Catalog

Academics > Catalog > 2004-2006 (with 2005 addenda) > Courses of Instruction > AAS

African American Studies

African American studies is an interdisciplinary program designed to enrich knowledge of the experience of African Americans from the past to the present, both within and beyond the United States. Attention is given to "race" as a critical tool of analysis for explaining the allocation of economic resources, the formation of personal and group identity, and the changing nature of political behavior. Study of African American experiences provides insight into secular cultural practices, intellectual traditions, religious doctrines and practices, and social institutions with attention to issues of class, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

The chair of African American studies provides a list of courses offered each year. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program, students should 1) consult regularly with the chair or a faculty advisor in African American studies to ensure that their program has both breadth and depth and 2) devise programs of study approved by the chair or a faculty advisor by the fall semester of the junior year.

Thesis advisors should be chosen by each student, in consultation with the chair, according to the subject matter of the thesis.

More information on the African American studies program is available on the Web site (www.bates.edu/AAS.xml).

Cross-listed Courses

Note that unless otherwise specified, when a department/program references a course or unit in the department/program, it includes courses and units cross-listed with the department/program.

Major Requirements

Students must complete eleven courses and a thesis. Required courses for the major include Introduction to African American Studies (African American Studies 140A), Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry (Interdisciplinary Studies 250), a junior-senior seminar, at least one course that has an experiential component, and a senior thesis (African American Studies 457 and/or 458). Majors must also take at least one course that emphasizes feminist histories and analyses and one that focuses on black diasporic life outside the United States. In addition, students are expected to develop, in consultation with their advisor, a disciplinary or thematic concentration of courses drawn from other departments and programs. Possible areas of concentration may be in literature or the arts (music, theater, dance, fine art), film studies, environmental studies, gender studies, political science, public policy, anthropology, economics, education, sociology, psychology, history, philosophy, race and science, or may focus on a particular world region (e.g., the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America). To fulfill these requirements courses may be chosen, with the guidance of a faculty advisor and the approval of the chair, from African American studies or from the list of approved electives that follows the course descriptions.

Secondary Concentration

A secondary concentration in African American studies allows students to develop a basic foundation in the field and to complement the perspective and modes of analysis offered in their major area of study. The program has established the following requirements for a secondary concentration in African American studies:

1) AAS 140A. Introduction to African American Studies.
2) AA/WS 201. African American Women and Feminist Thought.
3) AA/HI 243. African American History.
4) Three additional courses, of which one should focus on black diasporic life outside the United States, and one should be at the 300 level.

Pass/Fail Grading Option

There are no restrictions on the use of the pass/fail option within the major.

Courses

AA/AC 119. Cultural Politics.

This course examines the relationship of culture to politics. It introduces the study of struggles to acquire, maintain, or resist power and gives particular attention to the role culture plays in reproducing and contesting social divisions of class, race, gender, and sexuality. Lectures and discussion incorporate film, music, and fiction in order to evaluate the connection between cultural practices and politics. Not open to students who have received credit for Political Science 119. Normally offered every year. J. McClendon.

AA/EN 121X. Music and Metaphor: The Sounds in African American Literature.

While African American musical traditions command attention on stages across the world, they have a unique home in African American literature. This course explores folk, sacred, blues, jazz, and hip hop music as aesthetic and sociopolitical resources for African American authors. Course texts may include poetry, drama, fiction, criticism, and theory. Authors include Sterling Plumpp, Toni Morrison, Jayne Cortez, Albert Murray, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Larry Neal, and Ralph Ellison. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 121X, English 121X, or First-Year Seminar 287. Enrollment limited to 25. Offered with varying frequency. K. Ruffin.

AAS 140A. Introduction to African American Studies.

This course examines African American history and culture through four themes: fragmentation, exclusion, resistance, and community. Particular attention is given to the diversity of cultures in the African diaspora in the Americas. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every year. S. Houchins, C. Nero.

AA/RH 162. White Redemption: Cinema and the Co-optation of African American History.

Since its origins in the early twentieth century, film has debated how to represent black suffering. This course examines one aspect of that debate: the persistent themes of white goodness, innocence, and blamelessness in films that are allegedly about black history and culture. Historical and cultural topics examined in film include the enslavement of Africans, Reconstruction, and the civil rights movement. Particular attention is given to films in the interracial male-buddy genre. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 160 or Rhetoric 160. Normally offered every year. C. Nero.

INDS 165. African American Philosophers.

This course focuses on how African American philosophers confront and address philosophical problems. Students consider the relationship between the black experience and traditional themes in Western philosophy. Attention is also given to the motivations and context sustaining African American philosophers. Recommended background: African American Studies 140A or African American Studies/American Cultural Studies 119. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and philosophy. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 165. Enrollment limited to 40. Offered with varying frequency. J. McClendon.

AA/WS 201. African American Women and Feminist Thought.

African American history, like European American history, omits the struggles and contributions of its women. Using historical perspectives, the individual and collective experiences of African American women are examined. Particular attention is given to developing knowledge and understanding of African American women's 1) experiences of enslavement, 2) efforts at self-definition and self-sufficiency, 3) social and political activism, and 4) forging of Afra-American/multicultural/womanist/feminist thought. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 201 or Women's Studies 201. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Normally offered every year. S. Houchins.

AA/EN 212. Black Lesbian and Gay Literatures.

This course examines black lesbian and gay literatures in English from Africa, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Students are introduced to critical and historical approaches for analyzing literature about black queer sensibilities. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. C. Nero.

INDS 215. African American Culture through Sports.

Sports in African American life have served in a variety of ways to offer a means for social, economic, cultural, and even political advancement. This unit examines how sports have historically formed and contemporaneously shape the contours of African American culture. Particular attention is given to such questions as the ethical dimension of segregation, the locus of gender equity, cultural imgages, and their political effects for African American athletes and the African American community. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies and philosophy.New course beginning Winter 2005. Not open to students who have received credit for Interdisciplinary Studies s18. Enrollment limited to 30. Offered with varying frequency. J. McClendon.

INDS 218. Afroambiente: Writing A Black Environment.

This course studies the response of Black writers and intellectuals of the Spanish-speaking world to issues related to the natural environment. In three countries, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, and Equatorial Guinea, modernity has brought serious challenges to notions of economic progress, human rights, national sovereignty, as well as individual and communal identity. Course materials include written texts from local newspapers, magazines, as well as other sources of information, such as internet sites that discuss issues related to the environment and the arts. Recommended background: Spanish 207 or 208. Cross-listed in African American studies, environmental studies, and Spanish. Conducted in Spanish.New course beginning Fall 2005. Not open to students who have received credit for Interdisciplinary Studies s21. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. B. Fra-Molinero.

AA/EN 223. Survey of Literature of the Caribbean.

This course examines the literatures of the African diaspora in the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora in Canada, the United States, Great Britain, and France. Some texts are drawn from Anglophone authors such as Lamming, Anthony, Walcott, Brodber, Danticat, Lovelace, Brathwaite, and Denis Williams; others, from Francophone and Hispanophone writers, including Guillen, Carpentier, Condé, Chamoiseau, Depestre, Ferré, and Morejón. The course places each work in its historical, political, and anthropological contexts. Students are introduced to a number of critical theories and methodologies with which to analyze the works, including poststructuralist, Marxist, pan-African, postcolonial, and feminist. Prerequisite(s): one of the following: African American Studies 140, 162, 212, African American Studies/English 121X, Anthropology 155, 228, 234, 251, English 250, 292, 294 or 295.New course beginning Winter 2006. Normally offered every other year. S. Houchins.

AA/TH 225. The Grain of the Black Image.

A study of the African American figure as represented in images from theater, movies, and television. Using the metaphor of "the grain" reduced by Roland Barthes and Regis Durand to "the articulation of the body...not that of language," this course explores issues of progress, freedom, and improvement, as well as content versus discontent. Students read critical literature and the major classic plays by Hansberry, Baraka, Elder, and others, and view recent movies and television shows. Not open to students who have received credit for Theater 225. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. W. Pope.L.

AA/TH 226. Minority Images in Hollywood Film.

African American scholar Carolyn F. Gerald has remarked, "Image means self-concept and whoever is in control of our image has the power to shape our reality." This course investigates the ideological, social, and theoretical issues important in the representation of racial and ethnic minorities in American film from the Depression to the civil rights movement. It examines the genres, stereotypes, and gender formations associated with film images of Native Americans, Asian Americans, and African Americans. Not open to students who have received credit for Theater 226. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. W. Pope.L.

INDS 235. The Politics of Pleasure and Desire: Women's Independent and Third Cinema and Video from the African Diaspora.

This course examines independent and Third cinema, and some written texts by women of African descent using contemporary theories of female pleasure and desire. By viewing and reading these cultural productions drawn from "high" and "low" culture in the light of a variety of film theories (i.e., feminist, womanist/black feminist, postcolonial, diasporic) as well as race-critical, feminist, and cultural theories, students explore the "textual" strategies that construct black female representations, and Afra-diasporic authors/directors and audiences as subjects and as agents of political change. Recommended background: any of the following: African American Studies 140A, African American Studies/Theater 225, African American Studies/Women and Gender Studies 201, Theater 102 or 110. Cross-listed in African American studies, rhetoric, and women and gender studies. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every other year. S. Houchins.

INDS 236. The Literatures of Women of the African Diaspora.

This course focuses primarily on the literatures of black women from Africa, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, and Canada, but may examine some works from the United States. All of the texts are in English; some are from the Anglophone diaspora and others are translations from the Lusophone, Hispanophone, and Francophone black world. Students are introduced to historical, feminist, Pan-African, Marxist, and postcolonial critical approaches to analyze this richly diverse yet culturally and politically related body of work. Topics include slavery and migrations, the socioeconomic contexts of prolonged exile from the African continent, liberation struggles on the continent and in the diaspora, as well as the roles of women in these movements. Recommended background: any of the following: African American Studies 140A, African American Studies/Women and Gender Studies 201, African American Studies/Anthropology 251, African American Studies/English 253, Anthropology 228, or Political Science 235. Cross-listed in African American studies, English, and women and gender studies. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. Normally offered every year. S. Houchins.

INDS 239. Black Women in Music.

Angela Davis states, "Black people were able to create with their music an aesthetic community of resistance, which in turn encouraged and nurtured a political community of active struggle for freedom." This course examines the role of black women as critics, composers, and performers who challenge externally defined controlling images. Topics include: black women in the music industry; black women in music of the African diaspora; and black women as rappers, jazz innovators, and musicians in the classical and gospel traditions. Cross-listed in African American studies, music, and women and gender studies. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 239, Music 239, or Women's Studies 239. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. Normally offered every other year. Staff.

INDS 240. Theory and Method in African American Studies.

This course addresses the relationship between political culture and cultural politics within African American studies. Particular attention is paid to the contending theories of cultural criticism. Cornel West, Molefi Asante, Patricia Hill Collins, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Maramba Ani, and Henry Louis Gates Jr. are some of the theorists under review. Recommended background: African American Studies/American Cultural Studies 119 or significant work in political science, American cultural studies, or African American studies. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and philosophy. Not open to students who have received credit for American Cultural Studies 240 or Political Science 240. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 50. Offered with varying frequency. J. McClendon.

AA/HI 243. African American History.

Blacks in this country have been described as both "omni-Americans" and a distinctive cultural "nation within a nation." The course explores this apparent paradox using primary and interpretive sources, including oral and written biography, music, fiction, and social history. It examines key issues, recurrent themes, conflicting strategies, and influential personalities in African Americans' quest for freedom and security. It surveys black American history from seventeenth-century African roots to current problems that remain in building an egalitarian, multiracial society for the future. Recommended background: History 140, 141, or 142. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every other year. H. Jensen.

AA/MU 249. African American Popular Music.

When Americans stared at their black-and-white television sets in the early 1950s, they saw only a white world. Variety shows primarily spotlighted the talent of white performers. Change came slowly, and during the late 1950s American Bandstand introduced viewers to African American artists. Over the last two decades, however, the emergence of music videos has created the need for a critical and scholarly understanding of the emerging forces of African American music. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 249 or Music 249. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every other year. Staff.

INDS 250. Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry.

Interdisciplinarity involves more than a meeting of disciplines. Practitioners stretch methodological norms and reach across disciplinary boundaries. Through examination of a single topic, this course introduces students to interdisciplinary methods of analysis. Students examine what practitioners actually do and work to become practitioners themselves. Prerequisite(s): African American Studies 140A or Women and Gender Studies 100, and one other course in African American studies, American cultural studies, or women and gender studies. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and women and gender studies. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 250, American Cultural Studies 250, or Women's Studies 250. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every year. R. Herzig.

AA/AN 251. History, Agency, and Representation in the Making of the Caribbean.

One anthropologist writing about the Caribbean asserts: "Nowhere else in the universe can one look with such certainty into the past and discern the outlines of an undisclosed future." Caribbean social systems bore the full impact of Western imperial expansion yet have adjusted to it in resilient and creative ways. The course surveys and interprets aspects of Caribbean life, and the ways in which they have been represented, drawing on a variety of sources—historical, ethnographic, literary, and visual. Not open to students who have received credit for Anthropology 250. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 20. Normally offered every year. C. Carnegie.

AA/DN 252. History of Twentieth-Century Modern Dance II.

This course focuses on current dance works and some of the issues that inform dance practices today. Discussions center on the ways in which choreographers, performers, and societies confront issues of political climate, cultural diversity, entertainment, globalization, and the politicized human body in dance. Not open to students who have received credit for Dance 252 or Theater 252. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every other year. C. Dilley, M. Plavin.

AA/EN 253. The African American Novel.

An examination of the African American novel from its beginnings in the mid-1800s to the present. Issues addressed include a consideration of folk influences on the genre, its roots in the slave narrative tradition, its relation to Euro-American texts and culture, and the "difference" that gender as well as race makes in determining narrative form. Readings include narratives selected from among the works of such writers as Douglass, Jacobs, Wilson, Delany, Hopkins, Harper, Chesnutt, Johnson, Toomer, Larsen, Hurston, Wright, Petry, Ellison, Baldwin, Walker, Morrison, Marshall, Reed, and others. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Not open to students who have received credit for English 250. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. Offered with varying frequency. K. Ruffin.

INDS 262. Ethnomusicology: African Diaspora.

This introductory course is a survey of key concepts, problems, and perspectives in ethnomusicological theory drawing upon the African diaspora as a cross-cultural framework. This course focuses on the social, political, and intellectual forces of African culture that contributed to the growth of ethnomusicology from the late nineteenth century to the present. Cross-listed in African American studies, anthropology, and music. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 262, Anthropology 262, or Music 262. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. Normally offered every other year. Staff.

AA/WS 266. Gender, Race, and Science.

Examines the intersections of gender and race in the norms and practices of modern science. Using methods drawn from philosophy, history, sociology, and anthropology, the course investigates: 1) participation in the sciences by white women and people of color; 2) the formation of scientific concepts of racial and sexual difference; and 3) the influence of gender and race on key scientific categories such as nature, objectivity, and experimentation. Not open to students who have received credit for Women's Studies 266. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every other year. R. Herzig.

AA/EN 268. Survey of Literatures of Africa.

This course explores folklore, myths, and literary texts of the African continent. These include works written by Anglophone authors such as Achebe, Soyinka, Ngugi, Vera, Njau, Nwapa, and Head; those drawn from oral traditions of indigenous languages transcribed into English, such as The Mwindo Epic and The Sundiata; and those written by Lusophone and Francophone authors including Bâ, Senghor, Liking, Neto, Mahfouz, and Kafunkeno. The course contextualizes each work historically, politically, and anthropologically. Students are introduced to a number of critical theories and methodologies with which to analyze the works, such as poststructural, Marxist, Pan-African, postcolonial, and feminist. Prerequisite(s): one of the following: African American Studies 140A, African American Studies/English 212X, 212, African American Studies/Rhetoric 162, Anthropology 155, 228, English 250, 292, 294, or 295.New course beginning Winter 2005. Normally offered every other year. S. Houchins.

INDS 291. Exhibiting Cultures.

This course examines the politics of exhibiting cultures. Each week students analyze specific exhibitions of cultural artifacts, visual culture, and the cultural body as a means to evaluate the larger issues surrounding such displays. These include issues of race, colonialism, postcolonialism, and curatorial authority in relation to the politics of exhibiting cultures. A field trip to analyze an exhibition is a critical part of the students' experience in the course. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and art and visual culture. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

INDS 325. Black Feminist Literary Theory and Practice.

This seminar examines literary theories that address the representation and construction of race, gender, and sexuality, particularly, but not exclusively, theories formulated and articulated by Afra-diasporic women such as Spillers, Ogunyemi, Henderson, Valerie Smith, McDowell, Busia, Lubiano, and Davies. Students not only analyze theoretical essays, but they use the theories as lenses through which to explore literary productions of women writers of Africa and the African diaspora in Europe and in the Americas, including Philip, Dangarembga, Morrison, Herron, Gayle Jones, Head, Condé, Brodber, Brand, Merle Collins, and Harriet Wilson. Prerequisite(s): African American Studies 140, 235, African American Studies/English 121X, 212, African American Studies/Women and Gender Studies 201, English 250, 294, 295, English/Women and Gender Studies 121G. Cross-listed in African American studies, English, and women and gender studies.New course beginning Winter 2006. Enrollment limited to 15. Normally offered every other year. S. Houchins.

INDS 339. Africana Thought and Practice.

This seminar examines in depth a broad range of black thought. Students consider the various philosophical problems and the theoretical issues and practical solutions offered by such scholar/activists as W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Claudia Jones, C. L. R. James, Leopold Senghor, Amilcar Cabrah, Charlotta Bass, Lucy Parsons, Walter Rodney, and Frantz Fanon. Recommended background: a course on the Africana world, or a course in philosophy or political theory. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and philosophy. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. J. McClendon.

AAS 360. Independent Study.

Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Normally offered every semester. Staff.

AAS 389. African American Anti-Imperialism (1900-1955).

This seminar addresses African American political interventions and debates against European and U.S. colonialism and imperialism during the first half of the twentieth century. Students focus on the U.S. occupation of Haiti in 1915, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the Spanish Civil War, the Indo-Chinese war of independence against France, and the parallel development of the U.S. civil rights movement and African American support for African independence movements. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level course in African American studies. Offered with varying frequency. B. Fra-Molinero.

AA/HI 390E. African Slavery in the Americas.

Of the millions of immigrants who arrived in North and South America during the colonial period, the majority came not from Europe but from Africa. They came not for freedom but as human property, facing a lifetime of bondage for themselves and their offspring. Far from being the "peculiar institution" that whites in the U.S. South called it, slavery existed throughout the Americas before its abolition in the nineteenth century. By reading contemporary scholarship and examining such primary sources as music, letters, autobiographies, and material artifacts, students gain a sense of the ways Africans and African Americans survived and influenced an institution that sought to deny their humanity. Enrollment limited to 15. Normally offered every other year. J. Hall.

AA/RH 391C. The Harlem Renaissance.

This course examines the New Negro Movement and the extraordinary creativity in the arts and in other aspects of intellectual life by African Americans in the 1920s and 1930s. Although this cultural phenomenon was national in scope, most scholars agree that New York City, and Harlem in particular, was its epicenter. Topics include racial, gender, and cultural identities in literature, theater, the performing and visual arts; the formation of black queer culture; and the role in promoting the arts by political organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Prerequisite(s): one of the following: English 250, Rhetoric 275, or History 243. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies 390A. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. C. Nero.

AA/EN 395Z. African American Literature and the Bible.

The Bible is unmatched in its influence on African American literary and cultural traditions. No other book has inspired such a broad scope of oral and written work. From explorations of the Exodus narrative to the Gospel writers' parables of Jesus, this course examines the way Hebrew and Christian biblical texts have inspired African American artists. Beginning with oral traditions such as spirituals and sermons, students then consider the Bible's role in scribal literacy and political discourse, and conclude with its impact on contemporary writers. Students combine interpretation of biblical texts and course readings with literary/cultural theory and criticism. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English or African American studies course. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. K. Ruffin.

AAS 457. Senior Thesis.

The research and writing of an extended essay or report, or the completion of a creative project, under the supervision of a faculty member. Students register for African American Studies 457 in the fall semester and for African American Studies 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both African American Studies 457 and 458. Normally offered every year. Staff.

AAS 457, 458. Senior Thesis.

AAS 458. Senior Thesis.

The research and writing of an extended essay or report, or the completion of a creative project, under the supervision of a faculty member. Students register for African American Studies 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both African American Studies 457 and 458. Normally offered every year. Staff.

Short Term Courses

INDS s18. African American Culture through Sports.

Sports in African American life have served in a variety of ways to offer a means for social, economic, cultural, and even political advancement. This unit examines how sports have historically formed and contemporaneously shape the contours of African American culture. Particular attention is given to such questions as segregation, gender equity, cultural images, and their political effects for African American athletes and the black community. In addition to the required and recommended readings, lectures, and discussions, videos and films are central to the teaching and learning process. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and philosophy. Not open to students who have received credit for American Cultural Studies s18, Interdisciplinary Studies 215, or Political Science s18. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. Offered with varying frequency. J. McClendon.

AA/AV s20. Religious Arts of the African Diaspora.

This unit examines the religious arts of the African diaspora. The arts related to the religious traditions of Candomblé, Lucumí (Santería), Rastafarianism, Vodun, and Kongo-derived religions are explored through a multidisciplinary lens. Contemporary visual culture is discussed in addition to arts created for the purpose of worship or memory, such as sculptural figures, altars, garments, and yard shows. A short trip to New York City to visit sites of these arts is an integral part of the unit. In exploring these arts of the diaspora, the unit considers and challenges constructions of race, ethnicity, and Africanicity from insiders' and outsiders' perspectives. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s20. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

INDS s21. Writing a Black Environment.

This unit studies the response of black writers and intellectuals of the Spanish-speaking world to issues related to the natural environment. In countries and regions of Afro-Hispanic majority the presence of the oil industry has brought serious challenges to notions of economic progress, human rights, and national sovereignty, as well as individual and communal identity. Writers from Esmeraldas, Ecuador, and Equatorial Guinea chronicle the contradictory discourses present in their societies between modernity, tradition, the idea of progress, and the degradation of the ecosystem. Recommended background: Spanish 202. Cross-listed in African American studies, environmental studies, and Spanish. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies s21, Environmental Studies s21, or Spanish s21. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. B. Fra-Molinero.

INDS s25. Black Terror.

This unit explores Gothic fiction and film, works that create an atmosphere of brooding and unknown terror and represent race and gender as sources of dread, of "the Horror. The Horror" Students read works by such authors as Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Toni Morrison, Nalo Hopkinson, Tananarive Due, Thulani Davis, Reginald McKnight, Jean Rhys, and Harriet Wilson. The films include The Mark of Lillith, Dracula, Ganga and Hess, The Hunger, and Carmilla. Using psychoanalytic, film, race, queer, and gender theories as tools, students excavate deeply embedded discourses of race, sex, and sexuality. Recommended background: any of the following: African American Studies/Theater 225, African American Studies/Theater 226, or Theater 102. Cross-listed in African American studies, rhetoric, and women and gender studies. Offered with varying frequency. S. Houchins.

AA/AN s28. Cultural Production and Social Context, Jamaica.

Although Jamaica's artistic and popular culture enjoys international acclaim, it is at the same time often misunderstood. This unit affords students an opportunity to investigate a range of Jamaican cultural practices within the context of the specific social, historical, and political matrices in which they are generated and received. This unit begins with a preliminary introduction/orientation in Lewiston. In Jamaica, regular seminar meetings are supplemented by guest speakers and visits with writers and artists. In addition, each student carries out an individual research project using both textual and ethnographic methods of inquiry. Recommended background: previous course on the Caribbean or in African American studies. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies s21. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. C. Carnegie.

AA/WS s32. Reading Toni Morrison.

This unit surveys the writing of Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. Texts are selected from her novels, essays, drama, children's literature, and drama and also include criticism written about her work by other scholars. Prerequisite(s): one of the following: African American Studies 140a, English/Women and Gender Studies 395L, English/Women and Gender Studies 297, English 294, English 295, African American Studies/English 225 or permission of the instructor.New course beginning Short Term 2006. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. S. Houchins.

AAS s50. Independent Study.

Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. Staff.

Elective Courses

ANTH 155. Cinematic Portraits of Africa.
ANTH 335. The Ethnographer's Craft.
ANTH s10. Encountering Community: Ethnographic Fieldwork and Service-Learning.

AVC 288. Visualizing Race.

ED/SO 242. Race, Cultural Pluralism, and Equality in American Education.

ENG 395B. Dissenting Traditions in Twentieth-Century American Literature.

HIST 261. American Protest in the Twentieth Century.
HI/WS 267. Blood, Genes, and American Culture.
HIST 390P. Prelude to the Civil Rights Movement.
HIST 390W. The Civil Rights Movement.

MUS 247. Jazz and Blues: History and Practice.

POLS 229. Race and Civil Rights in Constitutional Interpretation.
POLS 235. Black Women in the Americas.

REL 247. City upon the Hill.
REL 255. African American Religious Traditions.
REL 365B. W. E. B. Du Bois and American Culture.

RHET 275. African American Public Address.

SOC 120. Race, Gender, Class, and Society.
SOC 205. Research Methods for Sociology.