This course uses film, novel, and historical studies to examine the following themes in the making of modern Africa: the forging of new national identities, creation of wage laborers, and the restructuring of agricultural work, gender, and social age. Students will also explore how African women and men, from their homes and workplaces, and as part of nationalist or national liberation movements during and after the Cold War, have sought to redefine their place in the global economy against the backdrop of new opportunities and challenges presented by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, hunger, international debt, and engagement with China.

Location

Meliora Room 205 (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Framed as a historical introduction to Islamic traditions, this course will explore the political, social, and intellectual histories of Islam as a global tradition from its emergence through the early modern period (approx. 600 CE – 1800 CE). The goal of the course is to introduce students to the central texts, figures, events, geographies, institutions, and schools of thought that make up Islamic histories. We will begin by tracing Islam’s political history as it spreads from the Arabian Peninsula and encounters diverse cultures and peoples. We will then retrace that history through the development of social institutions (e.g., mosques, madrasas, awqaf, Sufi tariqas) and norms. Finally, we will retell the history of Islam through a series of intellectual figures and their lives and texts that represent several key genres of Muslim writing and thought. These include Al-Tabari (Quranic hermeneutics), Al-Nawawi (Forty Hadith), Al-Shafi’i (fiqh), Miskawayh, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd (philosophy), Ibn Khaldun (history), Rabi’a al-Adawiyya and Ibn Arabi (Sufism). In the process of studying Islamic histories, the course will also engage several critical issues in the academic study of Islam such as orientalism, authority and writing history, authenticity, and gendered representations of Muslim societies.

Location

Frederick Douglass Room 403 (MW 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

This course will focus on the development of African American music from the 19th century through the latter part of the 20th century. We will study how African American music can be used a lens through which to understand the black American experience and the social and political landscape of American society as a whole. The historical, social, economic, and musical factors of various black American music genres will be examined with the aim to understand how African Americans constructed identity and interpreted the world around them. We will also discuss the performative aspects of these genres in order to understand how black music artists used their bodies and asserted their agency through performance on stage. Genres to be explored include the 19th century spiritual, the blues, gospel, jazz, early rock and roll, soul music, funk, rhythm and blues, and hip hop, among others.

Location

Lattimore Room 210 (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

In Gospel Music in America, we will examine the historical development of gospel music, beginning with 19th century slave spirituals and ending with an examination of 21st century gospel music practices. Throughout this course, we will attempt to answer the following questions: what is gospel music how are the parameters of the genre defined? How has gospel music participated in constructions of black identity and spiritual formation? How has the sound and presentation of gospel music evolved i.e. instrumentation, vocal aesthetic, performance persona, and technique? Lectures and discussions will also highlight some of the perpetually controversial tensions that have come to define gospel music history and culture. Such tensions involve the commercialization of gospel music, the ambiguity of lyrical meaning, gospel musics flirtations with sensuality and sexuality, and debates about what constitutes authentic gospel music.

Location

Dewey Room B315 (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

This introductory survey focuses on the Spanish and Portuguese conquests and colonization of the region that we now know as Latin America. Contrary to popular belief, the Conquest was constantly negotiated. Indigenous and African rebels, French and Dutch pirates and religious minorities eroded the Iberian hold on this vast territory. Primary source readings are an important component to this class and will introduce you to the writings of Inca nobles, Spanish conquistadors, and free African merchants. As a result, our course focuses on the vibrant societies defined as much by their cultural mixture as by their inherent political, social and economic inequality. The course ends with a brief glimpse at the Latin American independence movements. No prior knowledge of Latin American history or Spanish/Portuguese language is necessary for this course.

Location

Lechase Room 104 (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

Location

Meliora Room 218 (W 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Humans and machines, infrastructure and architecture, community, and culture: how do these relationships shape our imagination of sounds and music? Through practice-based research, we will explore the aural environments generated by the industrial and post-industrial history of cities along the Rust Belt, studying, for example, how Industrial Fordism’s merger of human and machine informed the rise of sample culture and machine-based rhythm and music. Using Detroit as our case study, we will examine how African-American arts, culture, and history, combined with the rise of the automobile industry, produced Detroit Techno as way for artists to respond to the sonic architecture of their environment. Meanwhile, we will be making our own field recordings of our local urban environments and electronically processing them into tones and beats, and then sequencing and mixing our research into sonic productions using non-screen-based hardware devices. Not open to seniors.

Location

Sage Arts Center Room 101 (MW 9:00AM - 11:40AM)

In this course, students will work on expanding their repertory of rhythms from Guinea, West Africa, and on improving their playing technique on the djembe, dunun, sangban, and kenkeni. In particular, we will concentrate on learning extended solo sequences for the djembe, and more advanced arrangements played on the dunun, sangban, and kenkeni. Students will also work on developing skills specific to performance, adding choreographed onstage movement to complement their drumming. Pre-requisite: At least one semester of previous enrollment in the Intro West African Percussion Ensemble.

Location

Sloan Performing Arts Center Room 1000 (W 7:30PM - 9:00PM)

Kanye West, Megan Thee Stallion, Da Baby, Kendrick Lamar and several other contemporary rap artists operate within long traditions of hip hop that make religious claims.  This course provides an overview of histories and contexts of hip hop genres (trap, conscious, dance/party, mumble, gangsta, bounce…) in correlation with contexts of Black religious groups (Maroons, Black Israelites, Moors, Five Percenters, Christianity, Islam (Nation of Islam), Yoruba, Atheism…).  This course will be interactive, consisting of listening parties, (guests) lectures, DJ presentations, discussions, and a field trip to a Black religious and/or hip hop experience.

Location

Morey Room 501 (M 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

An art form of self-defense with aerobic and dance elements that brings together these harmony of forces. Through looking into history, movement and culture, students will gain self-confidence, power, flexibility, and endurance in a positive environment with proper progressions. Open to those of any background and fitness level. Capoeira allows you to balance the body, mind, and soul by enabling one to break through limits and revitalize oneself for everyday life.

Location

Spurrier Gymnasium Room 104 (MW 6:30PM - 7:50PM)

Sansifanyi is an ensemble that provides various performance opportunities both on and off-campus for intermediate and advanced students of African dance & drumming. Instructor Kerfala Bangoura trains ensemble members in a performance style that integrates dance, drumming, vocal song, and narrative elements. Dancers who enroll in Sansifanyi will learn choreographic techniques for West African dance and gain experience dancing as soloists. Dancers will also learn focus on rhythmic timing and on drumming while dancing. Drummers enrolled in Sansifanyi will learn extended percussion arrangements and techniques for accompanying choreography. They will also learn how to play the breaks required of lead drummers. 
Prerequisites: Audition on first day of class OR for Dancers one of the following: DAN181&182, DAN283, DAN253, DAN285. For Drummers one of the following: MUSC168A, MUSC168B, MUSC146. Email kerfala.bangoura@gmail.com with questions.

Location

Spurrier Gymnasium Room 104 (R 6:45PM - 8:15PM)

Originated in the boroughs of New York City, hip hop has grown to become a global phenomenon, influencing the lives of countless individuals with the core ideals of peace, unity, love and having fun. The class will provide a look into the historical origins and social importance of hip hop culture. The main focus will be on the original dance of hip hop culture - breaking, (also known as bboying). The class format is geared towards physical movement along with lectures, videos and opportunities to attend events in the community.

Location

Spurrier Gymnasium Room 103 (MW 8:00PM - 9:15PM)

Rochester sits in one of the world’s most explicitly carceral landscapes, with more than a dozen state prisons within a 90 min drive. This co-taught course is a collaborative ethnographic research project designed to examine how the presence of prisons in towns around Rochester reflects and shapes the political, economic, and cultural lives of those who live in the region. Students will be introduced to methods and practices of ethnography and conduct firsthand research on the cultural politics of prison towns. Through assigned reading, students will learn about the history, sociology, and cultural logics of Rochester and the wider region, and of mass incarceration. What does a prison mean for a person living near one? How does the presence of prisons shape people’s notions of justice, citizenship, and punishment? How do these nearby but largely invisible institutions shape the ways that we live in Rochester? Recommended prior courses: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology or Incarceration Nation

Location

Bausch & Lomb Room 269 (M 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

American Culture? Is there such a thing? This class will explore, discuss and debate this question and some more: If there is an American culture, how can we tackle it? How does anthropology, famous for its research away from home, help us understand current major debates in the United States? How do outsiders understand and evaluate American culture? Is there a return of religion to American public life? How do Americans address power relations, class, gender, ethnicity and race? To tackle these questions we will use assigned readings, films, and current events seen through print and electronic media.

Location

Spurrier Gymnasium Room 104 (F 10:00AM - 12:00PM)

This course explores the relationship between the environment and social inequality, focusing specifically on issues of gender, race, and class. Using intersectional feminist analysis, we will investigate the historical roots of modern dualist constructions that juxtapose humans and the environment, men and women, creating an anthropocentric, racialized, and gendered framework that produces and maintains social inequalities and a destructive attitude toward the environment. Topics may include the following: historical ideas about nature and environment; eco-imperialism; eco-feminism; climate change and its connection to issues of race, gender, and class; justice and sustainability; poverty and natural resources; food justice; natural disasters and their context; racialized outdoors, and others. The course features multiple field trips and time outdoors. 

Location

Hylan Building Room 305 (T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

How do cyborgs, superheroes, and ghosts change our understanding of what it means to be human? How do interstellar travel, dystopian climate change, and revisionist ancient histories reframe the way we think of African diasporic histories of trauma, survival, desired freedom, and collective belonging? Studying science fiction, fantasy, and horror from across Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America, this course will focus on how 20th and 21st century artists have reimagined black life after slavery and empire. We’ll study a range of artistic forms, including fiction, film, visual art, and music, by artists like Octavia Butler, Wanuri Kahiu, Nalo Hopkinson, Jordan Peele, and Wangechi Mutu. We’ll look at how artists of color contort the world we know, and how they use the speculative mode to pose deeply philosophical and historical questions.

Location

Hylan Building Room 203 (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Africa’s engagement with China has to be read as a two-sided story: China has found in Africa a reliable supplier of natural resources while Africans look to China for aid and investments in agriculture, industry, infrastructure, and education. And, in a significant departure from the colonial model of economic interactions, Chinese companies do not only ship finished products to Africa; they also manufacture in Africa goods for internal use and for export. The impact of these multifaceted relations will not be decided in Beijing alone, as many assume in the West; the outcome will also depend on the decisions taken in African capitals.

Location

Lechase Room 103 (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. While we read scholarship drawing on the experiences of an array of cities--including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, New Haven, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Charlotte--our emphasis is on commonalities in the urban experience as well as on systematic differences. We analyze the relationship of cities to their hinterlands in the early stages of urban development, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, suburbanization, industrialization, de-industrialization, housing and jobs, concentrated poverty, and population changes. Race, ethnicity, and class are central to this course, not only in understanding changes in neighborhoods but also in the nature of politics and governmental arrangements.

Location

Harkness Room 329 (T 12:30PM - 3:15PM)

Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. While we read scholarship drawing on the experiences of an array of cities--including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, New Haven, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Charlotte--our emphasis is on commonalities in the urban experience as well as on systematic differences. We analyze the relationship of cities to their hinterlands in the early stages of urban development, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, suburbanization, industrialization, de-industrialization, housing and jobs, concentrated poverty, and population changes. Race, ethnicity, and class are central to this course, not only in understanding changes in neighborhoods but also in the nature of politics and governmental arrangements.

Location

Harkness Room 329 (T 12:30PM - 3:15PM)

This course examines American writers’ responses to intense social, economic, and technological upheavals, such as urbanization, colonization, industrialization, and social injustices, from 1850s through now. Topics to be covered include colonialism, eco-tourism, slavery, civil rights, trauma, technology, urbanization, and the rise of science, and students can expect to explore the questions such as the following: How do environmental issues relate to the politics of race? How do writers represent the ongoing trauma of losing indigenous land? How to communicate the invisible hazards of climate change and the chemical industry? How has the rise of rationality displaced spiritual visions of the natural world? How do we create a meaningful connection to home and the planet amidst so much injustice and technological upheaval? INSTRUCTOR PERMISSION REQUIRED. NOT OPEN TO SENIORS.

Location

Morey Room 524 (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

How does Black Paris, as the lived experience of today marginalized immigrants, as a site of the production of a certain understanding of blackness, contribute to our understanding of the global black condition? This course is a study of Black Paris, as imagined by generations of Black cultural producers. Paris is a space of freedom and artistic glory that African American writers, soldiers and artists were denied back home. For students from French colonies, Paris was the birthplace of Negritude, the cultural renaissance informed by the Harlem Renaissance. Black Paris, for those caught in poor suburbs, calls to mind images of riots, dilapidated schools, but also rap music and hip-hop, elements of transnational black imagination that sometimes speaks the language of the Black Lives Matter movement. In English

Location

Lechase Room 182 (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Economic development of African Americans during the twentieth century, with an examination of the economics of discrimination. Same as HIS 253 and AAS 253.

Location

Meliora Room 224 (MW 9:00AM - 10:15AM)

Students will experience dancing African styles from the traditional cultures of Ghana and Guinea, West Africa. Technical emphasis will focus on foot patterns and placement, as well as developing the proper physical stance for African dance styles. Students will practice the dances and drum songs called Kpanlogo & Gota from Ghana, and Yankadi, Makru, & Kuku from Guinea, as well as various other selections. Outside work is required, including performance attendance, video viewing, article analysis, and journaling. Students can expect to gain a broadened perspective on contemporary West Africa and its cultural practices.

Location

Spurrier Gymnasium Room 104 (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

This course will look at how artists and intellectuals from across the African continent have used the internet to shape culture, society, and art forms in the 21st century. We’ll study a wide range of material, from viral blogs, pop culture e-zines, and hypertext fiction, to music, video art, and digital exhibits in fashion and cultural heritage. We’ll also study the ways young people have used social media in recent years to galvanize movements for social change, like #EndSars in Nigeria and #RhodesMustFall in South Africa. How do Teju Cole’s tweeted short stories, or the Nest Collective’s crime thriller Facebook videos, engage global audiences? How do these and other works shape conversations on topics as disparate as migration, police brutality, Afrofuturism, style, and the space of LGBTQ life? Together we’ll examine how African artists and thinkers have taken to the internet to critically engage our contemporary world, cultivate new aesthetic forms, and create new forms of community and belonging.

Location

Morey Room 501 (TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)

The central theme of American history is the problem of race. At the heart of the race problem in America is the white supremacy ideology. Pre-modern concepts of human distinctions typically rested on group membership and coalesced around notable differences such as ethnicity, religion, and color, but without anything resembling a formal ideology. In the United States, the historically constructed ideology of White Supremacy provided an intellectual foundation that supported a system of white wealth, power, and privilege. This course will examine the competing forces that produced a white supremacy ideology that was unique to the United States: conceived in the seventeenth century during the years of early settlement, it was born in the political turmoil of the Civil War and Reconstruction era, and reached adulthood in the Civil Rights struggles of the twentieth century.

Location

Rush Rhees Library Room 362 (R 3:25PM - 6:05PM)

The explosion of black culture during the early Twentieth Century known as the “Harlem” or (more broadly) “New Negro” Renaissance included the emergence of some of the most important works of the African American literary tradition. This course will provide a survey of the literature and culture that reflect the spirit of that era. In addition, the course will consider recent African-American fiction in order to ascertain what the Harlem Renaissance has meant for subsequent writers and artists. Special attention will be paid to the following topics: migration, jazz, the Blues, literary modernism, theories of black identity, and difference within black America. Readings include works by Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, George Schuyler, Toni Morrison, Samuel R. Delany, and more. Requirements include class participation, six 1-page reading responses, and two 6-8-page formal writing assignments.

Location

Morey Room 501 (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

This course will examine the varieties of thought about, and practice of, civil disobedience within social movements, with an emphasis on contemporary activism. When, why, and how do communities choose to push back against structures of violence and injustice? Throughout the semester, we will study canonical texts? of modern resistance history speeches, writing, direct action protests, art and will consider the role of this form of counter-conduct within larger campaign strategies to build power from below and get free.

Location

Meliora Room 224 (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Taught by a long-time member of Les Ballets Africains, the national ballet of Guinea, instructor Fana Bangoura will introduce students in this course to dynamic dance traditions of West Africa and will join with them the power of percussion. Students will also become familiar with the origins and cultural significance of each dance, and the songs that accompany them. By breaking down the drum parts alongside the traditional dance movements, students experience dancing and drumming in perfect unison. This opportunity is geared for both drummers and dancers and is highly recommended for all skill levels.

Location

Spurrier Gymnasium Room 104 (MW 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

This course is about the politics of racial subordination and emancipation in the United States.  We begin by thinking about different explanations of the rise, dynamics, and persistence of racial domination in the United States and of the cultural and political challenges to it.  We will pay special attention to the Great Migration, the subsequent emergence of blacks as an important constituency of the Democratic Party, the Civil Rights Movement, and the role of race in structuring current party divisions.  Next, we will examine the politics of black communities.  Topics include the legacy of the demobilization of the Civil Rights movement and the channeling of political activity into electoral institutions; the politics of urban regimes; the challenge to political solidarity posed by increasing economic and social inequality within the black community; the Black Lives Matter movement; and debates about the effectiveness of identity-based, class-based, and coalitional strategies of political mobilization.  In conclusion, we will reflect upon the differences between the nature and dynamics of racial subordination today compared to the past and what, if any, prospects for change there are.

Location

Gavett Hall Room 202 (WF 9:00AM - 10:15AM)

Sansifanyi offers experienced dancers the opportunity to study West African dance forms as well as studying cultural history and context from which and in which they are performed at a professional level. This course requires a high degree of student commitment. Dancers who enroll in Sansifanyi will learn choreographic techniques for West African dance and gain experience dancing as soloists. They will also focus on rhythmic timing, and on advanced skills such as how to combine movement with drumming. In addition to the time students spend in class, dancers in the ensemble are expected to spend several hours per week researching, reading, writing, viewing videos, text and article analysis, practicing, and choreographing various rhythms, songs, movements, and sequences. Dancers must also be available for performances both on and off campus throughout the semester.   Clusters: Improvisation and the Creative Process, Movement and Culture, Dance and Performance. Prerequisite: Audition on first day of class or for dancers, one of the following: DANC 181/182, DANC 283, DANC 253, DANC 285: For drummers one of the following: MUSC 168A, MUSC 168B, MUSC 146

Location

Spurrier Gymnasium Room 104 (R 6:45PM - 8:15PM)

This seminar engages the experiences, writings and political ambitions of individuals typically excluded from discussions of the Atlantic. Key concepts such as Atlantic creoles and the Black Atlantic will be debated in light of recent studies on Sephardic merchants, African healers and Native American intellectuals. In order to contextualize their lives, this course will focus on the Iberian and South Atlantic from the early sixteenth to the late nineteenth century. Our initial readings will center on the circulation of Native American commoners and elites to Spain and will be complemented by seminal ethnohistorical studies. The second part of the course will take on the construction of a South or Lusophone ocean that weaves together the histories of Brazilian, Angolan and Portuguese actors. Students will revise and resubmit an original research paper on a topic of their choice.

Location

Rush Rhees Library Room 456 (R 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Independent studies on some aspect of the problems of energy resource development in lower-income countries, solutions to it, and relationship to development issues, including work with the instructors Access to Hydrocarbon Energy for African Development project, can be done within this course. Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed thru the instructions for online independent study registration.

Experience in an applied setting supervised on site. Approved and overseen by a University instructor.

Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed thru the instructions for online independent study registration.