We live in a time when migrations seem to dominate world news. People escaping collapsing societies, searching for better lives. This course will chart the hopes, fears, and aspirations of those who leave- from African perspectives. We'll read a range of fiction and poetry from across the continent, from canonical writers like Chinua Achebe and Tayeb Salih to some of the acclaimed new voices of our century. We'll study literature that imagines new life in the metropolises of Johannesburg and Lagos, as well as more far flung cities like Detroit, London, and Barcelona. We'll ask what distinguishes diaspora from exile, how a former life can follow a person to new places. We'll read about perilous Mediterranean crossings, LGBTQ persecution, undocumented life in America, and children dreaming of distant lands. Our study of migrant literatures will even take us to other worlds, reading Nnedi Okorafor's interstellar science fiction as a speculative extension of the more historically based works

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 103

This course will focus on the development of African American music from the 19th century through the latter part of the 20thcentury. 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 19thcentury spiritual, the blues, gospel, jazz, early rock and roll, soul music, funk, rhythm and blues, and hip hop, among others.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 210

The course will focus on the cultural process of “Americanization” as Africans became African Americans; their struggle for self-expression and full freedom—family stability, education, economic, political and social rights. Using several African-American autobiographies, the course goal is to produce an accurate account of black life in America.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 456

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 music’s flirtations with sensuality and sexuality, and debates about what constitutes “authentic” gospel music.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 210

This course tracks the intersection between two grand social projects: the religion of Islam and the United States of America. From enslaved Africans, to modern black nationalists, to post-1965 immigrants, American Muslims have engaged in a wide array of ritual, cultural, and political practices. By means of a variety of primary and secondary sources, we will explore these practices. Simultaneously, over the same span, "Islam" and "America" have each existed as contested categories, where the meaning of the one has been thought to reveal something about the meaning of the other. Historically and in the present day, what has "Islam" revealed about "America," and what has "America" revealed about "Islam?"

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6ENS 216 (I, II-1) Mbira Ensemble The Eastman Mbira Ensemble provides a hands-on introduction to the ancient and sophisticated musical tradition of the Shona mbira of Zimbabwe. Visiting Zimbabwean guest artists will also offer students the opportunity to delve more deeply into traditional musical practices and their cultural and spiritual context. Songs are taught aurally so no musical experience or training is required. May be repeated for credit

BUILDING: ET | ROOM: 12

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.

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PREREQUISITES: At least one semester of previous enrollment in the Intro West African Percussion Ensemble ***OR PRIOR MUSIC EXPERIENCE***.

Ensemble dedicated to dynamic percussive traditions of Guinea, combining the iconic djembe hand drum with a trio of drums played with sticks, known as dunun, sangban, and kenkeni. The powerful, multi-part relationships established by this trio of drums provide a rhythmic foundation, enabling djembe players to develop technique in executing accompaniment and solo parts. Fana engages ensemble players with a wide repertory of music from various regions of Guinea, including the rhythms of the Susu, Malinke, and Baga language groups. Intro and Advanced sessions offered each semester.

BUILDING: STRNG | ROOM: LOWER

PREREQUISITES: OPEN TO ALL RC AND ESM STUDENTS

A continuation of Dance 181.

BUILDING: SPURR | ROOM: DANCE

PREREQUISITES: DAN 181

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: One of the following: DAN181&182, DAN 283, DAN 253, DAN 285. For Drummers one of the following: MUR168A, MUR168B, MUR146 OR to audition, email kerfala.bangoura@gmail.co

BUILDING: SPURR | ROOM: DANCE

PREREQUISITES: MUR 168A or MUR 168B

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

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 441

Throughout much of Southern Africa, the word “ngoma” means drum. It also refers to specific musical styles that combine drumming, dance, and song. Finally, there is often a ritual dimension to ngoma, which is used in ceremonies focused around individual and social healing. In this class, students will bring ngoma alive by learning to perform various Zimbabwean ngoma genres, with the option of specializing in either drumming or dance. Through video clips, audio recordings, photos, and articles, we will also learn to understand ngoma within a larger cultural framework.

BUILDING: SPURR | ROOM: DANCE

Course explores and interrogates the concept and practice of humanitarianism, which, as recent examples have shown, often has a dark side, despite its ethical pretensions. We will examine how humanitarianism is a response to various forms of social insecurity and how, as a form of outside intervention, it puts certain communities in a situation of extreme vulnerability. What are the genealogies of these social insecurities? How do thinkers, novelists, and filmmakers critically investigate these humanitarian responses? What are the alternative models to charity? We will address these questions from the perspective of French and francophone intellectuals, artists, and writers. Taught in English. French majors and minors will have the opportunity to read texts in the original language.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 441

This course explores the relationship between the environment and social inequality, focusing specifically on issues of gender, race, and class. Is there a connection between sexism, racism, class exploitation, and environmental destruction? 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 (such as Hurricane Katrina) and their context, and others. The course features an optional three-day excursion to the Adirondack High Peaks Wilderness.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 540

This junior seminar offers students the opportunity to research and discuss the operation and consequences of widespread corruption in the global economy and the complex historical processes – economic, social, and political – which help to explain the phenomenon. To make the seminar a well-focused course, discussion will focus on country-case studies (with about three selected individuals in each country) that help to demonstrate the general pattern of causes and effects. A major issue to consider, among other things, is the role of cut-throat competition among global corporations and the effects of their corrupt activities on the quality of governance.

BUILDING: RRLIB | ROOM: 456

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

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 205

PREREQUISITES: ECO 108

Dynamic dance traditions of Guinea, West Africa. Accompanied by live music, students learn footwork and movements for several rhythms and acquire familiarity with the physical stance common to many styles of West African dance. Learn to execute movements together with the rhythmic foundation provided by our drummers and become familiar with the origins and cultural significance of each dance, and the songs that accompany them.

BUILDING: SPURR | ROOM: DANCE

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 religion, ethnicity, military prowess, and color, but without anything resembling an articulated racial ideology. In the United States, the historically constructed ideology of White Supremacy provided an intellectual foundation for a social and political system based on white privilege and entitlement.

BUILDING: MEL | ROOM: 205

No description

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 403

Are we experiencing the end of the world? Popular culture and the media cycle broadcast endless news of developments suggesting the end of human civilization: infertility crises, weather disasters, GMO monsters, class warfare, mass extinction, and infectious diseases, even zombies. This course investigates representations of environmental apocalypse and the new geological era of the Anthropocene in order to understand the cultural politics and history of anxiety about end-times and the meaning of nature, planet, and ecology in our lives. We will read fiction by Cormac McCarthy​, Octavia Butler, and Indra Sinha; screen the films Mad Max: Fury Road, 28 Days Later, World War Z, and Snowpiercer; examine Arcade Fire’s album The Suburbs; and study indigenous survivance poetry and recent environmental theory. The course includes a daylong workshop at the Skä•noñh Great Law of Peace Center in Syracuse, NY.

BUILDING: LCHAS | ROOM: 161

Students will draw upon their exposure to the theory methods of AAS to produce an interdisciplinary research paper on a topic of their own choosing. Open only to senior majors. Permission of Department required.

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 314

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 instructor’s Access to Hydrocarbon Energy for African Development project, can be done within this course.

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

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