2022-2023 Academic Year

Fall 2022

AMST 200 Arts of the African Diaspora
Cross-listed with AFST 220-02 and ARTH 205-01.This course will provide a survey of the artistic production of visual artists of the African diaspora. The course is structured thematically, concentrating on how race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality have shaped the work of visual artists who reside in the US, Europe, and the Caribbean. Specifically, the course will situate works of art, visual practices, and artistic styles within their social, political, historical, and cultural contexts and significance. Areas of exploration will include figurative, representational, conceptual, and abstract art that focus on the body, racial and gender expression and representation, and portraiture and self-representation. Artists such as Edmonia Lewis, James Van der Zee, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lorna Simpson, David Hammons, Carrie Mae Weems, Kara Walker, Fred Wilson, Félix González-Torres, Ana Mendieta, and Ebony Patterson, among others, will be discussed.

AMST 201 Intro to American Studies
Introduces students to basic theories and methods used for the interdisciplinary analysis of United States and hemispheric cultural materials and to the multiplicity of texts used for cultural analysis (mass media, music, film, fiction and memoir, sports, advertising, and popular rituals and practices). Particular attention is paid to the interplay between systems of representation and social, political, and economic institutions, and to the production, dissemination, and reception of cultural materials. Students will explore the shaping power of culture as well as the possibilities of human agency.

ARTH 205 Arts of the African Diaspora
Cross-listed with AFST 220-02 and AMST 200-01.This course will provide a survey of the artistic production of visual artists of the African diaspora. The course is structured thematically, concentrating on how race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality have shaped the work of visual artists who reside in the US, Europe, and the Caribbean. Specifically, the course will situate works of art, visual practices, and artistic styles within their social, political, historical, and cultural contexts and significance. Areas of exploration will include figurative, representational, conceptual, and abstract art that focus on the body, racial and gender expression and representation, and portraiture and self-representation. Artists such as Edmonia Lewis, James Van der Zee, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lorna Simpson, David Hammons, Carrie Mae Weems, Kara Walker, Fred Wilson, Félix González-Torres, Ana Mendieta, and Ebony Patterson, among others, will be discussed.

AFST 220 Arts of the African Diaspora
Cross-listed with AMST 200-01 and ARTH 205-01.This course will provide a survey of the artistic production of visual artists of the African diaspora. The course is structured thematically, concentrating on how race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality have shaped the work of visual artists who reside in the US, Europe, and the Caribbean. Specifically, the course will situate works of art, visual practices, and artistic styles within their social, political, historical, and cultural contexts and significance. Areas of exploration will include figurative, representational, conceptual, and abstract art that focus on the body, racial and gender expression and representation, and portraiture and self-representation. Artists such as Edmonia Lewis, James Van der Zee, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lorna Simpson, David Hammons, Carrie Mae Weems, Kara Walker, Fred Wilson, Félix González-Torres, Ana Mendieta, and Ebony Patterson, among others, will be discussed.

Spring 2023

AMST 200 Black Feminist Thoughts
Cross-listed with AFST 320-04, LALC 200-01 and WGSS 202-02. This course provides perspectives on the development and materialization of Black feminist thoughts within historical, social, political, and cultural contexts. Interdisciplinary in focus, it surveys feminist politics and theories through films, popular culture, manifestoes, literary texts, and theoretical and historical essays. It offers an interdisciplinary survey of African-American and other African descendant women's contributions to feminist theory as a heterogeneous field of knowledge encompassing multiple streams of gender- and race-cognizant articulation and praxis. This course will pair primary texts authored by black women with secondary texts produced by black feminist scholars; these critiques will illustrate the myriad ways black feminists engage with and seek to transform representations of black female experience. During the course, we will identify and characterize the major issues that black feminists address as well as the various contemporary forms of resistance to social structures. In addition, the course will explore the diversity and ambiguity of various black feminisms through a number of frames, such as gender theory, critical race theory, queer theory, and reproductive rights and practices. Caribbean, Afro-Latina, and Black British feminisms are also included as we map feminist consciousness and practice across the African Diaspora.

LALC 200 Black Feminist Thoughts
Cross-listed with AFST 320-04, AMST 200-02 and WGSS 202-02. This course provides perspectives on the development and materialization of Black feminist thoughts within historical, social, political, and cultural contexts. Interdisciplinary in focus, it surveys feminist politics and theories through films, popular culture, manifestoes, literary texts, and theoretical and historical essays. It offers an interdisciplinary survey of African-American and other African descendant women's contributions to feminist theory as a heterogeneous field of knowledge encompassing multiple streams of gender- and race-cognizant articulation and praxis. This course will pair primary texts authored by black women with secondary texts produced by black feminist scholars; these critiques will illustrate the myriad ways black feminists engage with and seek to transform representations of black female experience. During the course, we will identify and characterize the major issues that black feminists address as well as the various contemporary forms of resistance to social structures. In addition, the course will explore the diversity and ambiguity of various black feminisms through a number of frames, such as gender theory, critical race theory, queer theory, and reproductive rights and practices. Caribbean, Afro-Latina, and Black British feminisms are also included as we map feminist consciousness and practice across the African Diaspora.

AMST 201 Intro to American Studies
Introduces students to basic theories and methods used for the interdisciplinary analysis of United States and hemispheric cultural materials and to the multiplicity of texts used for cultural analysis (mass media, music, film, fiction and memoir, sports, advertising, and popular rituals and practices). Particular attention is paid to the interplay between systems of representation and social, political, and economic institutions, and to the production, dissemination, and reception of cultural materials. Students will explore the shaping power of culture as well as the possibilities of human agency.

WGSS 202 Black Feminist Thoughts
Cross-listed with AFST 320-04, AMST 200-02 and LALC 200-01. This course provides perspectives on the development and materialization of Black feminist thoughts within historical, social, political, and cultural contexts. Interdisciplinary in focus, it surveys feminist politics and theories through films, popular culture, manifestoes, literary texts, and theoretical and historical essays. It offers an interdisciplinary survey of African-American and other African descendant women's contributions to feminist theory as a heterogeneous field of knowledge encompassing multiple streams of gender- and race-cognizant articulation and praxis. This course will pair primary texts authored by black women with secondary texts produced by black feminist scholars; these critiques will illustrate the myriad ways black feminists engage with and seek to transform representations of black female experience. During the course, we will identify and characterize the major issues that black feminists address as well as the various contemporary forms of resistance to social structures. In addition, the course will explore the diversity and ambiguity of various black feminisms through a number of frames, such as gender theory, critical race theory, queer theory, and reproductive rights and practices. Caribbean, Afro-Latina, and Black British feminisms are also included as we map feminist consciousness and practice across the African Diaspora.

AFST 320 Black Feminist Thoughts
Cross-listed with AMST 200-02, LALC 200-01 and WGSS 202-02. This course provides perspectives on the development and materialization of Black feminist thoughts within historical, social, political, and cultural contexts. Interdisciplinary in focus, it surveys feminist politics and theories through films, popular culture, manifestoes, literary texts, and theoretical and historical essays. It offers an interdisciplinary survey of African-American and other African descendant women's contributions to feminist theory as a heterogeneous field of knowledge encompassing multiple streams of gender- and race-cognizant articulation and praxis. This course will pair primary texts authored by black women with secondary texts produced by black feminist scholars; these critiques will illustrate the myriad ways black feminists engage with and seek to transform representations of black female experience. During the course, we will identify and characterize the major issues that black feminists address as well as the various contemporary forms of resistance to social structures. In addition, the course will explore the diversity and ambiguity of various black feminisms through a number of frames, such as gender theory, critical race theory, queer theory, and reproductive rights and practices. Caribbean, Afro-Latina, and Black British feminisms are also included as we map feminist consciousness and practice across the African Diaspora.