Course Descriptions

The course information (including course titles, descriptions, credit hours, requisites, repeat/retake information, OHIO BRICKS, and active status) contained in this catalog is effective as of Fall Semester 2022-23. This information is subject to change at the discretion of Ohio University.

Course Filter
Filter this list of courses using course prefix, course code, keywords or any combination.
Prefix:	Code or Number:	Type	Keyword or Phrase:
Choose Course Prefix	Choose Course Number	Choose Course Type	Choose Keyword
Find whole word or phrase only.


African American Studies
	AAS 1010 - African American History I, 1526-1875 Examines economic, demographic, social, cultural and political topics in African American history from African origins to the Emancipation era. The evolution of race relations is an important component of this course, but the major emphasis will be placed on the experiences of Black people, the development of rural communities, and the potentiality and challenges facing interracial cooperation, within the framework of larger socio-economic and political processes in U. S. history. Credit Hours: 3 OHIO BRICKS Pillar: Social or Behavioral Sciences General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2SS Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Course Transferability: OTM course: TMSBS Social & Behavioral Sciences College Credit Plus: Level 1 Learning Outcomes: To achieve competency in the major historical topics and themes of the African American experience, 1450-1875. To develop introductory research skills, including use of citation guides. To exercise critical thinking skills in writing and through classroom and online discussion.
	AAS 1060 - Introduction to African American Studies Unlike most established disciplines, there is to be a lack of consensus among Africana Studies scholars as to what exactly is African American/Afro-American/Africana/Pan African/Black Studies, and/or what constitutes the nature and scope of the discipline. The National Council for Black Studies, the leading organization of Black Studies professionals in the world, defines it as a discipline that investigates African peoples’ experiences from the perspective of their interests, aspirations, possibilities, and envisioned destinies. Experiences that range from the earliest human civilizations to the tragic era of enslavement, colonization, forced migration, displacement and the reconstruction of African peoples humanity and life ways. This introductory course investigates the foundation, nature, scope, and structure of African American/Africana Studies in American Universities. The course will basically explore various descriptions, definitions, and meanings of the discipline/field, as well as approaches to understanding its interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and trans-disciplinary nature; survey major disciplinary literature written about it, and the perspectives advanced by scholars. The course also critiques and systematically outlines essential components of and/or arguments advanced about, for, or against the discipline. Finally, a comparative exploration of the interrelationship between African American/Africana Studies, Area Studies, and Ethnic Studies, as well as some emerging intellectual developments in Africana Studies research, teaching, and service activities will help guide us later into the semester as we engage in our focused discussions and discoveries of a satisfactory definition of the discipline, and an operational description of its basics and essentials. Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Discuss economic, political and social conditions faced by African Americans as a collective and understand various meanings, definitions, and descriptions of African American Studies. Discuss the origins, nature, scope, and relevance of African American Studies as a discipline and distinguish differences between African American Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Area Studies. Gain critical thinking and writing skills about African American Studies issues through five mini-writing assignments.. Understand the nature and impact of slavery in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. Understand the profound interest African American Studies has generated in articulations of the histories, identities, cultures, organizations, contributions, and aspirations of peoples of African ancestry.
	AAS 1100 - Introduction to African American Literature Focuses broadly on African American literature from work of the 18th century to contemporary writings with the intention of providing the student with an introduction to the topic. Reading poetry, short fiction, the novel, and other forms of writing, the course will explore such questions as how black writers address African American literary inheritance and production. A final paper will afford the student the occasion of applying a critical approach to literary texts. Topics may include slave and freeman and free woman narratives, the Harlem Renaissance, and the postmodern black novel. The aim of the course is to equip the student with a strong academic knowledge of African American literature in its cultural and historical contexts. Credit Hours: 3 OHIO BRICKS Pillar: Humanities: Text and Contexts General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2HL Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Course Transferability: OTM course: TMAH Arts & Humanities College Credit Plus: Level 1 Learning Outcomes: Augmenting the student’s abilities as a critical writer. Helping the student mature as a critical reader of challenging texts. Increasing the student’s capabilities with respect to research and study methods in literary criticism and African American studies. Providing student with strong academic knowledge of black literary writings. Recognizing importance of cultural history in literary texts. Recognizing importance of political culture in literary texts.
	AAS 1500 - Africana Media Studies Africana Media Studies is an introduction to the Africana experience (primarily in the U.S) through media. This course is designed to enable scholars the opportunity to explore, critique and understand images, stereotypes, myths and counter-imaging of the Africana experience. Contemporary as well as historic notions of race, class and gender through the prism of media will be examined. In the exploration of these various themes attention will be paid to the social, political, and economic contexts that have shaped the media. The media includes, though not limited to radio, television, film, newspapers and the internet. This course will attempt to include all aspects of the media to facilitate the examination of the Africana experience. However primary attention will be given to television, film and radio. The course will follow a loose chronological approach from early media to contemporary media. While the primary focus is on Africana media it does not preclude discourse on other related media studies issues, it is however the emphasis for this course. Credit Hours: 4 OHIO BRICKS Pillar: Humanities: Text and Contexts General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2HL Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 4.0 lecture, 3.0 discussion Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Course Transferability: OTM course: TMAH Arts & Humanities College Credit Plus: Level 1 Learning Outcomes: To generate greater awareness of the discipline of Africana Studies. To increase awareness of gender, race & class constructs in mass media. To offer solutions for greater media diversity (in its many forms) content. To understand forms and uses of textual analysis in media studies. To understand how political and social forces shape media. To understand media as a political tool in an Africana Studies context. To understand the history of Africana participation in mass media.
	AAS 1900 - Difficult Dialogues: Race, Law, and Religion in America Intended to help create a campus environment where sensitive subjects can be discussed in a spirit of open, scholarly inquiry and intellectual rigor and with respect for different viewpoints. (Ford Foundation Difficult Dialogues RFP, 2005 at: http://www.fordfound.org/news/more/dialogues/index.cfm?print-ver) Students in this problem-based discussion and writing course will examine race in America through the lenses of law and religion. Working on teams and using a variety of resources, students will investigate five issues spanning from the founding of the country to present day New Orleans. Analyzing past and present historical events, students will gain insights into both the progressive and repressive roles that law and religion can play in creating and resolving difficult human problems. Students who take this class will become “bridge-builders” in their communities; people who bridge the gulf between groups that sometimes perceive themselves as being divided, when they have far more in common than that which may be the subject of a “difficult dialogue.” Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Engage in rigorous thinking, research, analysis, and synthesis of matters pertaining to race, laws, and religion in the United States. To discuss intelligently and with respect for the opinions and personhood of others present-day controversies surrounding race and ethnicity in the United States. Understand how inextricably intertwined such matters are.
	AAS 2020 - African American History II, 1876 to late twentieth century Examines a series of topics (economic, demographic, social, cultural and political) in African American history from 1876 to the late twentieth century. The evolution of race relations is an important component of this course, but the major emphasis will be placed on the internal experiences of ordinary African Americans, within the framework of larger socioeconomic and political processes in U. S. history. In addition to providing topical perspectives (e.g., work, family, and religion), the course will pay close attention to chronology and change over time. Credit Hours: 3 OHIO BRICKS Pillar: Social or Behavioral Sciences General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2SS Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Course Transferability: OTM course: TMSBS Social & Behavioral Sciences College Credit Plus: Level 1 Learning Outcomes: To engage students’ understanding of historical biography/autobiography in research and writing. To improve students critical thinking and writing skills through writing assignments. To introduce undergraduates to the historiography of African American history following Reconstruction through the late twentieth century.
	AAS 2100 - Slave Narrative and Freeman/Freewomen Fiction of the 18th and 19th Centuries Will cover the African American slave narrative, from the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries, along with free-woman and free-man writings of the later nineteenth century and possibly the early twentieth century. Readings typically include works by such authors as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, William Wells Brown, and Solomon Northup. The course will consider contemporary debates surrounding the question of authenticity as well as current views of how slave narratives merit aesthetically. The course also interrogates questions pertaining to how the slave narrative challenges conventional notions of autobiography and how the early black novel confronts received and developing notions of the U.S. novel. Credit Hours: 3 OHIO BRICKS Pillar: Humanities: Text and Contexts General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2HL Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Course Transferability: OTM course: TMAH Arts & Humanities College Credit Plus: Level 1 Learning Outcomes: Augmenting the student’s abilities as a critical writer. Helping the student mature as a critical reader of literary texts. Increasing the student’s capabilities with respect to research and study methods in literary criticism and African American studies. Providing student with strong academic knowledge of early African American literary writings such as slave narratives. Recognizing importance of alternative black nationalism and black transnationalism in literary texts. Recognizing importance of political and cultural historical in literary texts.
	AAS 2110 - African American Literature II: Black Writing of the 20th and 21st Centuries Focuses on 20th- and 21st-century writings by African American authors with a view toward gaining an understanding of the enormous wealth of literature black writers produced during the periods in question. The course will start with the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Modernist phase, then move on to the Black Arts period, and conclude with contemporary African American literary writing. Typically, the course will read texts by writers including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Claude McKay, and Toni Morrison. Credit Hours: 3 OHIO BRICKS Pillar: Humanities: Text and Contexts General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2HL Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Course Transferability: OTM course: TMAH Arts & Humanities College Credit Plus: Level 1 Learning Outcomes: Augmenting the student’s abilities as a critical writer. Helping the student mature as a critical reader of literary texts. Increasing the student’s capabilities with respect to research and study methods in literary criticism and African American studies. Providing student with strong academic knowledge of literary writings by Modern and contemporary black authors. Recognizing importance of both the national and transnational character in literary texts. Recognizing importance of historical context in literary texts.
	AAS 2200 - Introduction to Black Political Economy Exploration of theories or political policies and economic processes, their interrelations, and their influence on the socioeconomic character of the black community. Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: To analyse the interrelation of governmental structures and market economics, and their impact on Black communities. To understand the political economy of several communities within the African Diaspora.
	AAS 2250 - History of the African American Worker African-American workers have had a profound effect on U.S. labor and its history. This course will examine the transformation of the African-American working class from the post-Civil War period through the late twentieth-century. African American workers and their community organizations played an integral role in shaping the American working class experience from the maturing industrial period through post-industrial period of U.S. history. We will analyze the changing relationship between capital and labor, employers and employees while evaluating the shifting meanings of “owners” and “workers” over time. Through the lenses of race, gender, and sexuality we will also analyze the developments in African American working-class culture and politics. Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: To analyze the relationship among various social and political movements revolving around class issues in which African Americans have participated. To enhance understanding of the intersection of race, class, gender and ability/disability studies as these relate to African American workers’ struggles. To evaluate the historiography of U.S. labor and African American working-class studies.
	AAS 2500 - Blackness and the Arts Introduction to the idea of a black art by focusing on a number of different kinds of art practice that enact the idea of race (e.g., film, video, fine art, new media, television, photography, literature). Develop skills in the critical study of black art as a historiographical, cultural, and political craft. Topics are chosen to provide a wide breadth and scope of black visual and expressive culture. The course is interdisciplinary by design and necessity. Encourages a shift of hermeneutics from the black life world to black visual and expressive culture in the terms of blackness. This means repurposing the study of black art in ways other than fidelity to the social category of race and an ethics of positive and negative representation that tacitly encourages the idea of film as cultural policy. Details a commitment to how new paradigms for form and aesthetics, historiography, and intertextuality constitute blackness as the unfinalizable encounter between the idea of race and the idea of art rather than blackness as merely sociology. The approach of this course is primarily that of visual culture and post-structuralist work devoted to difference. In this way, the method is twofold. Firstly, this is an introduction to the idea of race as enacted in the arts and an introduction to critical theory. Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 OHIO BRICKS Pillar: Humanities: Text and Contexts General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2HL Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Course Transferability: OTM course: TMAH Arts & Humanities College Credit Plus: Level 1 Learning Outcomes: To develop skills in the critical study of black art as a historiographic, cultural, and political craft. To introduce students to critical theory. To introduce students to the idea of race as enacted in the arts.
	AAS 2540 - History of Injustice in the United States Designed to give a socio-legal-historical perspective respecting the patterns of injustice in various areas of African American life. American Blacks are, of course, not the only victims of racism/injustice, but in the past they have been - by far - the largest and the most active of the country’s minorities and thus the appropriate focus for review of the law and injustice. Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: The students will be able to analyze the role of the US courts in the struggle against injustice. The students will be able to explain the impact that the denial of human and civil rights had on shaping the system of justice in the U.S. The students will be able to understand the historical and legal origins of injustices of perpetrator against African Americans and other people of color in the United States.
	AAS 2900 - Special Topics in African American Studies Specific course content will vary with offering. Credit Hours: 1 - 15 Repeat/Retake Information: May be repeated. Lecture/Lab Hours: 1.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,CR,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Students will increase their knowledge in African American Studies.
	AAS 3100 - Postmodern Blackness: Identity and Culture in Contemporary African American Literature Relying on contemporary literary criticism and theory, this course focuses on Postmodern African American literature of the 1960s and later. Typically concerns writers who emerged as major figures during this period, including such authors as Toni Morrison. Alice Walker, and Ishmael Reed. Attention also given to major literary, theoretical, cultural, and aesthetic developments that developed among black writers, critics, and theorists. Requisites: Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Augmenting the student’s abilities as a critical writer. Exposing the student to a wide range of significant black postmodern literary texts. Helping the student mature as a critical reader of challenging texts. Increasing the student’s capabilities with respect to research and study methods in literary criticism and African American studies. Providing the student with a broad knowledge of the theoretical and critical issues in postmodern African American literature.
	AAS 3110 - Harlem Renaissance: African American Literature of the Early 20th Century Focuses on the extraordinary yield of interwar period (c. 1915-1940) African American authors, placing the literary study in the context of political and cultural history. The course will explore such questions as how the renaissance may be seen in terms of modernist aesthetics and transnational culture. Also of interest will be the question of the renaissance and radical politics. The class will consider the Harlem Renaissance, what’s more, vis-à-vis the sexual and gender revolution of 1920s. Typically readings will include works like Langston Hughes’s The Weary Blues, Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem, Alain Locke’s The New Negro, Nella Larsen’s Passing, and Jean Toomer’s Cane, along with criticism on the Harlem Renaissance. Students will write a critically researched paper and be administered essay exams. The aim of the course is to equip the student with a strong academic knowledge of Harlem Renaissance literature in its historical context. Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Exposing the student to a wide range of significant black postmodern literary texts. Helping the student mature as a critical reader of challenging texts. Increasing the student’s capabilities with respect to research and study methods in literary criticism and African American studies. Providing student with strong academic knowledge of Harlem Renaissance writings. Recognizing importance of alternative black transnational Modernism in literary texts. Recognizing importance of political and cultural historical in literary texts of the Modernist period.
	AAS 3170 - Black Transnational Literature: Caribbean and Transcultural African American Writing Covers Caribbean and related African American literary writing, with a view toward understanding the importance of the role of Caribbean literature in Black Diaspora and black transnational cultures. Readings may include works by such authors as C.L.R. James, Jamaica Kincaid, Paule Marshall, and Derek Walcott, a cross-genre sampling of fiction, poetry, and drama. The course will also read relevant post-colonial theory and post-imperialist criticism, including writings by such figures as Paul Gilroy and Stuart Hall. Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Augmenting the student’s abilities as a critical writer. Exposing the student to a wide range of significant black transnational literary texts. Helping the student mature as a critical reader of literary texts. Increasing the student’s capabilities with respect to research and study methods in literary criticism and African American studies. Providing student with a knowledge of such concept as Black Diaspora and Africana cultures. Providing student with strong academic knowledge of black transnational writings.
	AAS 3400 - The African American Community Since World War II Explores how, when and why people of African descent use the concept “community” to express those social practices that make group life meaningful. This course focuses on how people of African descent in the United States respond to public policies and create social practices that affect collective efforts to build and sustain everyday life as a social and cultural collective. Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: This course promotes learning about the development of African American communities in rural and urban areas of the United States. Understand and discuss social practices and economic factors that contributed to the Great Migration North and return migration South. Understand and discuss the development of class dynamics within local African American communities before and after the civil rights movement. Understand and discuss the social cultural impact of the Great Migration on the Development of local African American communities in urban areas across the United States since 1945.
	AAS 3410 - African American Personality Examination of organization and structure of African American personality within American and African sociopsychological contexts. Special emphasis on various forces that shape African American personality. Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: To understand and discuss the impact of psychological discourses on African Americans’ perception of personality types. To understand and discuss theoretical frameworks for analyzing African Americans’ personalities.
	AAS 3450 - The Black Woman This course investigates representations of black women throughout U.S. history. Students pays particular attention to the ways in which black womanhood is historically characterized through the paradigms of race, gender and social class. Students explore how selected scholars render black women in ways that re-envision, perpetuate, contest, and/or subvert stereotypical images of black women. Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to identify key women in the African American experience Students will be able to critically discuss issues most salient to Black women Students will be able to critically write about how race, class and gender intersect and impact the life chances of African American women Students will be able to identify, critically discuss and write about theories related to African American Women¿s experiences Students will be able to analyze and synthesize primary and secondary sources that document the lives of African American women
	AAS 3460 - Black Men and Masculinities Black Men and Masculinities is an interdisciplinary course that examines the diverse experiences of black men and the public discourses about black masculinities primarily in the U.S. The major thrust of the course is to examine how the gendered social order influences black men’s actions and the way black men perceive themselves, other men, women, and social situations. We will use an intersectionality perspective to explore the relationships between multiple dimensions of social relations and inequalities: gender, race/ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation. We will also consider how black masculinities are produced in various physical/social sites. This course evaluates the prospects for social change in how black men think, feel, and act. It addresses issues such as: black male socialization and boyhood/guyland culture, the black male body image, black male friendship, black male sexuality and fertility, black men’s experiences as fathers and their involvement in volunteer and paid youth work, male aggression and violence, the social construction of masculinities in different historical and cultural contexts, and men’s movements and networks. Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Apply theoretical insights to political, cultural, and economic issues relevant to the construction of Black masculinities. Explore of the multiple meanings that Black men attach to gender, sexuality, work, family and community. Understand epistemological assumptions informing common sense understandings of Black masculinities.
	AAS 3500 - African American Arts and Artists The class is an intensive study of a specific topic/theme of Black visual and expressive culture. The course will be structured around this specific topic/theme to illustrate the methods and traditions of black visual and expressive culture. The content of the course will rotate but always address the relationship between art practice and the idea of race. Such topics might include feminist art, the racial grotesque, Chester Himes and the noir tradition, passing and the black embodiment index, historical consciousness and Civil Rights America, hip-hop modernism, or an analysis of one literary text (Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man or Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo) and its influence of black visual and expressive culture. The purpose of this class is to promote a rigorous sense of blackness as entailing a negotiation with the necessary, creative tensions between art and distinct modalities of black visual and expressive culture. In other words, this course redraws the lines of influence, appreciation, allusion, causality, reference, and exposition by recognizing the importance of ambiguity over prescription. The approach of the class is most immediately informed by the work of Darby English (How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness), Kobena Mercer (Annotating Art’s Histories series), and Kimberly Benston (Performing Blackness: Enactments of African American Modernism). This body of literature represents a focus on black visual and expressive culture as a critical art informed by the history of African Americans but not utterly reducible to that history. Therefore, the course frames the respective topic or theme as a multi-discursive aesthetic and cultural practice. In this way, the method will be that of visual culture and black studies. Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2HL Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: To develop students’ understanding of the methods and traditions of black visual and expressive culture. To frame the respective topic or theme as a multi-discursive aesthetic and cultural practice. To promote a rigorous sense of blackness as entailing a negotiation with the necessary, creative tensions between art and distinct modalities of black visual and expressive culture.
	AAS 3520 - Blacks in Contemporary American Cinema Explores the representation of African Americans in contemporary American cinema since the 1970s. It also examines the contributions of African Americans on both sides of the camera, as well as various themes conveyed in the films of the period. This class will not only understand film as a text, it will also critique, analyze and investigate the social and political messages within the film text. Requisites: AAS 1500 Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Analyze and understand film as a constructed text. Be familiar with Africana film theory. Demonstrate a working knowledge of the formation of the current Hollywood system. Understand the development of Africana participation in Hollywood.
	AAS 3530 - Survey of Black Independent Cinema Black Independent Cinema is a course about seeing. Many look but few see. We will build a consciousness of the Africana experience in independent filmmaking with particular emphasis on independent filmmakers from the United States. This aim will be achieved by examining the body of work produced by independent filmmakers from the early 1900s up until present day. In addition to the study of the film diegesis, this course will explore aesthetic and theoretical issues relative to the development of an independent Black cinema. Black cinema describes a specific body of films produced in the African Diaspora which shares a common problematic (Yearwood, 2000, p5). Further this course will examine the social dynamics at work during the various stages of Black independent cinema, which has served as a counter to Hollywood’s limited portrayal of the Africana experience. This class is guided by interactive discussion and analysis of films screened. Requisites: AAS 1500 Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Black Women and Film. Family Films representations in Cinema. Historical Background and Early African American Film. Mid-Late 20th Century Independent African American film and Hollywood. The Documentary and other forms of resistance.
	AAS 3550 - History of African American Music I, Slavery-1926 Sociohistorical examination of African American music and its role in shaping American music. Recordings and guest lecturers used as integral part of course. Examines spirituals, rural and urban blues, ragtime, and early jazz. Requisites: One course in Tier II Fine Arts or Humanities Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: To understand the political, economic, and social origins of multiple Black musical cultures. To understand the role of music in shaping Black identity.
	AAS 3560 - History of African American Music II, 1926-Present Sociohistorical analysis of African American music and its role in shaping modern American music. Recordings and guest musician/lecturers used as integral part of course. Examines big-band era, urban blues, bebop, rhythm and blues, hard bop, black classical composers, avantgarde musical performances, and hip-hop Requisites: One course in Tier II Fine Arts or Humanities Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: To locate musical traditions within the African-American community as signifying practices. To understand the intersections of gender, class, race, and consumption within Black music.
	AAS 3570 - Black Music Criticism: Hiphop history, culture and politics Designed to engage scholars in a process of discovering and developing critical analytical skills within the context of Hip-hop history, culture, and politics. This course will explore Hip-hop culture as a manifestation of Africana visual, performance and oral traditions. It will explore Africana cultural practices that have given rise to the numerous manifestations of Hip-hop over its thirty-plus year history in the United States and abroad. Hip-hop has affected/infected all facets of popular culture from the classroom to the corporate boardroom. This course examines the development, contradictions and various representations of Hip-hop culture. This course is designed to increase students’ depth of knowledge of Hip-hop within the context of Africana cultural practices, the history and various positions about what Hip-hop is/is not and provide opportunities for dialogue and further study. Toward accomplishing the goal of investigating Hip-hop history, culture, and politics, film, various media texts and possibly guest lecturers will be used to facilitate this learning experience. Scholars will be expected to submit papers, complete oral reports, and participate in class projects for successful completion of this course. Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: To locate rap music as a signifying practice. To understand Hip-hop as a manifestation of Africana cultural practice. To understand Hip-hop educational pedagogy and practice. To understand intersections of gender, class, race, and consumption with Hip-hop culture and rap music. To understand the political, economic, and social origins of Hip-hop Culture.
	AAS 3640 - Comparative Study of Injustice Will take a look at different approaches to civil and human rights in selected developed and developing countries. There will also be a review of theory of justice and political consequences in chosen countries. A substantial part of the fourteen week semester will be used to examine the injustices of the past apartheid system of South African and comparing it to the struggle to end Jim Crow segregation in the United States. In addition, the Armenian genocide, the Rwandan genocide, and the Republic of the Congo genocide will be briefly reviewed and comparisons made. The course will also take a look at the attempts of ethnic cleansing in a number of different parts of the world. Our first review will start in our backyard with a look at how the Native Americans in the U.S. were subjected to a sophisticated genocide perpetrated by the U.S. government and the people of America. Racial injustices suffered by people of color in the United States are interconnected with injustices perpetrated on other people of color throughout the world. Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: The student will be able to analyze the role (positive and negative) of the United States government and its involvement in a number of other struggles against global injustice. The students will achieve a basic understanding of the historical and legal origins of the injustice of the South African Apartheid system. The students will be able to understand the striking similarities of the injustice of the South African Apartheid system and the Jim Crow system of the United States. The students will complete a brief review of the important international organizations which attempt to play a role in fighting injustice in the global arena (example: United Nations). The students will gain an appreciation for the issue of ethnic cleansing in a number of countries throughout the world, including the United States.
	AAS 3650 - The Protracted Struggle for Civil Rights: African American Social Movements in the U.S This course examines the varied local and national struggles that constitute the long history of the Black Freedom Movement from the Abolitionists movement until today. Students explore the role of national organizations, their origins, evolution, strategies, challenges, internal conflicts, and failures in historical detail. Moreover, students explore the social, economic and political conditions that resulted in these movements. Requisites: AAS 1060 or Junior or Senior Status Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to identify key individuals, and groups, that were involved in African American social movements. Students will be able to identify theories related to African American social movements. Students will be able to discuss and write critically about the social, economic and political conditions that led to African American social movements. Students will be able to discuss and write about how race, gender and class impacted African American social movements.
	AAS 3680 - African American Political Thought This course examines the basic tenets of Black political thought and intellectual history in the United States from 1830 to 2000. This course investigates the influences of political thinkers of African descent who shaped several social and political movements and theories, including Progressivism, liberalism, Marxism, Black Nationalism, feminism & womanism, existentialism, and anti-colonialism. Requisites: AAS 2020 Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: To engage students’ understanding of historical biography/autobiography in research and writing. To improve students critical thinking and writing skills through writing assignments. To introduce undergraduates to the historiography of African American history following Reconstruction through the post-Black Power Era.
	AAS 3691 - U.S. Constitutional Law: Pre-Civil Rights Movements While learning the basic principles of Constitutional Law and legal reasoning, students taking this course will also learn the critical role law plays in correcting social injustices in our society, the significance of precedents and stare decisis in a common law system; and how to distinguish cases that have similar factual bases but different judicial holdings. The course is also intended to help students develop a sharpened sense of civic responsibility, especially in relation to issues of equality and justice. Requisites: Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 OHIO BRICKS Capstone: Capstone or Culminating Experience General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: To assist students to gain knowledge and skills that will enable them to pursue advanced studies in law, African American Studies or in the other related disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. To introduce students to intensive research and writing about the legal, historical, sociological, political, and socioeconomic challenges African Americans have faced and overcome.
	AAS 3800 - African American Education Some scholars, educators and parents suggest the educational system in the United States, is designed to prepare individuals for access and inclusion into this society and also to intelligently participate in a democratic republic. Others have suggested the educational system is means of social control, both a passive and active way of maintaining the structural hegemony of inequality already present. Whatever the case may be, the debate of how to best empower and educate Africana people has been active since before 1865. This seminar will provide an overview of this discussion as well as some of the major factors contributing to the topic. Seminar in African American Education explores, critiques and examines the journey of African descendants in the United States in their quest for education. This course will examine two major historical features of this experience, how Africana people have sought to educate themselves and how the larger culture has attempted to educate them. Within this examination this course will attempt to explore both positions advanced by scholars, educators and parents as well as other developments in the field of education relating to Africana people. Requisites: 6 Hours Tier II Social Sciences or Education Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Analyze educational policy with regard to Africana people. Be familiar with multicultural efforts to add to school curriculum. Be familiar with the history of the Africana educational movement for self-education. Students will continue to construct a repository of Africana educational theory, terms, concepts and sharpen critical engagement abilities relevant to understanding Africana education in the United States. Understand major concerns of Africana education in public schools. Understand the debate regarding private and public schooling.
	AAS 4110 - Literature Seminar: Black Countercultures Focuses on a current critical trend in African American literary studies. Students will have the opportunity to apply critical theory and criticism to, for example, black modernist, postmodernist, and/or transnational literature. Typically readings will include works by such as authors as Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde, and/or Toni Morrison. The student will write a critical research paper and be administered essay exams. The aim of the course is to familiarize the student with contemporary approaches and issues in black literary studies. Requisites: AAS 1100 and 2100 Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Augmenting the student’s abilities as a critical writer. Helping the student mature as a critical reader of challenging texts. Increasing the student’s capabilities with respect to research and study methods in literary criticism and African American studies. Providing student with strong academic knowledge of black radical avant-garde writings. Recognizing importance of alternative black countercultural literature. Recognizing importance of modernism, postmodernism, and transnationalism in literary texts.
	AAS 4300 - Social Theory, Research and Methodology in African American Studies This course will introduce students to the methods and techniques of scholarly research and writing. The course will examine the basic tenets of Africana Studies social theories, research methods, and intellectual inquiry. The foundation of course will begin with an appreciation and understanding of the history, culture, philosophy and worldview of the lived experiences of peoples of African descent. The thematic concerns of the course will focus on social theory and research methods in the field of Africana Studies. The course will survey and investigate the influences of various theoretical perspectives and methodological concerns and determine their intellectual uses and application , as well as discuss some of the criticisms of these methods, particularly as they relate to contemporary thinking about local, national, and international Black experiences. Requisites: AAS 1060 and (1010 or 2020) and (Jr or Sr) Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Employ the methods ethnographers and historians use to conduct original research and to frame and analyze scholarly findings. Gain critical thinking and writing skills about African American Studies research issues through the completion of several research writing assignments (annotated bibliography, literature reviews, and research questions). Recognize and distinguish among various types of primary and secondary sources, their uses, and limitations. Understand differences between Afrocentric and Eurocentric research, thought and practice. Understand how to develop a scholarly research proposal.
	AAS 4400 - The Black Child What does it mean to be a black child in America at the beginning of the 21st century? We will consider how the meaning of childhood changes over time, place, and social context for African Americans. By moving children to the center of focus, we will see that there is no singular definition of African American childhood, but instead many different ways in which African Americans experience childhood and adolescence. Typically African American children are only studied as victims or perpetrators of social problems, but in this course we will consider African American children in many additional contexts. We will begin by examining the meaning(s) of childhood and adolescence and how they have changed over time. Throughout the course we will see how African American children’s lives are shaped by broader systems of inequality. We will also examine how African American children are active in the construction of their own peer cultures and popular culture, as well as why the relationship between Black youth and popular culture is routinely viewed as problematic, and how African American children are discussed within the popular press. Finally, we will examine how public policies shaping African Americans children and adolescents’ lives are formulated and how they sometimes serve to replicate various inequalities. Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Students should be able to apply a child-centered approach to an analysis of the political and economic policies shaping African American childhood. Students should be able to apply social constructivist frameworks to any analysis of children’s everyday life and the public policy designed to regulate their behavior. Students should be able to discuss and assess the various social constructions of childhood and adolescence in the African American community.
	AAS 4500 - The History of Black Women in Popular Culture This course explores the tremendous influence that popular culture, in the form of films, television, music video, and print media, has on how we conceptualize what it means to be women in general and women of African descent in particular. Students closely examine artifacts of popular culture that help to understand the intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality. Students also explore representations of Black women in popular culture and its impact both domestically and internationally. Requisites: Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to define how racism and sexism influence popular culture Students will be able to define and explain the ways masculinity and femininity are constructed in popular culture Students will be able to critically analyze popular culture and its significance to and on people of African descent in general and women in particular Students will be able to identify and explain how women in general and women of African descent in particular have been constructed & represented in popular culture and how they have represented themselves Students will be able to critically analyze, discuss, and write about popular culture artifacts as they pertain to women Students will be able to critically discuss the global and sociopolitical significance of popular culture Students will be able to compare and contrast theoretical debates about popular culture in general and as it relates to gender in particular
	AAS 4693 - Legal Policy and Disparities in the American Health Care System Intended to examine the disparities in health care experienced by women, children, the elderly, Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Appalachians, and the poor in the American health care system, in the spirit of open, scholarly inquiry. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most inhumane. He worked to raise awareness about public health concerns, particularly relating to issues that disproportionately affect minorities, people of color, and low-income communities. Requisites: Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 OHIO BRICKS Capstone: Capstone or Culminating Experience General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Discuss intelligently the present-day issues surrounding access to health care by diverse groups in the United States. Engage in rigorous thinking, research, analysis, and synthesis of matters relating to the laws, regulations, and health care policies and practices as they pertain to diverse groups in the United States. Understand that racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities are national problems that affect health care at all points in the process, at all sites of care, and for all medical conditions in fact, disparities are pervasive.
	AAS 4820 - The Black Family Focusing on the history of ideas and approaches that have shaped and defined our understanding of Black families. This course offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of African American social and family life. You will be introduced to historical and socio-cultural circumstances that affect the Black family and the diverse nature of Black culture. The purpose of this course is to focus on the Black family as a social institution. You will understand and appreciate the strengths of the Black family by being expose to a variety of challenges they face. This course will also attempt to heighten awareness and sensitivity to the contemporary problems affecting the Black family and thus help discover and evaluate social policies and programs geared towards Black families. Specifically, the course will provide a sociological perspective for understanding and analyzing topics and challenges that impact the Black family. The discussion is also designed to encourage and stimulate critical thinking beyond “common sense” interpretations of the Black family. Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr Credit Hours: 3 Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Demonstrate proficiency in all of the above orally and in writing Identify the impact of family history on lives of African Americans Think more critically about the relationship between the black family and the black community Understand the dynamics involved in partner selection and intimate relationships for African Americans Understand the life cycle of family relationships for African Americans
	AAS 4900 - Special Topics in African American Studies Specific course content will vary with offering. Credit Hours: 1 - 15 Repeat/Retake Information: May be repeated. Lecture/Lab Hours: 1.0 lecture Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,CR,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: Students will increase their knowledge in African American Studies.
	AAS 4930 - Independent Study Primarily for students interested in concentrated study in specific area in cooperation with advisor. Requisites: Permission required Credit Hours: 3 - 9 Repeat/Retake Information: May be repeated for a maximum of 9.0 hours. Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 independent study Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,CR,PR,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I Learning Outcomes: To provide undergraduates to plan and execute a specialized research and writing project under the supervision of faculty.

Contract All Courses | Print this page.

Print this Page

Course Descriptions

AAS 1010 - African American History I, 1526-1875

AAS 1060 - Introduction to African American Studies

AAS 1100 - Introduction to African American Literature

AAS 1500 - Africana Media Studies

AAS 1900 - Difficult Dialogues: Race, Law, and Religion in America

AAS 2020 - African American History II, 1876 to late twentieth century

AAS 2100 - Slave Narrative and Freeman/Freewomen Fiction of the 18th and 19th Centuries

AAS 2110 - African American Literature II: Black Writing of the 20th and 21st Centuries

AAS 2200 - Introduction to Black Political Economy

AAS 2250 - History of the African American Worker

AAS 2500 - Blackness and the Arts

AAS 2540 - History of Injustice in the United States

AAS 2900 - Special Topics in African American Studies

AAS 3100 - Postmodern Blackness: Identity and Culture in Contemporary African American Literature

AAS 3110 - Harlem Renaissance: African American Literature of the Early 20th Century

AAS 3170 - Black Transnational Literature: Caribbean and Transcultural African American Writing

AAS 3400 - The African American Community Since World War II

AAS 3410 - African American Personality

AAS 3450 - The Black Woman

AAS 3460 - Black Men and Masculinities

AAS 3500 - African American Arts and Artists

AAS 3520 - Blacks in Contemporary American Cinema

AAS 3530 - Survey of Black Independent Cinema

AAS 3550 - History of African American Music I, Slavery-1926

AAS 3560 - History of African American Music II, 1926-Present

AAS 3570 - Black Music Criticism: Hiphop history, culture and politics

AAS 3640 - Comparative Study of Injustice

AAS 3650 - The Protracted Struggle for Civil Rights: African American Social Movements in the U.S

AAS 3680 - African American Political Thought

AAS 3691 - U.S. Constitutional Law: Pre-Civil Rights Movements

AAS 3800 - African American Education

AAS 4110 - Literature Seminar: Black Countercultures

AAS 4300 - Social Theory, Research and Methodology in African American Studies

AAS 4400 - The Black Child

AAS 4500 - The History of Black Women in Popular Culture

AAS 4693 - Legal Policy and Disparities in the American Health Care System

AAS 4820 - The Black Family

AAS 4900 - Special Topics in African American Studies

AAS 4930 - Independent Study