The Courses

(All courses carry 3 credits unless otherwise noted.)

AFROAM 101 Introduction to Black Studies
Interdisciplinary introduction to the basic concepts and literature in the disciplines covered by Black Studies. Includes history, the social sciences, and humanities as well as conceptual frameworks for investigation and analysis of Black history and culture.

AFROAM 117 Survey of Afro-American Literature (4 credits)
The major figures and themes in Afro-American literature, analyzing specific works in detail and surveying the early history of Afro-American literature. What the slave narratives, poetry, short stories, novels, drama, and folklore of the period reveal about the social, economic, psychological, and artistic lives of the writers and their characters, both male and female. Explores the conventions of each of these genres in the period under discussion to better understand the relation of the material to the dominant traditions of the time and the writers' particular contributions to their own art. (Gen.Ed. AL,DU)

AFROAM 118 Survey of Afro-American Literature II (4 credits)
Introductory level survey of Afro-American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the present, including DuBois, Hughes, Hurston, Wright, Ellison, Baldwin, Walker, Morrison, Baraka and Lorde. (Gen. Ed. AL,DU)

AFROAM 132 African-American History 1619-1860 (4 credits)
The main aim of this course is to make you familiar with some of the most important developments and issues in African American history until the Civil War. We will focus on the black experience under slavery and the struggle for emancipation. Topics include the Atlantic slave trade, evolution of African American communities and culture, the free black community, the distinct experience of black women, and the black protest tradition. The format of the course is lecture supplemented by class discussions. (Gen.Ed. HS,DU)

AFROAM 133 African-American History Civil War-1954 (4 credits)
Major issues and actions from the beginning of the Civil War to the 1954 Supreme Court decision. Focus on political and social history: transition from slavery to emancipation and Reconstruction; the Age of Booker T. Washington; urban migrations, rise of the ghettoes; the ideologies and movements from integrationism to black nationalism. (Gen. Ed. HS,DU)

AFROAM 151 Literature & Culture (4 credits)
This course focuses on African American cultural expressions contributing to the shape and character of contemporary African American (and U.S.) culture and how these forms have influenced and been represented by African American writers. The course uses African American literature and culture of the 1960s and 1970s in their many manifestations, especially poetry, criticism, theater, music, and the visual arts as an entry into the concerns listed above. A particular focus of the course will be the ways in which domestic and international political movements, such as Civil Rights, Black Power, anti-colonial, and non-aligned intersected with black cultural efforts, deeply influencing the formal and thematic choices of African American artists. (Gen. Ed. AL,DU)

AFROAM 156. Revolutionary Concepts in African American Music II (4 credits)
This course will examine the development of African American music during the twentieth century into the twenty-first century. Literature and history will be examined alongside documentaries and footage of famous performers in conjunction to their historical period and the cultural and political events of the time. The Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Arts Movement, post-Civil Rights era, and the Black Lives Matter Movement will encompass the scope of this course. In addition, the course will consider the diasporic reaches of “Afro-Latinidad” (bachata, salsa, etc.) and Caribbean influences such as reggae and dub. (Gen. Ed. AT,DU)

AFROAM 161 Introduction to Afro-American Political Science (4 credits)
Survey of the politics of the Black community in the U.S. The history of Black political development, major theories which explain Black political life, social, economic, psychological and institutional environment from which Black politics flows. Attention paid to 1988 presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson and its relevance to the 2008 election of Barack Obama. (Gen. Ed. SB,DU)

AFROAM 170 The Grassroots Experience in American Life and Culture I, (4 credits)
This course combines instruction in research techniques in a variety of Humanistic and Social Science disciplines, and hands-on experience with those techniques, with substantive materials focusing on the long struggle of minority populations for full participation in American cultural and public life. (Gen. Ed. HS,DU)

AFROAM 197A/AFROAM 197B  Taste of Honey: Black Film in the 1950s Part I/II (1 credit) 
This course is a part of the Afro-American Studies department partnership with the Center for Multicultural Advancement and Student Success (CMASS) and the Malcolm X Cultural Center (MXCC) enrichment programming initiative. The purpose of this class is to raise awareness of and exposure to different cultural backgrounds that will enhance student personal development while promoting a better understanding of our diverse community.  A selection of movies will explore a variety of topics such as, race, gender and stereotypes while reflecting on how these characteristics have been portrayed. 

AFROAM 234  The Harlem Renaissance (4 credits)
Exploration of the cultural explosion also termed the New Negro movement, from W.E.B. Du Bois through the early work of Richard Wright. Essays, poetry, and fiction, and the blues, jazz, and folklore of the time examined in terms of how Harlem Renaissance artists explored their spiritual and cultural roots, dealt with gender issues, sought artistic aesthetic and style adequate to reflect such concerns. Readings supplemented by contemporary recordings, visual art, and videos. (Gen.Ed. AL,DU)

AFROAM 236  History of the Civil Rights Movement (4 credits)
Examination of the Civil Rights Movement from the Brown v. Topeka decision to the rise of Black power. All the major organizations of the period, e.g., SCLC, SNCC, CORE, NAACP, and the Urban League. The impact on white students and the anti-war movement. (Gen.Ed. HS,DU)

AFROAM 244  Afro-Am Poetry: Beginning to 1900 
This is a discussion-based course that will read black poetry as a response to both historical and contemporary contexts. Over the course of the semester, we will discuss the poetry of Phillis Wheatley, Frances E. W. Harper, and Paul Laurence Dunbar alongside some lesser-known African American poets from the pre-1900 period. We will also read some recently published poems and collections that take up historical questions and their traces in the present (including the transatlantic slave trade, regimes of enslavement, anti-blackness, racist science and medicine, state and police violence, and sexual violence). Students will also be introduced to poetry criticism and other relevant secondary literature. The work for the class will include two shorter response papers (rooted in close reading); one creative project; and a final research paper that will incorporate secondary sources. 

AFROAM 250  African American Short Stories (4 credits)
Students in this course will receive an introduction to the African American short story and to the major themes, issues, concepts, as well as the literary techniques and forms prevalent in African American literature. (Gen.Ed. AL,DU)

AFROAM 290G  Introduction to Global Black  Studies
This course uses the critical methodologies of the humanities and social sciences to consider some of the questions provoked by African and African diasporan experiences.  Course materials will allow students to survey the lasting contributions of Africans and their descendants to the development of various world civilizations and examine historical relationships between the individual actors and larger social forces.  The five major themes that we will use to comprehend the experiences of African-descended peoples are Beauty, Identity, Power, Visions of the Past, and Visions of the Future.

AFROAM 293B The African Diaspora & the War on Drugs
This course explores the decades-long drug prohibition campaign popularly known as the “War on Drugs.” With the U.S. federal government regularly appropriating more than $50 million to this campaign, African Americans continue to find themselves disproportionately impacted by this regime of drug prohibition. Rather than remaining confined to the borders of the United States, this campaign, and its increasingly militarized operations, has over the past several decades spread throughout the Western hemisphere and, in doing so, directly impacted people of African descent throughout the Americas. By drawing on historical, biographical, and journalistic accounts of Black peoples' lived experiences, this course examines the elaboration of this campaign’s military, institutional, legal and policy frameworks. It will consider various activities – including, but not limited to drug production, trafficking and consumption, as well as community organizing, human rights advocacy, and social movement building – by Black people not only in the U.S., but across North, Central, and South America, as well as the Caribbean basin.  

AFROAM 326  Black Women in U.S. History (4 credits)
The history of African American women from the experience of slavery to the present. Emphasis on the effect of racist institutions and practices on women. The ways in which women organized themselves to address the needs of African Americans in general and their own in particular. The achievements of such leaders as Mary Church Terrell, Harriet Tubman, Ella Baker, and Mary McLeod Bethune as well as lesser known women. (Gen.Ed. HS,DU)

AFROAM 365  Composition: Style & Organization
Expository writing focusing primarily on argumentative and narrative essays. Discussion and practice of logic—inductive and deductive reasoning—as it relates to the argumentative essay form. Topics as thesis on main idea, organization, style, unity, supporting evidence, avoiding logical fallacies, and basic writing mechanics, including constructing sentences, paragraphing, transitions, and correct grammar. Junior year writing is required for all majors in AfroAm; secondary majors have the option to complete this requirement in their primary major. 

AFROAM 392C  Civil War, Reconstruction, Black Resistance
The eras of the Civil War and Reconstruction studied from the perspective of Black Americans, highlighting Black protest and resistance. Key topics include: the Civil War as slave rebellion; the process and meaning of emancipation; family, community, and labor in the aftermath of slavery; interracial politics in the Reconstruction era; legal and extralegal violence and resistance. 

AFROAM 397B  Native Americans & African Americans, Part I
This course intends to: 1) introduce significant past and contemporary scholarly works regarding the historical colonial encounters and interactions of the Indigenous populations of the western hemisphere, Europeans and Africans, 2) engage critical thought, review of current scholarship and class discussion regarding the implication and imposition of historical race issues on present day Native American identity, and 3) examine various social methodologies for fostering distorted concepts of African American and Native American identities (i.e. census counts, news articles, popular music). 

AFROAM 494DI  Du Bois Senior Seminar (for Juniors and Seniors)
This course is the senior capstone course required for all majors in Afro-American Studies. It also fulfills the University's Integrative Learning Experience (IE) requirement. This course has two aims: (1) to reflect on your educational journey at UMass as well as to further explore your intellectual and professional goals; and (2) to prepare you to complete your senior project in Afro-American Studies. The course will provide ample space and time to brainstorm and plan your senior project in consultation with the instructor and your peers.

AFROAM 591B  Black Radical Thought 
This course will focus on contributions to Marxist intellectual and political traditions by African and African-descended thinkers. We will read and discuss works by major figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, Walter Rodney, Amilcar Cabral, Angela Davis, Aime Cesaire, Franz Fanon.  We also hope to introduce you to a selection of perhaps lesser known figures such as Babu, Achille Mbembe, George Padmore, Claudia Jones, Harry Haywood, James Boggs, Muhammad Ahmad.  The course will require extensive reading, informed participation in class discussion, and a final paper.

AFROAM 597M  Third World Marxism
This seminar has two goals first, to introduce students to the views of Karl Marx on non-European societies, and second to explore how Marx's general theories have been adopted and modified to address the circumstances of non-white peoples. The primary focus will be on writings produced in the western hemisphere by African Americans such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Cedric Robinson, Angela Davis and Harold Cruse; West Indians such as C.L.R. James, Sylvia Wynter, and Walter Rodney. We also will include writings by influential Latin American marxists such as Jose Carlos Mariategui. For the sake of comparison, some attention will be given to the development of marxist traditions in China and in Africa. This will be a reading seminar with heavy emphasis on class participation, including the leading of at least one class discussion.

AFROAM 597P  Black Presence at UMass Amherst    
This course will provide an opportunity for students to assist in researching and selecting materials for a Black Presence at UMass website and for a short history, with photos, of the presence of Black folk at UMass since its founding in 1867. The goal for the website is to be as comprehensive as possible in identifying students, staff, administrators, faculty that made up the UMass Afro-descended community. We also will be preparing lists of key individuals and events to be included in the short history. Where feasible we will be doing short (5-10 minute) videos for the website throughout the semester and during Homecoming weekend. The large portion of the work will take place using the resources of the Du Bois Library. There will be visits to community sites in Amherst, Springfield, and other relevant towns and cities. The efforts of all students involved will receive appropriate acknowledgement on the website and in the book. The class also will serve as informal advisors on academic and artistic programming for the Malcolm X Center for the 2020-21 school year. These are projects of great and lasting significance. Student input is vital.