AFR - African and African Diaspora Studies

African and African Diaspora Studies: AFR

Lower-Division Courses

AFR X01. African American Culture.

Survey of African American culture in the United States from the 1600s to the present. Subjects include the circumstances and responses of blacks during North American enslavement, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the civil rights movement, and contemporary contexts.

AFR X02D. Analyzing Social Data.

Subjects include conceptualization and operationalization in quantitative measurement, the calculation and interpretation of descriptive statistics and statistical relationships, the application of statistical techniques to understand social phenomenon, and techniques for presenting results from quantitative analysis.

AFR X03. Introduction to Black Studies.

Introduction to canonical black studies literature, themes, and theories.

AFR X04. Introduction to the Study of Africa.

Examines the complex histories, intellectual entanglements, and enduring hierarchies of Africa and African studies. Explores the evolution of African studies (both intellectually and institutionally), particularly in regards to the emergence of black studies.

AFR X05. Public Policy and Black Communities.

Examine how public policy has both advanced and hindered opportunities for Black people and communities from the Constitutional era to the present, addressing such areas as education, health, housing, and policing.

AFR X10. Introductory Topics in African and African Diaspora Studies.

AFR X10K. Introduction to Modern Africa.

Introduction to modern Africa, with focus on colonial and postcolonial development in political organization, economics, sociolinguistics, and literature.

AFR X10L. Introduction to Traditional Africa.

Introductory, interdisciplinary course on the peoples and cultures of Africa.

AFR X10S. Introduction to Yoruba Religions.

Introduction to the cosmological world of the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria, covering history, societal organization, myths, legends, customs, and cultural traditions.

AFR X11C. Performance, Feminism, and Social Change.

Exploration of the ways that engaged performance and feminist practice generate space for social change, including the basic principle that social transformation requires individual awareness, and that awareness necessitates a rigorous examination of race, gender, class, and sexuality.

AFR X14C. Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt.

Introduction to the complex and intriguing culture of ancient Egypt and to its legacy in society through the examination of its art and archaeology.

AFR X15. Afro-Brazilian Diaspora.

AFR X15E. The Revolution Will Be Dramatized.

AFR X15F. Toni Morrison and August Wilson.

AFR X15G. The United States and Africa.

History of political, economic, and cultural relations between the United States and Africa from the early origins of the slave trade to the present.

AFR X15I. Introduction to African American Women's History.

AFR X15K. Introduction to African American History.

AFR X15L. Anthropology of Race and Ethnicity: An Introduction.

Examines the social importance of race and ethnicity both in America and around the world.

AFR X15N. The Black Power Movement.

Examines the major organizations, key figures, and ideologies of the Black Power movement from the late 1960s and early 1970s.

AFR X15O. The Politics of Black Identity.

Explore the idea that black progress is undermined by the activities and practices of certain black celebrities, leaders, and intellectuals whose attitudes, behavior, and politics differ from the black majority. Examine the history of labels that make reference to black identity, including "Uncle Tom," "Negro," "sellout," and various other denigrating names.

AFR X15P. Introduction to Black Women's Studies.

Interdisciplinary examination of the complexities of black womanhood in America through an investigation of history, identity, popular culture, and black feminism/womanism, as well as social and political activism.

AFR X15Q. Black Queer Art Worlds.

Exploration of over two decades of work produced by and about black queer subjects throughout the circum-Atlantic world. Provides an introduction to various artists and intellectuals of the black queer diaspora, as well as an examination of the viability of black queer aesthetic practice as a form of theorizing.

AFR X15R. Diaspora: Race, Nation, and Resistance.

Subjects include makings and meanings of diaspora, the differences and similarities between diaspora and related concepts such as race, nation, and cultural identity. Focuses on the making of the black Atlantic world, and comparative analysis between black diasporic life and that of other global dispersals, particularly among Asian and indigenous populations, and how resistance serves as a key link.

AFR X15S. Liberation in the African Diaspora.

Examination of liberation and freedom struggles in the African diaspora, focusing on common intellectual, political, and social currents among the diaspora's various groups. Course focuses on three major themes: abolitionism, Pan-Africanism and national liberation, and hip hop. Particular emphasis will be on the ideas associated with these movements, and the major organizations and intellectual currents in all three.

AFR X15T. African American Literature and Culture.

Explores texts, drawn from a variety of genres and periods, that indicate the range of African American experiences and how those experiences are influenced by issues such as class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and race.

AFR X15U. Music of African Americans.

Introduction to the variety of modes of expression of African American culture in music and other related genres.

AFR X15V. African Diaspora Archaeology.

AFR X15W. Race, Sex, and Tourism.

AFR X16C. Rights in Modern America.

AFR X16E. Blackness and Comics.

Examine the relationship between race and the sequential aesthetics of comic books and comic strips. Explore comics strips, underground comics, and superhero comics from the colonial period to the present day.

AFR X16F. Black and Latinx Intersections.

Examine the complex relationships between and among Black and Latinx communities and the political and structural forces and contexts that shape their interactions. Explore Black identity within the Latinx population, racial politics, coalitions of Black American and Latinx groups, race among Latinxs, racial inequality, and the politics of immigration.

AFR X16G. Police, Prisons, and Inequality.

Explore the ethical issues related to inequality and the United States criminal legal system. Examine the experiences of the poor, Indigenous people, immigrants, racial minorities, women, sexual minorities, and gender-nonconforming people.

AFR X16K. Introduction to Religions of Latin America.

Examine a survey of religious practice across Latin America and the Caribbean.

AFR X19S. Topics in African and African Diaspora Studies.

This course is used to record credit the student earns while enrolled at another institution in a program administered by the University's Study Abroad Office. Credit is recorded as assigned by the study abroad adviser in the Center for African and African Diaspora Studies. University credit is awarded for work in an exchange program; it may be counted as coursework taken in residence. Transfer credit is awarded for work in an affiliated studies program.

AFR X29S. Topics in African and African Diaspora Studies.

Upper-Division Courses

AFR X19S. Topics in African and African Diaspora Studies.

AFR X20C. Power and Place: Making Texas History.

AFR X20T. Texas History's History.

Explore evolving ideas and meanings concerning the most significant events, personages, and social processes in Texas' history.

AFR X21. The African Diaspora in the Americas.

Black cultures and societies in the New World, and their African heritage.

AFR X21L. Sociology of Education.

Education as a societal institution, with emphasis on the United States educational system: how the system works; the effects of the system; recent changes.

AFR X22. Introduction to African Prehistory.

AFR X22D. Race and the Digital.

Review of theoretical developments in the sociological study of "race, including an examination of processes of racialization and cultural texts, in order to better understand the ways in which identities are socially produced. Attention will be placed on forms of popular culture, black cultural production, and political action to question how such practices are shaped by migrations within the African diaspora.

AFR X23N. Critical Race Theory and the Novel.

AFR X24E. Racism and Antiracism.

Examines the theories and definitions of racism across several fields: anthropology, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and gender/sexuality studies. Also includes a section that focuses on anti-racist activism, particularly within people of color and immigrant communities.

AFR X25C. Latinx Sexualities.

Examine Latinx sexualities from a historical perspective to comprehend the social, cultural, political, and economic factors, which have shaped these experiences.

AFR X25D. Gender and Translation in the Arab World.

Examine complex politics and poetics behind the translation and marketing of Arab women's writing in the West.

AFR X25S. Statistical Analysis of Social Disparities.

Analysis of racial inequality through social statistics.

AFR X29S. Topics in African and African Diaspora Studies.

AFR X30. Beyonce Feminism and Rihanna Womanism.

AFR X30C. Fashion And Desire.

AFR X30D. Literature of the Harlem Renaissance.

AFR X30E. Gwendolyn Brooks.

AFR X30F. Writing for Black Performance.

AFR X30I. The Arts of Hip Hop.

AFR X30J. Toni Morrison.

An examination of select novels by the Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist focuses on the positional uniqueness that womanism shares with a predominant feminism, which surfaces in historicized familial relationships.

AFR X30K. African American Literature through the Harlem Renaissance.

A survey of African American writing, including autobiography, poetry, fiction, and drama. Authors may include Douglass, Jacobs, Frances E. W. Harper, Chestnutt, Du Bois, Hurston, and Hughes.

AFR X30L. African American Literature since the Harlem Renaissance.

The development of African American poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction since the Harlem Renaissance. Authors may include Wright, Ellison, Baldwin, Malcolm X, Baraka, Morrison, Shange, and Charles Johnson.

AFR X30M. Contemporary African American Women's Fiction.

AFR X30N. Self-Revelation in Women's Writing.

AFR X30O. Black Film at the Oscars.

AFR X30P. Writing Slavery.

Explores the controversial rewriting of slavery in a presentist context by contemporary authors. Addresses challenges that archival limitations and revisionist writings about slavery pose for academic disciplines, literary instruction, and/or pedagogy.

AFR X30Q. Caribbean Literature.

AFR X30R. Literature of Black Politics.

Examines the novels, plays, and critical essays of Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison as works of democratic political theorizing and political engagement.

AFR X30S. Danticat and Diaz.

AFR X30T. Diasporic Magic: Literature and Performance.

AFR X30V. Greek Tragedies and Postcolonial Dramas.

Study the adaptation of great dramatic literature of the Greek civilizations to their phenomenal evolution into popular African performances. Putting classical writings from Ancient Greek in dialogue with texts that formed the background of African anti-colonial revolutions, analyze how Africans have used these works to re-shape literary canon and given their world and their histories universal purchase.

AFR X30W. Black Queer Literature and Film.

Analyzes written works, films, and videos by and about lesbians, bisexual, transgender, and gay black people, with an emphasis on understanding the historical and theoretical construction of sexual and gender identities and sexual/cultural practices in black communities.

AFR X31. Early Black Atlantic.

AFR X31C. Expressive Arts of Global Africa.

Explore music, dance, and other artistic forms as modes of political expression and community building.

AFR X31D. Drugs in African American Popular Culture.

Examine the legal, political, and philosophical intersection of blackness, whiteness, and drugs in the late twentieth century through film, music, and literature.

AFR X31E. Black Cops in African American Popular Culture.

Explore the history of black policing in America and representations of black police officers in popular literature and film of late Twentieth Century America.

AFR X31F. Black Horror and Psychoanalysis.

Explore the intersection of race, horror aesthetics, and psychoanalytic theory.

AFR X31G. Contemporary African Writing in English.

AFR X35C. Africana Women's Art.

Analysis of the diverse modes of presentation, mediums, definitions, and influences of Africana women artists in the diaspora. Designed to use critical theory and art history found in oral and written literatures, music, films, and other formal and informal documents.

AFR X35D. Visual Cultures of Africa.

Painting, textiles, ceramics, sculpture, performance, mixed media, photography, films, and the aesthetic ideas behind the production of African visual cultures from the perspectives of rituals, rites of passage, celebrations, initiations, documentations, and expressions.

AFR X35E. Introduction to African Art.

Investigates the lives and works of several artists who have made substantial contributions to the definition, history, and interpretation of the visual arts.

AFR X35F. Visual Arts of the Caribbean.

A look at a wide range of artists from the countries of the Caribbean, including examples of cinema and reggae music packaging.

AFR X35G. Diaspora Visions.

An exploration of border crossing by cultures and groups including Yorubas, Jews, Armenians, Tibetans, Hamish, Pakistanis, and Indians and the production of images by immigrants, exiles, and nomads in alien lands.

AFR X35I. Contemporary British Artists of the African Diaspora.

A look at a wide range of artists, practicing in Britain, who are part of the African diaspora via such factors as the Atlantic slave trade and various patterns of international migration.

AFR X35J. Contemporary Artists of the African Diaspora.

Examines a wide range of artists, practicing in different parts of the world, who are part of the African diaspora via such factors as the Atlantic slave trade and various patterns of international migration.

AFR X35K. Twentieth-Century African American Art.

A survey of visual art produced by people of African descent in the United States with an emphasis on the twentieth century and its sociohistorical framework. Changes in modes of expression, formal concerns, pictorial themes, and the impact of the Black Arts movement, feminism, and Afrocentrism on art are explored, as well as the relationship of the work of black artists to art from West and Central Africa and the visual traditions of European and Euro-American artists.

AFR X35L. The Black Figure in American Art and Popular Culture.

Examine how popular culture and artistic practices facilitate or challenge social constructions of "Blackness" in the United States.

AFR X35M. Art of the Harlem Renaissance.

Examine the factors which gave rise to the Harlem Renaissance, with a particular emphasis on art and artists.

AFR X35N. Black Art, Brown Art.

AFR X35Q. Blackness in the Contemporary Art Museum.

Explore issues related to the acquisition, stewardship, and repatriation of the art of the African Diaspora in the face of an increasingly virtual and market-driven art world.

AFR X35T. Photographs and Blackness in the United States.

Examine issues raised at the intersection of Blackness and photography in contemporary art of the United States.

AFR X38C. Black Perspectives in Jazz.

Explores the social, cultural, political, and artistic relationships between jazz and the black experience, both within the African American context and throughout the diaspora.

AFR X38D. Music of Latin America.

Consider Latin American music within a broad cultural and historical framework. Latin American musical practices are explored illustrating the many ways that aesthetics and society are embodied in and negotiated through performance. Concepts include diaspora, colonialism, mestizaje, hybridity, migration and globalization.

AFR X38E. The Music of the African Diaspora.

The musical legacy of the African slave trade in the Americas, the social contexts in which black musical forms have developed, and their varied forms. Subjects include the shifting meanings of "black music" in various contexts; the notion of hybridity; the uses of African influenced music as a political or oppositional tool; and African ethnic groups represented prominently in the New World, the traditions they brought with them, and the ways they have been adapted to new ends.

AFR X38F. Music of Mexico and the Caribbean.

Introduction to the history of Mexican and Caribbean traditional and commercial music, with some discussion of classical music as well. Attention will be given to music of indigenous, African, European, and mixed origin. Mexico and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean receive special attention. Class meetings will be divided into lecture/discussion segments, videos, listening, and performance instruction/demonstration.

AFR X40. Contemporary African Popular Culture.

AFR X40D. Apartheid: South African History.

A study of the social, political, economic, and cultural history of South Africa to contextualize the rise of apartheid. Primarily focuses on the period since 1948 from the perspectives of women, children, and men of all racial backgrounds who lived through that particular period.

AFR X40E. African Women's History.

Major themes include politics, economics, religion, the family, culture, technology, feminism, colonialism, nationalism, and development in relation to the lives of African women.

AFR X40F. African History in Films and Photographs.

Explore the social, economic, and political challenges of the past fifty years of Africa's history through an examination of several popular films.

AFR X40G. Ancient Egypt.

Discussion of Egypt's culture, language, and history from the prehistorical period (13,000 BC) to the New Kingdom (1069 BC).

AFR X40I. Modern Egypt in Film and Fiction.

Explore the history and culture of modern Egypt through selected readings in twentieth-century film and fiction.

AFR X40J. African Travel Narratives.

Examines histories of Africa and travel through eyewitness accounts. Studies journeys Africans have made within and from the continent alongside accounts of travelers visiting Africa from elsewhere.

AFR X40K. Medicine in African History.

An exploration of how communities have confronted disease throughout Africa's history.

AFR X40L. Historical Imagining of Africa in Films.

AFR X40M. Geographies of International Development in Africa.

Critically examines the major approaches to "Development" in colonial and postcolonial eras, with a focus on a range of African resources: from water to wildlife, forests to farms, airways to rangelands, and including a consideration of African bodies themselves as sites of development and resistance.

AFR X40N. African Queer Studies.

Examines the development of African queer studies as the interdisciplinary study of sexuality on the African continent, and its impact on the academic and activist realm. Focus on intersectional feminist and queer theory and how this field offers tools that can be used to rethink issues of oppression and domination in relationship to race, nation, sex, gender, and sexuality on the African continent. Of particular interest will be LGBTQ activism and the ways in which queer Africans engage and shape their sexuality, and create forms of belonging in their countries and their communities.

AFR X40P. Egyptian Hieroglyphics in Cultural Context.

The vocabulary and grammar of ancient Egypt as a guide to understanding artifacts and monuments from the different periods of Egyptian history, whether in museums, exhibitions, or on site overseas.

AFR X40Q. Daily Life in Ancient Egypt.

Delve into all areas of Egyptian daily life from the dawn of the dynasties to the age of Cleopatra.

AFR X40R. Archaeology of African Thought.

Archaeological, historical, and ethnographic data as they relate to the foundations of contemporary African and African American societies.

AFR X40S. Gender in North and West Africa.

Examines gender discourses through North African and West African literary works by looking at the role(s) played by Islam and Christianity in the creation of the identities of African men and women. Includes discussion of the question of what gender is, and whether it is socially constructed.

AFR X40T. African Religious Culture and Creativity.

Examine religion as an aesthetic practice and explore the inventiveness of the imagination that underlines African religious practices. Study religious practices spanning from the pre-colonial and post-colonial eras to the contemporary period particularly in urban centers.

AFR X40U. Africa and Rome.

Explore the history of Roman Africa with emphasis on what is now Tunisia and northern Algeria.

AFR X40V. Sociology of Africa.

An introduction to the sociological study of sub-Saharan Africa. Major themes include: sources of knowledge about Africa; characteristics of African states and societies, from origin to internal social boundaries (religion, ethnicity, class); kinship and family; and development and change.

AFR X40W. Coloniality in West Africa.

Study the changes and continuities of socio-political categories in African contexts from the period of formal colonial rule to the present day.

AFR X41. African Cities Since 1500.

Explore Africa's past through the story of urbanization beginning with an overview of African cities around 1500--a time of increasing human migration and global trade. Assess African cities in the modern period, focusing on the advent of European colonialism in the 1800s and its aftermath.

AFR X41C. Fashion in Africa.

Examine fashion history through readings, videos, social media, and textile making to provide an immersive experience in African design history. Address the ways in which textiles are tied to class distinctions and politics, wrapped up in the history of trade (including human trafficking and slavery), mixed into revolutionary struggles and post-independent governance, and inspire haute couture and global fashion trends.

AFR X45. History of East Africa.

A survey of the history of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda from prehistoric times to the postindependence era.

AFR X45C. History of West Africa.

A history of the West Africa region: the rise and fall of kingdoms, relations with Europe and Asia, the great revolutions of the nineteenth century, colonial administration, decolonization, and the search for economic development and political stability since independence.

AFR X45D. Afro-Luso-Brazilian Worlds.

Examine the myths and realities in the Afro-Luso-Brazilian worlds and the connections and contrasts between them.

AFR X45E. Afro-Latin America.

Examines the historical experiences of people of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean beginning in the slavery era, and focuses on the histories of Afro-Latin Americans after emancipation.

AFR X45F. Sex and Power in the African Diaspora.

Exploration of various experiences and theories of sex, intimacy, and desire alongside intellectual and artistic engagements with power hierarchies and spirituality across transnational black communities. Subjects include the concept of "erotic subjectivity" from various theoretical and methodological angles, principally within African diasporic contexts.

AFR X45G. Religions of the Caribbean.

Examine the histories and politics of religious practices in the Greater Caribbean, encompassing the islands and Central American coasts as well as the continental diasporas, from Vodou and Rastafari to popular Hinduism.

AFR X45I. Nationalisms in the Caribbean.

AFR X45J. Race, Rebellion and Revolution in the Caribbean.

AFR X45K. Race Against Empire: Americas.

AFR X45M. Reimagining Cuba, 1868-Present.

Explores Cuban-United States relations from the nineteenth century to the present, including issues of empire and transnationalism, and social change engagements between Cuba and the United States before and after the Cuban Revolution.

AFR X45N. Afro-Caribbean Diasporas.

Analysis of the socio-cultural contexts of the African diaspora in the Americas, with a specific focus on the African diaspora in the islands of the Caribbean. Designed to analyze the cultural, social, and philosophical contributions of these diasporic populations and the ways they build social and cultural agency in their specific national or diasporic contexts.

AFR X45O. Debt and Colonialism in the Caribbean.

Examine the role that debt has played in the formation of colonial and neocolonial practices in the Caribbean region. Take a broad approach to the concept of debt in order to explore the financial and monetary dynamics of debt, but also the political and cultural implications of debt. Focus in particular on debt as justification in the furtherance of colonialism throughout the Caribbean. Engage in a historical examination of the United States' colonial projects and military interventions in the region throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries.

AFR X45P. African Religion in the New World.

Explore the contributions of scholars and artists who engage African diaspora religions in their work through multiple conceptual approaches.

AFR X45Q. Mediascapes: Literature and Media in the Caribbean.

Analyzes the relationship between literature and media technologies in contemporary Caribbean cultures.

AFR X45S. Afro-Latinos: Memory, Literature, Culture.

Discuss the lives and works of Afro-Latinos in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present.

AFR X45T. Afro-Latinidades in the United States and Latin America.

AFR X45U. Race Politics and Caribbeans.

Examine racial and political themes among Spanish-speaking Caribbeans on the islands and in the United States. Explore racial politics in the three countries and compares notions of identity, experiences with racism and anti-racist protest with the United States

AFR X45V. Literature of AIDS in Africa.

Examine the emerging cultural representations of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa through journalistic, social science, and historical accounts. Explore the difficulty of representing the various aspects of a public-health crisis.

AFR X45W. Global Black Feminisms.

Examine Black feminist theories and practices around the world from a transnational and comparative perspective.

AFR X46C. Cuba in Question.

Explore Cuba's peoples, cultures, ethnicities, and the social and historical processes that go far beyond the common media stereotypes.

AFR X50C. Black Middle Class.

AFR X50D. Politics of Black Life.

AFR X50F. Black Women on Trial.

Using press coverage of historical and contemporary court cases and trials of women ranging from Angela Davis to Marissa Alexander, explores how media shapes public and popular perceptions of race, class, gender, sexuality, and the law.

AFR X50J. HIV and AIDS Activism and the Healing Arts.

AFR X50K. Puerto Rico In Crisis.

AFR X50L. Race And Place.

AFR X50N. Barack Obama and American Democracy.

Focuses on the impact of Barack Obama's watershed presidency on American democracy.

AFR X50P. Urban Slavery in the Americas.

Examines urban slavery in the Americas.

AFR X50Q. African-American Politics.

Explore the evolution, nature, and role of African-American politics within the American political system.

AFR X50R. Global History of Disease.

Introduction to major themes in the history of medicine through the lens of disease. To be considered are the roles governments, medical practitioners, and patients play in the social construction of disease and health.

AFR X50S. The Black Church in African American Politics.

Explore the political role of the Black church in the African American experience.

AFR X50T. Domestic Slave Trade.

Explores the inner workings of the domestic slave trade from the perspectives of slaveholders, speculators, and the enslaved. Analysis of maps, letters, diaries, newspaper advertisements, and legislation relating to the domestic slave trade.

AFR X50U. The Civil Rights Movement from a Comparative Perspective.

Focuses on African American and Mexican American struggles for civil rights. Asian American and Native American movements will also be addressed. Using a comparative approach the student will consider the distinctiveness of each of these struggles while also viewing them in relation to each other.

AFR X50V. Gender and Slavery in the United States.

Examines the gendered experience of chattel slavery in the United States. Includes critical analysis of classic and contemporary texts, films, and songs that focus on slave labor, family, community, sexuality, and the economy.

AFR X51. The Global City.

AFR X51C. Women and Social Movements in the Twentieth-Century United States.

Examines women's participation in well-known and lesser-known social movements during the twentieth century.

AFR X51G. Black Women in America.

Uses primary sources, historical monographs, and essays to provide a chronological and thematic overview of the experiences of black women in America from their African roots to the circumstances they face in the present era.

AFR X51J. Texas Black History.

Surveys the history of blacks in Texas from before American settlement to the present.

AFR X51K. Antebellum Slavery.

Examination of slavery at its maturity during the nineteenth century.

AFR X51L. The United States in the Civil Rights Era.

Examines United States history in the post-World War II era, including how civil rights and other racial issues helped shape the politics, popular culture, and social life of this period.

AFR X51M. African American Social and Political Thought.

Examines the speeches and writings by major theorists and critics of the prophetic tradition of black political thought.

AFR X51N. Black Political Thought.

Exploration of black social and political thinkers, writers, and reformers, and how their works influence the legacies of slavery, empire, and patriarchy within the United States.

AFR X51O. Slavery across Genres.

Uses nonfictional and fictional narrative accounts of slavery in the United States to examine the political, social, cultural, economic, and psychological aspects of the institution of slavery at different historical moments. Sources may include authors such as Frederick Douglass, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Edward P. Jones; graphic novels; conceptual art; court records; and bills of sale.

AFR X51P. Atlantic Slavery: History and Memory.

Charts a history of Atlantic slavery by focusing on primary sources detailing crucial events and contexts such as the Zong Massacre, the Haitian Revolution, and Dred Scott vs. Sandford, among others. Considers how historians, memoirists, fiction writers, visual and performance artists and filmmakers have come to terms with that history and its implications.

AFR X51Q. Slavery and Its Legacies.

Explore how slavery has evolved in the United States since the end of the Civil War.

AFR X51R. African American Family in Historical and Contemporary Contexts.

Examine how African Americans managed to maintain a sense of family from the time of slavery to the present trend of mass incarceration.

AFR X51S. Science, Magic, and Religion.

Historical and cross-cultural overview of the constructed concepts of magic, science, and religion through comparative examinations of cultural contexts from the Islamic world, western Europe, the Caribbean, the U.S., and Mozambique.

AFR X51T. Anthropology for Liberation.

Takes a critical look at anthropologists' quests to shifting the legacy of anthropology from the colonial toward freedom and liberation. Explores anthropology's relationship to human rights, violence, questions of race, gender, and sexuality, imperialism and neoliberalism, and the ways that some anthropologists have chosen to use their field work in new and different ways.

AFR X51U. Race, Capitalism, and the Environment.

AFR X51V. Black Slavery in the Atlantic.

Examine the history of slavery in the Atlantic from 1450 to 1865.

AFR X52C. Psychology of Race and Racism.

Review of the history and evolution of the construct of race as a psychological and social phenomenon. Multidisciplinary but primarily social-psychological approach: in addition to readings from psychology, ideas in the areas of anthropology, sociology, and biology will be discussed. Emphasis on theoretical and conceptual approaches toward understanding the psychology of racial thinking.

AFR X52D. Psychology of the African American Experience.

Examination of the psychology of people of African descent using an African-centered liberatory model.

AFR X52E. African Americans in Sports.

Theoretical and practical complexities in issues surrounding African Americans in sports, including the relationship between athletics and higher education. Focuses on racial stereotyping, identity theory, and how practical knowledge of these theories can aid in understanding the current state of athletics.

AFR X52F. Sociocultural Influences on Learning.

Examine human learning in multisocial, multilingual, and multicultural contexts; realities of society and their impact on learning; social concerns such as prejudice, stereotyping, cross-cultural attitudes, bilingual issues, parent and community involvement.

AFR X52G. African American Religions.

Survey the history and variety of religion as practiced by Americans of African descent. Examine the social construction of African religion, black religion, and the black church, within the cultural context of the United States.

AFR X52J. Black Lives in the Archives.

AFR X52K. African-American Women's Political Activism.

Explore Black feminism and African-American women's political participation.

AFR X52L. Africa and Indian Ocean World.

Explore the connected histories of the geographical regions and economic communities that share the littoral space of the Indian Ocean.

AFR X52M. Race, Gender, Sex, and Religion.

Use an intersectional feminist framework to examine the construction and maintenance of normative categories of race, gender, sex, and sexuality within United States religious discourse.

AFR X52N. Technologies of United States Empire.

Investigate the various technologies that the United States has used to maintain imperial geographies at "home" and abroad. Focus on imperial entanglements of global capital, liberalism, and technological systems.

AFR X52O. Queering Black Religions.

Explore the ways Africana religion practitioners disrupt and reframe dominant western discourses of gender and sexuality. Examine concepts of temporality, spirit manifestation, subjectivity, corporeality, and Africana religious epistemologies.

AFR X52P. Food in the Racialized City.

Explore a variety of issues related to producing, accessing, and consuming food in city spaces in the context of racial inequities. Investigate and question constructs such as "food" and "city" as means of exploring different points of view and approaches to studying not only food and cities but also various approaches to food justice.

AFR X52Q. Black Geographies.

Explore the relationship between Blackness and the production of space and place. Examine the tensions and possibilities that emerge when Black people are rendered un-geographic as a fundamental component of racial capitalism while they are simultaneously creating spaces of freedom under constant threats to Black life.

AFR X52R. Rhetoric of Ethnic Studies.

Study the histories of ethnic (and gender) studies in both higher education and K-12 institutions, and the rhetoric of attacks on, and defenses of, ethnic and gender studies through an examination of primary and secondary source materials.

AFR X53C. Mapping Urban Destruction.

Investigates how demolitions have shaped the material and social lives of two compelling, rapidly-changing global cities: Sao Paulo and Austin. Develop technical skills in digital mapping in a supportive environment.

AFR X56D. African American Theatre History: 1950 to Present.

Chronological examination of the history of African American theatre since 1950, through the study of productions, performance theory, play texts, essays, reviews, and manifestos within their sociopolitical contexts, with an emphasis on strategies of resistance that are embedded in aesthetics.

AFR X57C. African American History to 1860.

Review of West African origins; New World settlement patterns, social life, and culture; discussion of the Atlantic slave trade, the development of capitalism and plantation slavery, and the origins of racism.

AFR X57D. African American History since 1860.

Survey of the history of African Americans in the United States from 1860 to the present: Emancipation, Reconstruction politics, migration and urbanization, and the evolution of African American culture; kinds of sources and methods valuable for analyzing African American life and culture.

AFR X58F. Race and Policing: History, Policy, and Practice.

Examine the origins and evolution of policing in the United States, with a focus on the development and impact of policing policies. Analyze how policies have supported or oppressed Black, working-class, and ethnic communities.

AFR X58K. Power and Money in U.S. Education Policy.

Examine how power dynamics and financial forces shape education opportunity, who controls what gets taught, how resources are allocated, the political influences behind educational decisions, and the impact of the decisions upon different groups of students.

AFR X58M. Black Education Policy.

Examine key educational policy moments that have impacted Black communities--including anti-literacy laws, segregation, contemporary funding, and curriculum debates. Explore how Black communities have responded through institution-building, legal advocacy, and alternative educational practices.

AFR X59N. History of Africa since 1800.

Development of sub-Saharan Africa from the end of the slave trade to independence.

AFR X60. Race, Law, and United States Society.

Examines the intersection of racial ideology and legal culture in the United States.

AFR X60C. Social Media for Social Impact.

Explore the social media universe through the lens of black studies. Discuss traditional black studies issues as they play out in the social media context. Engage in professional development activities and service learning. Interpret black participation in the social media landscape, and examine the possibilities for social media participation as a community benefit.

AFR X60D. Race, Gender, and Surveillance.

Overview of theories in the sociology of social control, with a focus on risk, power, ethics, and surveillance. Examines historical transformations in social control and the distributions of power in the United States and global contexts, with attention to race, gender, and class. Subjects include: the transatlantic slave trade; prisons and punishment; the gaze, voyeurism, and reality television watching; the Internet; travel and state borders; privacy; and biometrics and the body.

AFR X60E. Black Women and the State.

Surveys black women's experiences living with and confronting state oppression around the world. Takes an historical, social, and theoretical look at the roots of this oppression and inequality, and how black women have chosen to respond to it locally and globally.

AFR X60F. Urban Unrest.

Analysis of the roots of urban unrest, exploring a range of origins: joblessness, state violence, white flight, backlash against civil rights gains, new immigration, and interracial strife. Beyond race and class, subjects include exploring unrest as a mode of pushing the normative boundaries of gender and sexuality in public space. Course material will draw from film, literature, history, geography, and anthropology.

AFR X60G. Blacks and Asians: Race and Social Movements.

Examines the relations between Asians and Blacks in the United States.

AFR X60I. Black Freedom Movement.

AFR X60J. Migration Crisis.

AFR X60K. Race and Ethnicity Politics.

Explore racial and ethnic politics throughout the United States with a focus on Black and Latino politics. Examine group identity, racial inequality, policy making, activism, criminal justice system, and immigration.

AFR X60L. Race and United States Social Policy.

Examine the relationship between race and the development of United States social policy. Explore how specific social policies affect racial and ethnic inequality.

AFR X60M. Abolition Medicine.

Examine race-based diagnostics tools and treatment guidelines that reinforce antiquated and scientifically inaccurate notions of biological race. Discuss the upstream structures that enable downstream violence, such as police brutality. Analyze, through an abolitionist lens, various systems of power in medicine, culture, and society to trace the colonial logics, practices, and institutions in the afterlife of slavery pertaining to health, illness and disease, healthcare, and public health in the United States and globally.

AFR X60N. Displacement and Resistance.

Explore technologies of displacement, as well as tactics, digital media work, mapping projects, and activism that communities engage with to resist dispossession. Examine, locally and globally, the displacement and resistance effects of various events including infrastructure projects and gentrification.

AFR X60P. Race and Migration: The Mediterranean.

Examine the history of migration within and from the Mediterranean area.

AFR X60Q. Black Women and Mass Incarceration.

Examine the history of Black women and mass incarceration in America. Explore how race, class, and gender have historically influenced the production of crime and unfair criminal justice policies. Investigate why mass incarceration matters, what its historical legacy is, and how it impacts Black women today.

AFR X60R. Crime and Capitalism in African American Popular Culture.

Examine the intersection of crime and capitalism in black literature, motion pictures and music of late twentieth and early twenty-first Centuries.

AFR X61K. Performing Race: African American Literary Performance.

Study of the criticism and performance of modern African American drama.

AFR X64O. Central Americans in the United States.

Examine the extensive and diverse histories, cultures, social and political movements of Central Americans in the United States, particularly through a Black, Indigenous, and Ethnic Studies framework.

AFR X65C. African American Language.

Introduction to the history and contemporary form of African American Language (AAL). Through readings, examine the linguistic description of essential features, the use of AAL in the creation of culturally and historically influential texts, and AAL as a subject of public discussion.

AFR X70. Topics in African and African Diaspora Studies.

AFR X73. Independent Research.

Supervised individual research on a problem in African and African diaspora studies.

AFR X75. Community Internship.

Internship in a community organization that facilitates the economic, political, and social development of Austin's African American community. Students participate in research projects under the supervision of a faculty member.

AFR X76. Senior Seminar.

A capstone course focusing on black intellectual traditions.

AFR X79H. Honors Tutorial Course.

Individual reading of selected works for one semester, followed in the second semester by the writing of an honors thesis.

Graduate Courses

AFR X19S. Topics in African and African Diaspora Studies.

AFR X29S. Topics in African and African Diaspora Studies.

AFR X80. Introduction to Policy Research .

Introduction to the tools needed to understand policy issues and analysis with respect to contemporary case examples.

AFR X80C. Marginalized Communities and Policy Development.

An exploration of how different racial groups in the United States have been historically and are presently marginalized through larger political and social systems, and how these systems have allowed groups to attain and maintain power and privilege in the United States.

AFR X80D. Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Policies.

An exploration of the development of race, ethnicity, and gender theories and their application to social issues, policy development, and policy implementation.

AFR X82. Race and the Urban Crisis.

Examines the roots of the urban crisis, or the decline of U.S. and global cities in the post-World War II era, and begins with the premise that the story of the urban crisis is simultaneously the story of racial crisis. Explores how the origins of themes such as urban unrest, concentrated poverty, the housing crisis, the drug epidemic, and welfare dependency are rooted in race, class, and spatial inequities.

AFR X85C. Topics in Black Studies Humanities.

AFR X85C.1. Reading the Maghreb.

Examine Maghrebi literature and film of both French and Arabic expression, along with works of psychoanalytic and postcolonial theory.

AFR X86C. Topics in Black Studies Social Sciences.

AFR X86C.1. Violence, Sovereignty, and Religion.

Explore the relationships among violence, sovereignty, and religion.

AFR X87C. Topics in Black Studies Fine Arts and Expressive Culture.

AFR X89. Academic Writing for Graduates.

Produce clear, accurate, and well-argued scholarly work, covering a range of commonly used writing styles, including essays, research papers, literature reviews, grant writing, thesis proposals, master's reports, qualifying examinations, and dissertations.

AFR X90. Black Studies Theory I.

An exploration of the innovative, complex, and distinctive African diaspora social structures and cultural traditions, as well as the historical, cultural, political, economic, and social development of people of African descent.

AFR X91. Black Studies Methods.

A survey of seminal black studies texts and methods that have transformed the social sciences, humanities, and fine arts in producing a distinct black studies epistemology. Explores what black studies scholars have done to transform traditional methods and disciplines in pursuit of a distinct black studies methodology.

AFR X95P. Special Subjects in Professionalization in African and African Diaspora Studies.

Advanced seminar designed to introduce students to African and African diaspora studies and the skills needed in this field; including writing and revision, competitive and successful applications for grants and fellowships, and development and preparation of a dissertation proposal.

AFR X95Q. Qualifying Examination Preparation.

AFR X96. Conference Course in Black Studies.

Individual instruction in specialized problems of advanced research in black studies.

AFR X97R. Literature Review.

Preparation of a report to be counted toward the requirement for the master's degree under the report option.

AFR X98. Thesis.

AFR X98R. Master's Report.

Preparation of a report to fulfill the requirement for the master's degree under the report option.