795  Formerly V11.0647. Identical to V57.0647.

African American History Since 1865
V18.0796  Formerly V11.0648. Identical to V57.0648.

Race, Gender, and Sexuality in U.S. History
V18.0729  Formerly V11.0655. Identical to V57.0655.

Seminar: History of African Americans
V18.0797  Formerly V11.0696. Identical to V57.0696.

JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION

Minorities and the Media
V18.0702  Formerly V11.0016 and V97.0016. Identical to V54.0016.

LINGUISTICS

African American Vernacular English: Language and Culture
V18.0799  Formerly V11.0023. Identical to V61.0023.

African American English II
V18.0800  Formerly V11.0046. Identical to V61.0046

MUSIC

African American Music in the United States
V18.0801  Formerly V11.0116. Identical to V71.0016.

POLITICS

The Politics of the Caribbean Nations
V18.0802  Formerly V11.0532. Identical to V53.0532.

SOCIOLOGY

Race and Ethnicity
V18.0803  Formerly V11.0135. Identical to V93.0135.

SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

Literature of the Spanish Caribbean
V18.0804  Formerly V11.0764. Identical to V95.0764.

STEINHARDT SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

American Dilemmas: Race, Inequality and the Unfulfilled Promise of Education
V18.0755  Formerly V99.0041, V11.0041, and V18.0501. Identical to E27.0041.