Africana Studies (AFST)
AFST 105. Jazz Dance Technique I. .5 Credits.
Offered Fall Semester Only; Lecture hours:Varies,Other:3
Beginning level course on jazz as an American vernacular dance form emphasizing its roots in African and Latin cultural rhythms, as well as contemporary technique. Crosslisted as DANC 105.
AFST 199. Introduction to Africana Studies. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:4
The course introduces students to concepts, theories, and debates of the vibrant discipline of Africana Studies. It surveys major themes, questions, concerns, and events of African, African American, and other African diasporic communities. The course examines the making of the modern world through the lens of black global experience.
AFST 201. Introduction to Black Performance. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course will introduce students to the field of performance theory as it is engaged through the lens of the Black World. It will place scholars in Black performance theory in conversation with scholars working in the black radical tradition whose work raises important questions about performance, blackness, and more.
AFST 213. Race in Historical and Comparative Perspectives. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Explores the evolution of the concepts of race and racism from antiquity to the present. Crosslisted as SOCI 213.
AFST 221. Introduction to African American Literature. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Provides a selection from across the vast array of examples collected under the inadequate rubric “African American Literature.” We'll read poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and drama in order to understand how a group of people who have been written out of American history and culture write themselves back into these stories. Crosslisted as ENLS 221.
AFST 222. Caribbean Literature. 1 Credit.
Offered Fall, Spring or Summer; Lecture hours:3
Introduction to selected literatures, cultures, and histories of the Caribbean, with close analysis of text and context. When taught in the summer, the course is the core of the Bucknell in the Caribbean summer study abroad program. Crosslisted as ENLS 227.
AFST 223. Questioning the Post-Racial. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
The term “post-racial” has emerged within public discourse from time to time over the course of America’s existence. From Frederick Douglass to Barack Obama, this expression has described an American aspirational goal. Our class will take a contemporary and literary approach to understanding the limits of the term. Crosslisted as ENLS 223.
AFST 227. Race and Sexuality. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course explores the constructions of and intersections between race and sexuality. It also investigates the ways that these identities/locations have informed understanding of inequality in the U.S. Crosslisted as WMST 227.
AFST 229. Philosophy and Race. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Critical examination of the nature and meaning of "race" in terms of conceptual analysis, experience, social constructionism, feminism, class, ethnicity, politics, colonialism, violence, and redress. Crosslisted as PHIL 229 and POLS 259.
AFST 230. Black Radical Politics. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course introduces students to the historical formation of the Black Radical Tradition. It focuses on the historical context that shapes Black people’s varying forms of organized resistance and on how political practice shapes the formation of different political ideologies, knowledge, and thought.
AFST 248. Music and Culture: History of Jazz. 1 Credit.
Offered Alternate Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
A critical examination of musicians, movements, and cultural intersections within the development of jazz. Crosslisted as MUSC 248.
AFST 250. Approaches to Africana Studies. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:4
This course will provide students with an introduction to the key intellectual approaches specific to the multiple disciplines that constitute Africana Studies. The course instruction will be provided by an instructor of record as well as an assemblage of faculty who have expertise in the approaches to Africana Studies.
AFST 255. Radical Black Drama and Performance. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course presents an ensemble of playwrights from the 19th century into the present, whose dramatic works consider the predicament of the blackness in the world. This course pays particular attention to plays not just as artistic creations but also as political and performative gestures.
AFST 257. Music and Culture: Jazz, Rock, and Race. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
A thorough examination of historically important musicians and movements within the context of race and culture. Crosslisted as MUSC 257.
AFST 265. (Really) Reading Black Plays. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course will examine the plays of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, August Wilson and by extension explore what is so often referred to as the “Black experience” in a regional, national, and global context.
AFST 266. Black Africans in the Hispanic Black Atlantic: Then and Now. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course examines the variety of artistic, cultural, historical, and literary representations of black Africans and their descendants across the Spanish-speaking world, Africa, and the variety of Afro-Latina/o communities of the United States. Crosslisted as SPAN 266.
AFST 268. Migrations: Africa to America and the (Re)Making of Culture. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course examines forced and voluntary migrations of Africans and their North American descendants. It will begin with an analysis of west and central African history and will then focus on the period from the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade to the present. Crosslisted as ECON 268.
AFST 271. Politics of Anti-Blackness. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course will introduce students to the political history of anti-black racism as a contingent, but consistent formation of domination that shaped the modern world. In particular, this course will help students to form a critical vocabulary for how anti-black racism inform or interact with many political crisis.
AFST 274. Africa and International Relations in Historical Perspective. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
From popular culture: music, film, fashion to digital technologies: cell phones, computers, fit-bits, and GOOGLE-glass to our food: morning coffee, sugar, and spices, we rely on African ideas and resources. Through novels, films, and scholarly articles we examine how International Relations across Africa and with Africa matter in our lives. Crosslisted as HIST 274 and IREL 274.
AFST 278. Photographing Race. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
The history of photography is inseparable from histories of race, imperialism, and slavery. This course examines how camera and film technologies affected depictions of race globally. Beginning with the invention of the modern camera, this course traces dynamics of voyeurism, othering, and personhood in photography to the present day. Crosslisted as HIST 278.
AFST 280. Race, Violence & Incarceration. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course explores the dynamic convergence of race, violence, and criminal justice. More specifically, it explores policing and punishment from Reconstruction to contemporary mass incarceration. Police practices, political imprisonment, abolition, and more will also be examined.
AFST 281. Twentieth-century Afro-Caribbean and African-American Thought. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Study of the intellectual contributions and scholarly vision of people of African descent to sociological theory, social philosophy, and social change in the 20th century. Crosslisted as HIST 261 and SOCI 280.
AFST 285. Performing Slavery. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course will engage an ensemble of plays and theoretical texts that examine how the state of being captive is a performative continuum. This course exceeds any definitive time frame during which racial slavery was proclaimed to have begun and ended (e.g., The Emancipation Proclamation, 13th Amendment, etc.).
AFST 290. Topics in Africana Studies. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3; Repeatable
A variable topics course in which students will take a critical and empowering look at various expressions of Africana culture, experience, and thought.
AFST 291. Africa: Ancient to Early Modern Times 4000BCE-1400CE. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Survey of Africa from Ancient economic, social, cultural, economic, and political developments to the Early Modern Era and the rise of Atlantic era trade. This course focuses on social, cultural, political, and economic changes generated by populations across the continent. Crosslisted as HIST 291 and IREL 291.
AFST 292. Making Contemporary Africa: 'Early Modern' to the 'Post-Modern' World - 1400 to the Present. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Survey of African history from the 15th century to the contemporary period. We explore six major themes in African History: The Indian Ocean World, Making of the Atlantic World, Colonialism in Africa, Nationalism and Independence Movements, Post-Colonialism and Issues in the Making of Contemporary Africa. Crosslisted as HIST 292 and IREL 293.
AFST 293. Ancestors and Androids: African Religions in a Global Era. 1 Credit.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:2,Other:1
Examines African religions in a global era, focusing on the intersection of culture, religion, and globalization. Focuses on beliefs and practices in Africa's three major religious traditions: indigenous African religions, Christianity, and Islam. Crosslisted as ANTH 293 and RELI 293.
AFST 295. Hip-Hop and Blackness. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course will explore the ways in which hip-hop culture has impacted global youth culture, particularly within the realms of music, film, television, clothing styles, politics, language, public policy, race, gender and sexuality. In summary, it will provide a much-needed perspective on the intersection of hip hop and blackness.
AFST 302. Contemporary Africa & Colonial Pasts: Investments and Re-Emergences. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Globalized investment, oil extraction, Oprah and Bono-endorsed RED products, a rising middle class: This course addresses contemporary political economy, meanings of 'the continent', and colonial legacy in Africa. We draw on human geography, African history, postcolonial and feminist studies, and literature to understand a rapidly changing continent. Crosslisted as GEOG 302.
AFST 319. African-American History. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3; Repeatable
Focuses on recent developments in the field. Topics vary but may include slavery; African-American intellectual history; black feminism; race, class and gender; social and political movements; and cultural criticism. Crosslisted as HIST 319.
AFST 399. Independent Study. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:4; Repeatable
Individual study or project, supervised by instructor. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.