Teaching

(African and African American Studies)

In this course, we examine African and African American Studies (Black Studies) as a legitimate area of scholarly inquiry and enterprise within the academy. In addition to exploring the development of the field and its significance, we consider some of the theoretical and philosophical perspectives that contribute to the field and the shared and nuanced ways that people of African descent have used their agency to bring about social change. We examine the ways in which race, gender, class, and sexuality inform the discipline and some of the sociopolitical issues that continue to dominate the field. Beyond traditional scholarly literature and independent research, we use popular culture, visual culture, and material culture to enhance our understanding of the African diaspora.

(African and African American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies) 

This introductory course explores the interlocking forms of oppression circumscribing Black women’s lives in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the ways in which their lived experiences and social realities are influenced by constructions of race, gender, class, sexuality, and other markers of difference. It contextualizes Black women’s struggles for social equality historically within the broader narratives of the Black freedom struggle and the Women’s Rights movement.  It investigates the ways in which despite their marginalized status, Black women have used their agency within both the private and public realms to interrogate, challenge, and resist their subordination and subvert the status quo, particularly as it is reinforced in the stereotypical and negative constructions of Black female identity and blackness more broadly. Reflecting an interdisciplinary approach, this course uses critical texts, films, and personal narratives to better understand the multidimensionality of Black womanhood.

(American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies)

This interdisciplinary course explores constructions of Black masculinity in the United States from the age of slavery through the present. As a result of actively participating in the course through meaningful dialogue, serious engagement with the readings, and independent preparation, students should be able to investigatethe historical and contemporary representations of Black manhood in the media, popular culture, print culture, and visual culture; engagein constructive and continuous dialogue about the way(s) in which representations of Black men have shifted and/or remained consistent in American culture and society; examine political, economic, social, and cultural factors that influence definitions of Black masculinity; and demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between mainstream perceptions of Black men and the realities that Black men experience in their daily lives.

(American Studies)

In this course, we examine representations of Africa from the perspectives of African writers. More specifically, we consider historical depictions of Africa as a metaphor for exoticism, sexuality, and savagery in Western discourse and as an imagined site of seemingly unsolvable problems in the contemporary world.  As a result of actively participating in the course through serious engagement with the readings, meaningful dialogue, and independent preparation, students should be able to analyze the different ways in which the continent of Africa and Africans have been depicted in the fiction of African writers; demonstrate an awareness of how the literature produced by African writers challenges and/or reinforces some of the dominant perceptions of Africa and the cultures and traditions of African people; acknowledge the ways in which Africans have responded to the dominant narrative that represents the West as superior and Africa as inferior; and explore what it means to reimagine Africa and its various cultures and people in ways that generate new insights and a deeper understanding of the cultural, political, economic, raced, and gendered complexities that inform the experiences of continental Africans and Africans across the diaspora.

(American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies)

In Talking Back:  Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, scholar-activist bell hooks describes “coming to voice” as the act of speaking and being heard.  In their literary texts, Black women writers routinely participate in this process by representing the lives of women in complicated and nuanced ways that challenge dominant constructions of Black female identity.  For Black women, the struggle to articulate an unmediated voice remains a critical part of defining and affirming their multiple identities. In this course, we will explore the literary contributions of 20th century African American women fiction writers using Black feminist literary theory as a lens.  More specifically, we will examine the shared and distinctive ways in which Black women writers represent the politics of Black womanhood in their short stories.  This genre is an essential part of the Black women’s literary tradition that is often left unexplored. Collectively, these texts contribute to a radical tradition that implores readers to consider the way(s) in which race, gender, class, sexuality, and/or other markers of difference inform the fictional lives of Black women and the lives of the writers.

(American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies)

This upper level course explores the literary and nonliterary writings of Toni Morrison and some of the literary criticism that surrounds her work. As a result of actively participating in the course through meaningful dialogue, serious engagement with the readings, and independent preparation, students should be able to examine Morrison’s treatment of race, gender, class, sexuality, (dis)ability, social mobility, power, and privilege in her novels, critical essays, interviews, and speeches; engage in fruitful and continuous dialogue about Morrison as an acclaimed American writer, public intellectual, cultural critic, and unapologetically Black woman; demonstrate a growing awareness of the social, political, and cultural contexts that inform Morrison’s writing and, more broadly, the Black literary tradition; and analyze the way(s) in which Morrison’s complex constructions of Black identity challenge and subvert mainstream notions of blackness as monolithic and marginal.

(Women’s and Gender Studies) 

This course examines the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in the lives of women of color globally and traces how identity politics and (Black) feminist ideology inform resistance to racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and other types of inequality that undermine justice.

PREVIOUS OFFERINGS

—Hamilton College, University of Houston, Dickinson College, and Purdue University

(Africana Studies—Hamilton )

In this course, we critique representations of blackness in American popular culture. Readings and films serve as a point of departure for questioning what constitutes popular culture and considering its impacts. Using an interdisciplinary lens that takes into account social, political, cultural, and historical realities, we interrogate how representations of blackness circulate and assess how they affect individuals and the larger society. This course is organized thematically, covering popular culture in a variety of contexts from print media to visual arts. 

(Africana Studies—Hamilton ) 

In this course, we study theoretical and methodological approaches in Africana Studies.  Through readings, films, and presentations, we investigate the importance of analysis in Africana Studies and gain an understanding of, and appreciation for, the multidisciplinary nature of the field and the traditional and non-traditional approaches to producing knowledge in this subject area.  This course relies on various interpretive frameworks and approaches to understanding Africana Studies.  Students are challenged to think critically about how knowledge is produced and the sociopolitical consequences of knowledge production for people of African descent and other marginalized group identities. 

(Africana Studies—Hamilton) 

President Lincoln observed, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” In this analysis, Lincoln views freedom as essential to sustaining American culture and life. Yet, in the 21st  century, there are increasing challenges to political, religious, and academic freedom.  This course is a broad, interdisciplinary exploration of the concept of freedom in the United States.  Ultimately, it reveals the ways in which our understanding of freedom—what it represents and what it requires—continues to evolve. 

(African American Studies—University of Houston) 

An introductory analysis of the discipline of African American/Africana Studies, its mission, key theories and major concerns. Source:  Undergraduate Catalog. 

(Africana Studies—Dickinson ) 

This course explores the history and culture of people of African descent throughout the African diaspora. We begin our exploration by focusing upon the development of the field of Africana Studies. In addition to gaining a clearer understanding of the significance of the field, we consider the experiences of Black people within the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean in order to glean a clearer sense of the historical, cultural, political, economic, and social realities that have informed their lives. 

(Africana Studies—Dickinson)

This is an upper division course designed to enhance students’ knowledge of Black women’s activism during the twentieth century.  Relying upon the perspectives expressed by Black women in their writings as a primary lens, we investigate some of the primary struggles for social justice waged by African and African American women activists.  Along with a sustained emphasis on Black women’s perspectives as articulated in their writings, we consider some of the different dimensions of Black women’s resistance along with relevant scholarship. 

(Africana Studies—Dickinson) 

In this course, we explore the life writings of African Americans from the 19th century through the 20th century.  We begin with Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and we conclude with reflections from Bearing Witness:  Selections from African-American Autobiography in the Twentieth Century.  Using the perspectives of African Americans such as W. E. B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Margaret Walker, Claude Brown, Maya Angelou, and Amiri Baraka as points of departure, we consider the complexities of Black identity and the ways in which Africans Americans have negotiated their experiences within American society.  Beyond comparatively analyzing the texts, we consider the ways in which these writings trouble the notion of an essential Black identity and foster a deeper understanding of blackness and its relationship to American identity and by extension the American experience.

(Africana Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and English—Dickinson)

In this course, we explore the literary contributions of 20th century African American women fiction writers as they come to voice.  More specifically, we will examine the shared and distinctive ways in which Black women writers represent the politics of Black womanhood in their writings.  The questions guiding our investigation include:  In what way(s) does race, gender, class, and/or sexuality inform the fictional lives of Black women, and to what extent do these categories inform the lives of the writers?  In addition to analyzing representations of Black female identity within the works of Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Petry, Toni Cade Bambara, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, J. California Cooper, and others, we will trace specific themes such as power, privilege, and perspective. 

(English-Purdue)

Students in this course study and practice writing as a process while learning the conventions of the college essay. They spend some time learning to do library research and writing a short, research-based paper.  English 102 follows English 101 in most programs. Admission is dependent on satisfactory completion of English 101 or an equivalent course at another institution. This course focuses on critical reading and thinking, argumentation, and research. Students who earned an A in English 101 may substitute another English course for English 102, if their program permits.  Source:  Purdue North Central

(African American Studies & Research Center—Purdue) 

In this course, students explore the history and culture of people of African descent in the United States and throughout the African diaspora.  Topics for study include the development of African American Studies as a discipline, historical moments that marked the Black experience, cultural practices in the African diaspora, and contemporary issues affecting African Americans.

• “Lifting as We Climb:”  Black Women’s Legacy of Struggle in the US
• Lives that Matter: Exploring the Origins, Development, and Trajectory of the Black Lives Matter Movement
• James Baldwin, What Moves at the Margin:  Women Writers of Color in the US Writing the African Diaspora