Africana Studies Program at Vassar

I. Introductory

102b. Introduction to Third-World Studies: A Comparative Approach to Africa and the African Diaspora (1)

This course acquaints students with the major concepts, themes, and approaches to the study of peoples of African descent. These concepts include history and the African past; slavery, forced migration, and the creation of the Diaspora; colonialism and conquest; race and identity; resistance and religion; and cultural transformation. Integrating the disciplines, the course uses a variety of texts, music and visual culture. Ms. Bickerstaff.

105a. Issues In Africana Studies (1)

Topic for 2009/10a: Black Is/Black Ain't: Black Identities from Afrocentrism and Beyond. This is a course about self-creation. From folktales about tricky rabbits to films that highlight the impossible reality of being gay and black at the same time, this course is an exploration into how black people have made/remade themselves through telling the stories of their lives. Using different modes of group identification (such as Afrocentrism, feminism, queerness, hip hop, etc.) we'll explore the mutability of black identity as we attempt to answer questions like: why might one assume an afrocentric identity; how do aesthetics (clothing, music and art) mark one as having a particular relationship to "blackness"; what does "Africa" mean to members of the black diaspora; is it possible to not be black enough; and do non-black people engage black identities? Course may include works by Molefi Asante, Frantz Fanon, Toni Morrison, Danzy Senna, Kara Walker, Richard Wright and others. Ms. Dunbar

Topic for 2009/10a: The African Diaspora and the Caribbean. This course offers an overview of the pivotal role played by the forced migration of enslaved Africans on the development of the societies and cultures of the Caribbean region. We examine the economic, political, and social development of the region with a focus on the lasting legacy of slavery and the plantation. Among the topics covered are colonialism, race and class, ethnicity, post-colonialism, migration, transnationalism, popular culture, and religion. Ms. Paravisini-Gebert.

106-107. Elementary Arabic (1)

Fundamentals of the language. Students learn to understand spoken Arabic, to express simple ideas both orally and in writing, and to read Arabic of average difficulty. Mr. Mhiri.

Open to all students.

Three 50-minute periods, plus one drill session per week.

[ 108a. Introduction to the African Literary Traditions ] (1)

Examines the works of a number of African writers, both orally transmitted texts—such as folklore and poetry—and written genres, and their cultural influence and impact upon European concepts about Africans before and during the Renaissance, including the period of the 800 years of Moorish/Muslim rule of Iberia. It also investigates how contemporary African writers have tried to revive a sense of the African cultural continuum in old and new literary works. Writers include: Horus, St. Augustine, Ibn Khaldun, Achebe, Ba, Ngugi, Neto, Abrahams, Mazrui, and Salih.

Not offered in 2009/10.

160 a and b. Books, Children, and Culture (1)

(Same as Education 160a and b) This course examines select classical works from the oral tradition and contemporary works of children's fiction and non-fiction. The course addresses juvenile literature as a sociological phenomenon as well as a literary and artistic one (illustrative content). The course traces the socio-historical development of American children's literature from Western and non-Western societies. Social, psychoanalytic, and educational theories provide a conceptual basis and methodological framework for the cultural analysis of fairy tale and modern fantasy in cross-cultural perspective. Socialization issues include: ideals of democracy; moral character; race and class; politicalization; and the human relationship to the natural environment. Ms. Bickerstaff.

183a. Images, Objects, and African Americans (1)

(Same as Art 183a) In this interdisciplinary freshman seminar, we examine images and objects created by African Americans in the United States from the slave past to the present day. Working with an expansive conception of art, we pay close attention to the work of formally trained and non-formally trained creators in relation to their social, cultural, artistic, and historical contexts. Ms. Collins.

Open to freshman. Satisfies college requirement for a Freshman Writing Seminar.