Courses Archive

  • Spring 2016 : African American Studies 4B Africa: History and Culture

    Terms offered: 2016 Summer, 2016 Spring, 2015 Summer Emphasis on social, political, and economic change in 20th century Africa; with further emphasis upon the roles of modernization, urbanization, and the emergence of contemporary African states.

    • TuTH 330-5PM
    • Nwokeji G
    • 101 Moffitt
    • 4

  • Summer 2015 : African American Studies 139 Black Panther Party and Popular Culture

    AAS   139   001 LEC   MTuWTh 10-12P   140 BARROWS   Selected Topics of African American Social Organizations:  Black Panther Party and Popular Culture  

    VINCENT, F   05/26-07/02/15

    This course will explore the rise of the Oakland, California based Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and the role of the Organization in rearticulating the urban narrative of resistance to power in American in the 1960s and 1970s. The course will begin with an analysis of theories of black revolutionary politics, and the works of important leaders such as Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton; then explor the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party as it impacted the popular consicousness in the US; interspersed by a discussion of the music, film, and popular culture that resulted from it. Through this process, students will gain an understanding of the significance of symbols and ideas in the representations of African Americas in the context of movements for social change in the US. 

     

    • MTuWTh 10-12P
    • Vincent
    • 140 Barrows
    • 3

  • Summer 2015 : African American Studies W111 Race, Class, and Gender

    AAS   W111   001 WBL   UNSCHED INTERNET   Race, Class, and Gender   SMALL, S A   06/22-08/14/15

    Note: This course has no class meetings. It takes place entirely over the Internet. The final exam will be held on Thursday, August 13, 2015, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. The deadline to register/add this course is midnight (Pacific Standard Time) on Sunday, June 14, 2015. There are no late adds for this course.

    • Unscheduled Internet
    • Small
    • Unscheduled Internet
    • 3

  • Summer 2015 : African American Studies 12 Intensive Elementary Swahili

    AAS  12   001 LEC  MTWTF 9-12P  54   BARROWS   Intensive Elementary Swahili   KYEU, D   06/22-08/14/15

    AAS  12   101 LAB  MTWTF 12-1P  104 BARROWS   Intensive Elementary Swahili

    This will be an intensive introduction of the Swahili language to beginners specificy designed for second language Swahili learners. The course is equivalent to two semesters of studying Swahili, with a full academic year credit. In order to attain the necessary proficiency (1-1+, using Interagency Round Table (ILR) scale) by the end of 8 weeks, students will need to commit themselves to use the Swahili language at all times outside class. The primary focus is to develop speaking, listening, reading and writing skills with special emphasis on developing communicative language skills.

    • 001 LEC MTWTF 9-12P / 101 LAB MTWTF 12-1P
    • Kyeu
    • LEC 54 Barrows / LAB 104 Barrows
    • 8

  • Summer 2015 : African American Studies 4B Africa: History and Culture

    AAS  4B   001 LEC   MTuW 1030-1P   140 BARROWS   Africa: History and Culture   GAMAL, A   07/06-08/14/15

    AAS  4B   101 DIS   Th 1030-1P         140 BARROWS   Africa: History and Culture                     07/06-08/14/15

    • 001 LEC MTuW 1030-1P / 101 DIS Th 1030-1P
    • Gamal
    • 140 Barrows
    • 4

  • Summer 2015 : African American Studies R1B Freshman Composition

    AAS  R1B   001 LEC   MTuWTh 9-11A   174 BARROWS   Freshman Composition   NANDA, A   07/06-08/14/15

    AAS  R1B   101 DIS   F 9-11A               174 BARROWS   Freshman Composition                    07/06-08/14/15

    • 001 LEC MTuWTh 9-11A / 101 DIS F 9-11A
    • Nanda
    • 174 Barrows
    • 4

  • Summer 2015 : African American Studies 111 Race, Class and Gender in the United States

    The goal of this course is to describe, interpret and explain the circumstances of African Americans, with regard to race, class and gender stratification in the United States at the present time. We begin with an overview of the facts of inequality and racial inequality today - how the rich got richer and the poor got poorer since the recession began in 2008. We continue with consideration of key concepts, including wealth, income and inequality; racialization, racism and ethnicity; sex, gender and the gender division of labor; feminism and Black feminism; and globalization and international migration. We also consider concepts of Black Nationalism, and Black leadership. We briefly explore the historical background to contemporary stratification by considering theories of ‘the declining significance of race’ (as argued by William Julius Wilson) and the move from plantation to ghetto, and then from ghetto to penitentiary as controlling institutions used against African Americans (as argued by Loic Wacquant). The debate around reparations – the demand for monetary and other forms of compensation to the descendants of Africans that were kidnapped, transported and enslaved in what became the United States - will form the connective tissue between the past and present.

     

    We consider how Black women and girls have been neglected in the larger debates on these issues (as argued by Nikki Jones), and how consideration of them complicates the analysis of Black people today. During this analysis we consider the role of economics, politics, demography, class relations, and racist ideologies in the prevalent patterns of stratification; and the role of Black leadership and cultural strategies in reducing inequality.  Particular attention is paid to the role of economics in shaping patterns of racialized stratification and inequality. We also consider the principles underlying federal policies for alleviating racial inequality and promoting equal opportunities. 

     

    Throughout the course we consider the impact of gender ideologies on these experiences, and we distinguish the experiences of men and women. We consider how the rich use their wealth to remain rich; and how a series of institutional obstacles continue to prevent success for poor people, especially African Americans. We will also examine the changing relationship of racist images and racialized structures in the age of Obama and the supposed ‘post-racial’ society; and assess how globalization impacts African Americans. As the course unfolds we will also consider the unique experiences of African Americans in California as compared with African Americans across the United States in general, to assess how common patterns across the United States compare with unique patterns and experiences in California. Most of the time we will focus on African Americans; but we will also consider how their experiences compare with those of other Blacks, especially West Indians and Africans born abroad, but whose children are born/raised in the United States.

     

    By the end of the semester, students should be able—in college-level writing and in oral expression—to describe and analyze the changing circumstances of African Americans in the United States today; the key dimensions of racial inequality and stratification; and to articulate the key concepts used to explain these patterns.



    AAS 111 LEC 001
    Instructor: Stephen Small
    Fall 2015
    Tues, Thurs, 3.30-5.00pm
    Location: B5 Hearst Annex
    3 Units


    For more information visit: bcourses.berkeley.edu or contact small@berkeley.edu

     

    • Tues, Thurs, 3.30-5.00pm
    • Small
    • B5 Hearst Annex
    • 3

  • Spring 2015 : African American Studies 142AC Race and American Film

    This course uses film to investigate the central role of race in American culture and history. Using films as the primary texts, the course will explore the relationship between these films and the social and political contexts from which they emerged. Looking at both mainstream and independent cinema, the course will chart the continuities and varieties of representations and negotiations of "race." The course spans the 20th century, covering (among other topics) Jim Crow in silent film, Hollywood westerns and melodramas, borderland crime dramas, documentary film, and experimental cinema. This class will concentrate on the history of African Americans in film, but we will also watch movies that consider how the overlapping histories of whiteness and ethnicity, American Indians, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, the "Third World" and "multiculturalism" have been represented in film. Themes covered include representing race and nation; the borderlands; passing and miscegenation; the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality.

    • MW 2-4P
    • Gomer
    • 390 Hearst Min
    • 4

  • African American Studies 158B Poetry for the People Practicum

    A teaching practicum, with the regular and active supervision of the instructor, for students who completed 156AC during the previous year and 158A in the previous fall. They serve as student teacher poets for 156AC. The focus of 158B is on the teaching of poetry. Each student poet is responsible for a group of seven to ten students, and, under the direct supervision of the instructor, helps the students in his/her group learn to read, criticize, and produce poetry.

    • T/TH 12-2p
    • De Leon
    • 78 Barrows
    • 4

  • African American Studies 157 Creative Writing

    Provides intensive study of the craft of writing in relation to the various genres. Course changes frequently by focus upon a specific genre.

    • T/TH/ 3:30-5p
    • Scott, D.
    • 50 Barrows
    • 3