Africana Studies (AFST)
Interdisciplinary introduction to the study, research, and interpretation of historical, cultural, social and political knowledge of African American, African, and Caribbean peoples examining contemporary black identities, politics, and culture, particularly focusing on the role and place of blacks in modern American cities through exploration of international migrations, race relations, and 20th-century cultural movements, including civil rights, social protest music, art and literature. Addresses the cultural, historical, political, economic, and psychological consequences of the dispersal of Africans from their ancestral continent to the United States and the Caribbean and the impact of the cultures of West and central Africa in the United States and the Caribbean, through oral narratives, music, art, festivals, foodways, clothing, hairstyles, dance, and religious belief systems. Introduces literary and political movements including Pan-Africanism, black feminism, Negritude, Harlem Renaissance, and other activities reflecting shared theories, ideologies and political movements of Africans, African Americans and Caribbean blacks.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Although often considered homogenously white, Europe's population is and always has been racially diverse. This diversity is the culmination of centuries of colonialist interventions around the globe, particularly in Africa and the West Indies. This course will explore the history and contemporary reality of this population diversity, with a particular focus on the African diaspora in Europe. Beginning with Europe's simultaneous expulsion of Jews and Muslims and "discovery" of Caribbean islands in 1492, the students will trace Europe's colonial history in Africa and the West Indies that ultimately resulted in return migration of current and former African colonial subjects to multiple metropoles in Europe. Students will then focus on the experiences of the African Diaspora in Europe, broadly, and in five countries (Britain, France, The Netherlands, Germany, and Italy) before addressing contemporary debates (the racialization of Muslims as the "new Blacks" in Europe, citizenship laws within and across the EU, and anti-racist movements) and concluding with discussion of the future of race and Africans in Europe.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies, Social Science
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Looking at the development of communities of people of color through the 1920s in Worcester, Boston, Providence & elsewhere in New England.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies
How do societies remember their pasts? What stories are memorialized and celebrated and what events are evaded or forgotten? What are the politics of the process? How do Americans remember and represent the countrys racial past, a history that manifestly contradicts the self- evident propositions of liberty and equality enshrined in the founding documents? How do we now remember and represent the history of people of color in New England?Utilizing a combination of primary and secondary source materials, course content will aim to emphasize skills or competencies including: reading and analyzing primary and secondary source documents; acquisition of media literacy through study of photographs and other visual representations; understanding different historical approaches to the study of the people of color in New England; and, constructing historical arguments verbally and in written assignments.Through virtual site visits and reading, students explore community participation in the design and creation of African American heritage trails at Boston, New Bedford, Fall, River, Martha Vineyard, and Newport, Rhode Island and Portsmouth, New Hampshire as well as other locations.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring