Undergraduate Program

This introductory course uses abolitionist and human rights activist Frederick Douglass and antebellum Rochester as a common topic for exploring historical research, debate, writing, and public engagement while considering connections between past and present. Students will learn how to study Black Studies and history at the college level by developing research topics; evaluating historical scholarship; understanding historians’ theoretical and methodological approaches; identifying and interpreting primary and secondary sources; assessing perspective and bias in evidence and scholarship; and constructing historical arguments in oral and written forms.

Location

(TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

This introductory course examines 1) a variety of diseases and illness—such as sickle cell anemia, Type II diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, and triple-negative breast cancer— that disproportionately impact people of African descent throughout the U.S., Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa in addition to 2) the sociological, biological, and political factors that shape these disparities. This course is organized into modules centered around topical foci such as sexual health and reproduction; food, weight, and the metabolic body; and epigenetics and the inheritance of disease. Students will develop a comprehensive understanding of racialized diseases and critical perspectives on disease etiology through in-depth engagement with course readings, documentaries such as Mossville: When Great Trees Fall, in-class mock “parliamentary” debates and mini-presentations, ethnographic reflection memos, and class discussions.

Location

(TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

From Black Twitter to TikTok dances, from BlackPlanet to AI chatbots, Black people have shaped what the internet is and imagined what it could be. This introductory course explores Black digital life and culture: social media, memes, music, gaming, algorithms, and archives. Students learn foundational Black Studies concepts through the digital worlds they already inhabit, asking how race shapes technology and how Black communities create, resist, and build online. Coursework emphasizes hands-on projects over traditional essays: platform observation, meme genealogies, oral histories, and a curated digital exhibit. No prior experience with Black Studies or technology required.

Location

(TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)

Location

(MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

This course will examine the relationship between the religious and theological beliefs of African American musicians and their musical artistry. We will journey through various African American music genres of the 20th centuryblues, jazz, gospel, soul, funk, hip hop, etcand will study how religion has influenced performance style, lyrical content, vocality, melodic and harmonic contour, among a host of other factors.

Location

(MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

This course surveys African American literature of a variety of genres—primarily fiction, poetry, and non-fiction essays—from the early 20th century to the present. The course interprets this tradition not only as the creative expression of American writers of African descent, but also as a set works displaying formal characteristics associated with black cultural traditions. Discussion topics will include the meanings of race, the construction of black identity, and intra-racial differences of class, gender, and sexuality, as well as how experimentation, 1960s black radicalism, and the contemporary Movement for Black Lives have shaped black literature. Our readings will traverse a range of influential writers, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Nella Larsen, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, Claudia Rankine, and Danez Smith.

Location

(MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

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.

Location

(M 6:30PM - 8:00PM)

Across West Africa, street parties are an essential part of urban culture featuring music, dance, and fashion. This class explores the phenomenon of these street parties, or “Dundunba”, as well as the dance styles, music, and fashions associated with them. Students will learn the iconic dance styles Dundunba, Sabar, Sidi Yankadi and more. They will learn technique to add style through gestures such as the fast-paced dance steps known as "échauffement." They will discuss the gender dimensions of street parties and the types of dance steps, clothing, and public presentation unique to men and women respectively. Videos and short readings will complement our experience on the dance floor.

Location

(MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

Led by Master Drummer Fana Bangoura, the West African Drumming Ensemble is dedicated to the dynamic percussive traditions of Guinea. The ensemble combines 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 for the ensemble, enabling djembe players to develop technique in executing both accompaniment and solo parts. Drawing upon his experience as a soloist with the internationally acclaimed groups Les Percussions de Guinée and Les Ballets Africains, 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.

Location

(W 7:00PM - 8:30PM)

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

(MW 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

How does a country with five percent of the world's population, a country that nominally values freedom above all else, come to have nearly a quarter of the world's incarcerated people? In this survey course we investigate the history of imprisonment in the United States--as theorized and as practiced--from the founding of the republic to the present day. Special attention is paid to the politics, economics, race politics, and religious logics of contemporary mass incarceration, and to the efforts afoot to end mass incarceration.

Location

(MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

In this course, students will work on expanding their repertoire 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

(M 7:00PM - 8:30PM)

(W 7:00PM - 8:30PM)

This course examines contemporary literature and cultural productions (films, art, music) from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. It will explore works that challenge and dismantle the racial and gender/sexual hierarchies rooted in colonialism and coloniality. Topics will include Black resistance, feminist struggles, LGBTQ+ rights, colonial difference, the political economy of knowledge, and the construction of a decolonial otherwise, and the narration of other futures. 

Readings may include works by: Rita Indiana Hernández, Mayra Santos-Febres, Alejo Carpentier, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Lewis Gordon, and Nelson Maldonado-Torres.
Course will be taught in English. Students taking the course for Spanish credit must have taken SP 200 and will do some reading and most of the writing in Spanish.

Location

(TR 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

Biographies of Emancipation in the Black World explores the sites and emblematic figures who contributed to the emancipation of the Black world, understood here as the African continent and peoples of African descent. Ghana, under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, assumed a decisive role in the articulation of the narrative of black emancipation. The course introduces students to charismatic figures such as Kwame Nkrumah, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela who all have articulated a powerful network of black international to counter racism in the United States of America, apartheid in South Africa or colonialism on the African continent. Cultural producers, activists and writers such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Billie Holiday, Lorraine Hansberry, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, and Maryse Condé have contributed advance the global struggle for the emancipation of the Black world.

Location

(TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

This seminar explores two key texts of American democracy – W.E.B. Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction (1935) and Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (1835, 1840). During the semester, we will consider and compare Du Bois’s and Tocqueville’s analyses of the nature of democracy and of its promises, challenges, and contradictions. Issues and questions we address will include: the meanings of equality; the relationship of social to political democracy; the threat of democratic despotism and tyranny; and the ways that race, empire, and emancipation reshape the theory and practice of democracy. We will also explore these works as texts of political philosophy; specifically, we will attend to their intellectual contexts, historical and sociological methodologies, literary and political strategies, and normative and philosophical ambitions. This discussion-based seminar will culminate in a 15-page research paper.

Location

(MW 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

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

(R 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

This course is an introduction to the study, practice, and politics of Black feminist theory. In this class, we will delve into the historical, theoretical, political, and creative expressions of this school of thought from the nineteenth century to the present. To achieve this, we will engage a wide variety of critical, cultural, and creative texts including but not limited to journal articles and essays, speeches, literature, performance, music, film, and so on. We will additionally incorporate a variety of intersectional perspectives on Black feminist theory with regards to race, gender, sexuality, (dis)ability, class, nation, etc. In so doing, the class aims to examine the relationship between theory and praxis in the development and ongoing evolution of the history, politics, activism, and art of Black feminisms.

Location

(MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

This course provides undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue in-depth, independent exploration of a topic not regularly offered in the curriculum, under the supervision of a faculty member in the form of independent study, practicum, internship or research. The objectives and content are determined in consultation between students and full-time members of the teaching faculty. Responsibilities and expectations vary by course and department.

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)