AFRO1011: Introduction to African American Studies

This course is an introduction to the study of people of African descent in the United States with linkages to Africa and connections to the African diaspora. We will explore why people of African descent have occupied an oppressed position in this culture and globally and how they have resisted this oppression creating social change. Our major form of analysis is historical sociology, as well as the arts and humanities. We will examine changes over time and employ sociological, economic, cultural, and political tools for understanding the historical and contemporary positioning of African Americans. We will be centrally concerned with how domination, race, gender, and class shape Black life in the U.S. and how resistance and change have occurred. In our analyses we take seriously the deep intersectionality of systems of oppression as well as historic resistance to oppression. Critical race theory and Black feminist theory are important frames for our work. Moreover, the significance of the cultural creativity of African peoples is foundational to our understanding. We must be concerned with how Black people see themselves today. How social change is imagined in the 21st century informs our work.

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