Upcoming Courses
Fall 2023
Introduction to African American and Diaspora Studies
Course Number: AADS-1010
Instructor: Bridget Hall or Claudine Taafffe
Description:
Foundations of African American culture from ancient African history and through contemporary issues in the African American experience and the larger diaspora. The characteristics, developments, and dynamics of diaspora culture in the Americas, with a particular focus on the United States.
Attributes: AXLE: Perspectives, Eligible for American Studies Major, Eligible for Latino/Latina Studies Major
Comparative Black Male Writers
Course Number: AADS-1404
Instructor: David Ikard
Description:
Diasporic black male fiction and poetry writers. Themes of sexuality and sexual identity, exile, home, violence, color, and class.
Attributes: AXLE: Humanities and the Creative Arts
Capoeria: Afro-Brazilian Race, Culture, and Expression
Course Number: AADS-1706
Instructor: Gilman Whiting
Description:
Origins of an Afro-Brazilian martial art form. Influence on Brazilian and world culture in the areas of religion, dance, and music. Development as a social protest movement. Intersections of race, gender, class, power, and national identity.
Attributes: AXLE: International Cultures
Curating Black Lives: Imagination, Art, and Global Social Change
Course Number:
AADS-1906
Instructor: Claudine Taaffe
Description:
Visual arts, social change, and black social movements. Aesthetics, value, and social impact of art and social change efforts. Role of the arts in shaping collective black identity and historical memory of national and global social movements.
Attributes: AXLE: International Cultures
Memoirs and Biographies
Course Number:
AADS-2654
Instructor: Alice Randall
Description:
Biographies and autobiographies as lenses for the study of historical trends and events; development of gender, sexual, and racial identities in subjects.
Attributes: AXLE: History and Culture of the United States, Eligible for American Studies Major
Atlantic African Slave Trade
Course Number:
AADS-3248
Instructor: Tiffany Patterson
Description:
Cultural, economic, and social aspects of the African slave trade into the Americas from the 16th to 19th centuries. Transformation of the slave trade as a result of abolition and suppression.
Attributes: AXLE: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Literatures of Protest
Course Number:
AADS-3336
Instructor: Alice Randall
Description:
Study of Black protest through various literary and performative genres, novels, opinion-editorials, poetry, sermons, songs, from 18th century onwards. Exploration of the Black Jeremiad tradition in sermons and texts.
Attributes: AXLE: Humanities and the Creative Arts
Independent Study
Course Number:
AADS-3850
Instructor: Claudine Taaffe or David Ikard
Description:
May be repeated for a total of 6 credits, but students may earn only up to 3 credits per semester of enrollment. [1-3; maximum of 6 credits total for all semesters of AADS 3850]
Attributes: None
Medical Apartheid: Race, Gender and Health
Course Number:
AADS-4108
Instructor: Tracy Sharpley-Whiting and Bridget Hall
Description: Slavery and the evolution of the fields of gynecology and obstetrics; enslaved black women's agency. Disparities in maternal health and maternal mortality rates, social determinants of health, structural racism, and risk factors. Scientific racism, consent, and implicit bias.
Attributes: AXLE: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Black Diaspora Women Writers
Course Number:
AADS-4264
Instructor: David Ikard
Description: Comparative fiction by women from Francophone and Anglophone Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. Novels of awakening (bildungsroman), themes of exile, home and alienation, identity as well as sexuality, class and color, slavery and colonialism.
Attributes: AXLE: Humanities and the Creative Arts. Eligible for Gender and Sexuality Studies
Special Topics in Humanities – Hip Hop
Course Number:
AADS-4851
Instructor: Michael E. Dyson and Gilman Whiting
Description: Topics Vary. Literary, philosophical, and cultural texts. May be repeated for credit if there is no duplication in topic.
Attributes: AXLE: Humanities and the Creative Arts
Senior Thesis in African American and Diaspora Studies
Course Number:
AADS-4979
Instructor: Claudine Taaffe
Description: Senior Thesis in African American and Diaspora Studies. Supervised readings and independent research to produce an interdisciplinary research paper; topic to be selected in conjunction with a faculty member of African American and Diaspora Studies. Open only to seniors.
Attributes: None
Senior Honor Thesis
Course Number:
AADS-4999
Instructor: Claudine Taaffe
Description: Supervised readings and independent research for honors thesis under supervision of the adviser and another faculty member. Open only to seniors in the Honors Program.
Attributes: None