Courses Archive

AAS R1A: Literature of Africa and its Diaspora (Nanda, M/W, 9-10a, 00503)

AAS R1B: Race, Gender, Sexuality in African American Literature (Nanda, M/W, 12-1p, 00509)

AAS R1B: _Writing for the Race(Burden-Stelly, M/W, 4-5:30p, 00515)

AAS R1B:TBA(Staff, M/W/F, 8-9a, 00521)

AAS 5B: African American Life & Culture in the United States (Jones, T/TH, 12:30-2p, 00527)

AAS 7B: Elementary Wolof (Sow, M/Tu, 10-11a, 00539)

AAS 10B: Intermediate Swahili (McHombo, MTWTH, 11-12p, 00545)

AAS 11B: Elementary Swahili (Kyeu, MTWTH, 9-10a, 00548)

AAS 11B: Elementary Swahili (Kyeu, MTWTH, 11-12p, 00551)

AAS 15B: Advanced Swahili (Kyeu, M/W, 1-3p, 00554)

AAS 24P: Fresh. Seminar: Language & Politics in Southern Africa (McHombo, W, 2-3, 00560)

AAS 24P: Fresh. Seminar: Sport, Celebrity, and Controversy in American Culture (Banks, W, 2-3p 00562)

AAS 28AC: Globalization & Minority American Communities (Vincent, T/TH, 3:30-5p, 00563)

AAS 30B: Elementary Chichewa (Mchombo, MTWTH, 3-4p, 00566)

AAS 98 BC: Berkeley Connect (Alarcon, Tu, 5-6p, 00593)

AAS 98BC: Berkeley Connect (McGee, Th, 6-7p, 00596)

AAS 101: Research Methods for AAS (Staff, M/W, 4-5:30p, 00605)

AAS 12B: Political & Economic Development in the Third World (Nimako, M, 12p, 00611)

AAS 115: Language & Social Issues in Africa (McHombo, Tu/Th, 9:30-11a, 00617)

AAS 117: African Americans in the Industrial Age, 1865-1970 (U. Taylor, M/W, 10-12p, 00619)

AAS 122: African American Families in American Society (Frye, T/TH, 3:30-5p, 00620)

AAS 126: African American Women’s History (U. Taylor, W, 2-5p, 00623)

AAS 138: Black Nationalism (J. Taylor, M/W, 10-12, 00629)

AAS 139: American City Twinning and Globalization (Laguerre, W, 2-5p, 00631)

AAS 153C: Novels of Toni Morrison (Scott, T/TH, 12:30-2p, 00632)

AAS 156AC: Poetry for the People: Introduction to the Art of Poetry (De Leon, W, 10-12p, 00635)

AAS 157: Creative Writing (Scott, T/TH/ 3:30-5p, 00659)

AAS 158B: Poetry for the People Practicum (De Leon, T/TH, 12-2p, 00662)

AAS 159: Special Topics in African American Literature (Stanley, T/TH, 4-6p, 00664)

We will closely read six of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s novels, as well as some of her public addresses, considering the works in relation to: Morrison’s interest in creating what she calls “village literature” and in writing literature that does “trope work” that intervenes in American representations of blackness and racial identity; her theorization of the politics of race, gender and sexuality in everyday social life; her contribution to the renaissance of black women’s writing (and African American literature in general) in the 1980s and 1990s; the techniques of magic realism; the influence of feminism and the Black Power/Black Arts Movement in her representational strategies.

Required Texts

Novels:

The Bluest Eye Sula Song of Solomon Tar Baby Beloved

Paradise

Lectures:

The Dancing Mind

“Nobel Lecture”

Recommended texts

Playing in the Dark

“Recitatif”

This course is a short-story-writing workshop. In the first portion of the course, we’ll read and analyze exemplary short stories by Edith Wharton, Randall Kenan, Ursula Le Guin, Sherman Alexie and others in order to examine the styles and strategies employed by various writers, and we’ll experiment with various in-class writing exercises that emphasize basic skills in writing description, dialogue, characters, and plot. For the rest of the semester, we’ll discuss student work in class. Each student will write two 12-20 page stories, which the class will discuss and critique. For the course final, students will choose one of their two stories to revise. The members of the class will provide written constructive critiques for each piece, and we’ll discuss together suggestions for solving problems that surface in the development of students’ stories.

Requirements:

*2 short stories, approximately 12-20 pages

*a substantial revision of one of the 2 stories

*1-page critiques of all student work

*participation in class discussion of student work

*writing exercises (including 1-2 page contribution to class novella)

*1 individual meeting with Prof. Scott

*timely posting & distribution of stories to be discussed and novella contributions

This new course examines the worldwide movement to bring down South African Apartheid.  It will focus on the contributions of African Americans to influence U.S. policy toward South Africa, and to bring about restrictive “Sanctions,” which eventually led to the release of Nelson Mandela and to democratic elections in 1994.

The course will examine the role of South African Anti-Apartheid leaders such as Winnie and Nelson Mandela, Stephen Biko, and Bishop Desmond Tutu, as well as the work of African Americans such as Randall Robinson, Mary Frances Berry, Charles Diggs and Jesse Jackson.

A second phase of the course will focus on the Bay Area contribution to the Anti- Apartheid Movement.  From the work of Bay Area Congressman Ronald V. Dellums in the 1970s to the UC Berkeley Students who fought successfully for “Divestment” of the University of California’s holdings in companies doing business with the regime in the 1980s.

This course is a fiction-writing workshop in which we will confront some of the challenges of writing short fiction.   In the first portion of the course, we’ll read and analyze selected short works in order to examine the styles and strategies employed by various writers, and we’ll experiment with various in-class writing exercises that emphasize basic skills in writing description, dialogue, characters, and plot.  For the rest of the semester, we’ll discuss student work in class.  Each student will write two 15-20 page stories, which the class will discuss and critique.  At least one story will be substantially revised for the final.  The members of the class will provide written constructive critiques for each piece, and we’ll discuss together suggestions for solving problems that surface in the development of students’ stories.

This course aims to create a rigorous yet supportive space for graduate students to work on and receive feedback about individual writing projects and to promote professionalization with a specific focus on publication.  Students learn to edit and critique each others' work while developing time management and writing practice skills.  We also discuss the ins and outs ofacademic publishing: how to identify appropriate publication venues, what and how to submit, what to expect from the process. 

173AC. Gandhi and the Civil Rights Movement in America. (3) Three hours of lecture per week. This course surveys the impact of Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence and justice in American Civil Rights struggles. Through narratives, images from African American, itinerant Gandhian, and ethnic critics of race practice in American culture, we examine how Gandhian satyagraha shaped emergent civil resistance movements, as also the global appeal to nonviolent democracy. ACES component comprises internship with civil liberties partners that monitor local implementations of human rights treaties. Also listed as Religious Studies 173AC. This course satisfies the American cultures requirement.

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.