2012-13 Catalog

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African American Studies [clear]


Title   Offering Standing Credits Credits When F W S Su Description Preparatory Faculty Days Multiple Standings Start Quarters Open Quarters
A History of "Race" in the U.S.: From Colonial Era to 2013
Michael Vavrus and Artee Young
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 16 16 Day S 13Spring Despite claims that the U.S. is "post-racial," why does "race," nevertheless, continue to retain significance in our contemporary era? And more specifically, just what is "race"?To address these question and others, this program explores the origins and manifestations of the contested concept of race, including the role of teh U.S. judicial system and law enforcement. We further investigate the ways in which one's racial identification can result in differential social, economic and political treatment and how social movements emerged to challenge racial inequality. To understand this phenomena, we analyze the racialized history of the United States in relation to dominant discourses of popular culture, science, psychology, health care, law, citizenship, education and personal/public identity.Central to this program is a study of historical connections between European colonialism prior to U.S. independence as a nation and the expansion of U.S. political and military dominance globally since independence and into the 21st century. In this context students are provided opportunities to investigate how the bodies of various populations have been racialized. Students will examine related contemporary concepts such as racism, prejudice, discrimination, gender, class, affirmative action, white privilege and color blindness. Students will consider current research and racialized commentaries that surround debates on genetics vs. culture (i.e., nature vs. nurture).Students will engage the concept of race through readings, dialogue in seminars, films, and academic writing that integrate program materials. A goal of the program is for students to recognize contemporary expressions of race by what we hear, see and read as well as absences and silences that we find. These expressions include contemporary news accounts and popular culture artifacts (e.g., music, television, cinema, on-line media). As part of this inquiry, we will examine the presidency of Barack Obama in relation to discourses on race. As a learning community we will work together to make sense of these expressions and link them to their historical origins.Students will also have an opportunity to examine the social formation of their own racial identities through their own personal narratives. Current approaches from social psychology will be foundational in this aspect of the program. Related to this is consideration as to what it can mean to be an anti-racist in a 21st century racialized society.A visits to a local cultural museum is tentatively planned as part of this program. medicine/health, education, government, law, history, political science, cultural studies, sociology and media studies. Michael Vavrus Artee Young Tue Wed Fri Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
African American Literature
Artee Young
  Course SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day W 13Winter The goal of the program is to introduce students to a significant canon of American Literature that expands students' understanding of the literary contributions of Americans of African descent. Students will also gain knowledge of various genres contextualized in an historical continuum. The program is grounded in an inquiry based approach and places the development of the literary canon in its evolving historical context. In the face of laws prohibiting African Americans from reading or writing, what was the motivation of early writers of African descent to create stories based on their experiences in the Americas as well as their imaginations? What impact did evolving historical, social and economic circumstances have on the development of African American Literature? What is the current place and direction of the African American literary canon? This program surveys the literary, historical, cultural, aesthetic, religious, social, philosophical and economic dimensions of literature by Americans of African descent. Through a thematic and chronological study of genres, canonical and lesser-known authors, this program explores the dimensions of the Vernacular Tradition and Slave Narratives from the 1760’s to the literary authors of the present. From Sejour to Phillis Wheatley to Toni Morrison to Grandmaster Flash, a bounty of writers, poets, preachers, essayists, and rappers will be included in our journey through a veritable gold mine of African American Literature.In our review of the Vernacular Tradition, themes of freedom, transformation and transcendence will be central to our readings and discussions. As our focus turns to the Reconstruction Period, we will focus on themes presented and influenced by lynching, segregation, migration, and the women’s suffrage movement. Themes in the Harlem Renaissance Period reflect the thoughts of the “New Negro” as well as those writers of African descent who were associated with the Negritude Movement, writers of African descent from around the world. Between the years 1940 and 1960, writers expanded conventional literary boundaries and are best described as moving into a period of Realism, Naturalism and Modernism. This period intersects with the Great Migration when approximately five and half million African Americans migrated from the south to the north, and it is during this time that themes of migration, desegregation and social change abound in the literature. The Period from 1960-1970 has been referred to as The Black Arts Movement, and the literature produced reflects the social movements occurring in this country as well as abroad. The Viet Nam War and various other social upheavals including the civil rights movement, Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, Black Power and the New Left dominated thematic content in all genres that will be studied in this program. Literature since 1970 has taken a reflective view of past contributions of African American writers and has expanded on the concept of blackness, moving away from a single blackness to ask the question, as McKay and Gates articulate: “What in fact does blackness mean?”In addition to the text, students will also read and include in their discussions material gathered from various online sources as well as handouts that will be distributed in class.The program will include a variety of learning modes: lectures, discussion groups, films and videos, research teams, and production teams. Students will select a theme or author and produce an annotated bibliography to include an introduction of approximately 3 to 5 pages. Moreover, students will be placed in groups to develop and present a reader’s theatre production of an author’s works or a reader’s theatre presentation to include the literature of several authors. This can be a live presentation or a video, or a series of visual arts representations of the student’s work. Book: Artee Young Mon Wed Wed Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Winter Winter
Afrofuturism
Andrew Buchman, Chico Herbison and Joye Hardiman
  Program SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day S 13Spring Afrofuturism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic embraced by artists who have imagined alternative futures, while often grappling with aspects of race, gender and ethnicity. Rone Shavers and Charles Joseph offered a critical working definition of the genre, first named by Mark Dery around 1995, as follows: "Afro-Futurism...combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy and magic realism with non-Occidental (non-Western) cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of the past." Artists often listed in an emerging Afrofuturist pantheon include authors Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler; visual artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Renée Cox; and musicians Parliament-Funkadelic (including George Clinton and Bootsy Collins), Sun Ra, DJ Spooky (Paul D. Miller), and Janelle Monáe.After laying the groundwork for explorations of the work of these and other artists, we will ask students to help us address these and other avenues for explorations of Afrofuturism, including race and digital culture; the role of technology in cultural formations; notions of Utopia, Dystopia, and the "post-historical" in Afrofuturistic literature; non-Occidental (non-Western) cosmologies and their uses in Afrofuturistic texts; trauma theory and its role in Afrofuturistic literary and cultural production; Afrofuturism's relationship to digital and/or urban music (i.e., drum and bass, garage, hip-hop, house, jungle, neo-soul, funk, dub, techno, trip hop, etc.); Black identity in Western literature, in light of Afrofuturism's general interrogation of identity and identity politics; Afrofuturism and its relation to previous race-based art movements and aesthetics (e.g., the Harlem Renaissance, Black Arts Movement, the New Black Aesthetic, etc.); Black Music as a source of Afrofuturistic discourse and/or liberation; the black superhero as Afrofuturistic rebel, and the black comic book as a "paraliterary" source of contemporary folklore; Afrofuturism from the perspective of film studies and/or video culture; and/or the social and cultural implications of a theory of Afrofuturism.Because the artworks we will be dealing with will be both exciting, provocative and fine, we think that students will find this hard intellectual work deeply rewarding, sometimes in unexpected ways. We expect to learn from students, and to share an intellectual adventure in an emerging, engrossing artistic terrain. While research writing and criticism will be emphasized, students will also be encouraged to pursue optional creative writing and music projects, for possible presentation to the entire program. the humanities or the arts, especially creative writing and music. Andrew Buchman Chico Herbison Joye Hardiman Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Civil War and Reconstruction: America's Greatest Crisis
Thomas Rainey and Geoffrey Cunningham
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 8 08 Evening Su 13Summer Session II This program will explore, in detail, the causes, course, consequences, and legacy of the American Civil War and of the Reconstruction that followed. The Civil War and Reconstruction together caused the the greatest domestic crisis in the history of the United States of America. Indeed, the Civil War and Reconstruction were not only defing moments in American history but were also of world historical significance. Participants will consider and carefully study the war and its consequences as portrayed, mythologized, remembered, and interpreted in history texts, fictional accounts, personal memoirs, and films. The program will focus on the politics of two democracies at war, crucial battles and their consequences, questions of political and military leadership, the political and military significances of the Emancipation Proclomation, the reasons why the North ultimately prevailed over the South, and the failures of Reconstruction to protect the promised civil, social, and economic rights of the recently emancipated slaves.   Thomas Rainey Geoffrey Cunningham Tue Wed Thu Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Summer Summer
Freedom Dreams: The Cultural Revolutions of the 1960s
Greg Mullins and Trevor Griffey
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 16 16 Day F 12 Fall W 13Winter Where is home, and what would it be like to be free?According to cultural critic Robin DG Kelley, these burning questions about love and belonging, and not mere experiences of oppression, lay at the heart of the radical imagination. “Once we strip radical social movements down to their bare essence and understand the collective desires of people in motion,” he says, “freedom and love lay at the very heart of the matter.”Taking Kelley’s insight as our starting point, this program will use the study of history and literature to explore the intersections between three revolutionary social movements of the 1960s: the black freedom movement, the women’s liberation movement, and the sexual liberation movement.Our focus in fall will be themes of home and exile, freedom and slavery, and the role of love in imagining the kind of world we want to live in. We will revisit the history of the black freedom movement to imagine what civil rights movement history might look like if told as the struggle for a new world instead of the struggle for political rights. We will visit Washington DC on a field trip during the first week of November to study the politics of remembering the civil rights movement, including the iconic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in August, 1963.Our inquiry into the black freedom movement will serve as a model for how we then move on to explore the literature and histories of the women’s liberation and gay and lesbian sexual liberation movements during winter quarter. Instead of studying them as mere demands for political rights, we will study ways in which their demands for liberation opened up a space for revolutionary politics, and how activists’ radical imagination for what liberation would mean inspired the cultural revolutions of the 1960s. history, literature, and fields related to social and cultural analysis such as education, human services, government, policy, etc. Greg Mullins Trevor Griffey Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall Winter
Individual Study: Performing Arts and Humanities
Ratna Roy
Signature Required: Spring 
  Contract SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day S 13Spring I am interested in working with students who wish to do independent work in the Performing Arts and the Humanities. I am broadly interested in the intersections between the social and the creative worlds, as my own creative work has explicitly dealt with this intersection. As well, since my Ph.D. is in African-American Literature, I am deeply interested in minority arts, be they defined by race, gender or sexual orientation, and whether they be in writing, or in the visual or performing arts.As an artist, I have concentrated in the world of choreography, in particular, in Orissi dance from India. A strong influence on my work has been the ancient mythologies of the Indian sub-continent, and the contemporary realities of neo-colonialism and its consequences. Students interested in working with me should submit an on-line Independent Study form, available at: Click on "Online Contract Process", create a contract, then submit it to me for my review. Ratna Roy Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Individual Study: Performing Arts and Humanities
Ratna Roy
Signature Required: Winter 
  Contract SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day W 13Winter I am interested in working with students who wish to do independent work in the Performing Arts and the Humanities. I am broadly interested in the intersections between the social and the creative worlds, as my own creative work has explicitly dealt with this intersection. As well, since my Ph.D. is in African-American Literature, I am deeply interested in minority arts, be they defined by race, gender or sexual orientation, and whether they be in writing, or in the visual or performing arts.As an artist, I have concentrated in the world of choreography, in particular, in Orissi dance from India. A strong influence on my work has been the ancient mythologies of the Indian sub-continent, and the contemporary realities of neo-colonialism and its consequences. Students interested in working with me should submit an on-line Independent Study form, available at: .  Click on "Online Contract Process", create a contract, then submit it to me for my review. Ratna Roy Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Winter Winter
Individual Study: Performing Arts and Humanities
Ratna Roy
Signature Required: Fall 
  Contract SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day F 12 Fall I am interested in working with students who wish to do independent work in the Performing Arts and the Humanities. I am broadly interested in the intersections between the social and the creative worlds, as my own creative work has explicitly dealt with this intersection. As well, since my Ph.D. is in African-American Literature, I am deeply interested in minority arts, be they defined by race, gender or sexual orientation, and whether they be in writing, or in the visual or performing arts.As an artist, I have concentrated in the world of choreography, in particular, in Orissi dance from India. A strong influence on my work has been the ancient mythologies of the Indian sub-continent, and the contemporary realities of neo-colonialism and its consequences. Students interested in working with me should submit an on-line Independent Study form, available at: Click on "Online Contract Process", create a contract, then submit it to me for my review. Ratna Roy Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall
Jazz Dance
Kabby Mitchell
  Course FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 2 02 Evening Su 13Summer Session II Kabby Mitchell Wed Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Summer Summer
Justice at Work: Labor, Civil Rights, Immigration and the Law
Sarah Ryan and Arleen Sandifer
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 8, 12, 16 08 12 16 Weekend F 12 Fall W 13Winter S 13Spring Is justice a concept that is applicable to the workplace?  In approaching this question, we’ll look at the history and legacy of immigration laws, labor law as set forth in the National Labor Relations Act, and civil rights/anti-discrimination law as written in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  In addition to defining rights, these laws reflect the shape of power in society, and they can determine how workers and management interact.  Their texts were written by lawmakers; but in another sense, they were written in the streets and workplaces during turbulent times.  Class and racial biases exist in, and are reproduced by, the laws and their practices.  In this class we’ll study the social movements and conditions that led to the passage of important bodies of labor, civil rights, and immigration law.  We’ll ask how their history is important, how the struggles at their roots shaped the laws' forms, and how they affect the workplace today.Students will become acquainted with the critiques developed by scholars in Critical Race Theory and Critical Legal Studies, which help us think about power in the larger society and alternative possibilities for justice.  Be prepared for fun, active, problem-solving and hard work.  Students will learn to do basic legal and historical research.  You will get a sense of the real work of attorneys and courts, but also the work of community activists and union stewards.  Though there are no prerequisites, students should be prepared with some basic background in 20th century American history and should have the patience and persistence to read detailed histories, statutes, and legal cases.  Students who are particularly interested in either labor, civil rights, or immigration issues are strongly urged to participate in the year-long program, as the connections between these histories and legal regimes are essential to understand. law, labor organizing, history, social justice, public administration, management Sarah Ryan Arleen Sandifer Sat Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall Winter Spring
Popular Uprisings: 1968, 2011 and the Road Foward
Peter Bohmer and Elizabeth Williamson
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 16 16 Day S 13Spring 1968 and 2011 were world historic years. In both cases, uprisings spread within and between countries. In 1968, major resistance to the existing order produced movements for liberation in Vietnam (Tet offensive); France (May, 1968); Czechoslovakia (Soviet invasion, August, 1968); Mexico, (Tlatelolco and Olympics) and the United States--including the rebellions after Martin Luther King's assassination, the Columbia University occupation, the protests against the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago, and the major growth of the women's and Black liberation movements. There were major uprisings in many other countries. New left theory and practice were integral to those movements. 1968 was perhaps the central year of the 1960s--a decade where the status quo was challenged culturally, socially and politically; a period of experimentation where countercultures emerged and revolution was in the air.2011 was another major year of uprisings. Social movements against repressive governments and against social inequality spread from Tunisia to Egypt to Yemen, Syria, Libya, Bahrain--among many others. The nature and goals of the uprisings vary from country to county, but all are connected by an egalitarian and democratic spirit where youth play a major role. Inspired partially by the events in the Middle East, Wisconsin residents and especially public sector workers occupied the State Capital in the spring of 2011, and there were massive demonstrations against the frontal attack on public sector unions, and on education and social programs. These so-called "austerity measures" and the growing resistance to them are occurring all over the United States. There is also occupation of public spaces led by the young and independent of political parties, demanding the end of unemployment and the maintenance of social program in Greece, France, Spain and other countries in Europe.In this program we will examine the political, economic, and cultural contexts of the uprisings in both of these periods--paying attention to local, national and global connections. We will study these uprisings, and the socio-political forces that helped shape them, through cultural and political economic analysis, fiction and non-fiction literature, movies, music, and participant experiences. Particular attention will be paid to developing research skills and writing for a broader audience.In addition to developing a greater awareness of the historical impact of these uprisings, we hope to better understand the philosophy, goals, strategy and tactics of the organizers of these movements. We will conclude by comparing and contrasting 1968 to 2011 in order to develop lessons for the present and future. teaching social studies; organizing; working for an economic or social justice organziation--locally, nationally or globally; graduate school in social sciences or cultural studies. Peter Bohmer Elizabeth Williamson Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Undergraduate Projects in Critical and Creative Practices
Naima Lowe, Anne de Marcken (Forbes), Marilyn Freeman and Joli Sandoz
Signature Required: Winter  Spring 
  Program SO–SRSophomore - Senior V V Day, Evening and Weekend W 13Winter S 13Spring This is an opportunity for students to work with faculty from a diverse set of disciplines on creative and scholarly projects. Students will come away with invaluable skills in library and archival research practices, visual arts studio practices, laboratory practices, film/media production practices, critical research and writing, and much more. Critical and Creative Practices is comprised of a diverse group of artists, theorists, scientists, mathematicians, writers, filmmakers and other cultural workers whose interdisciplinary fields of study sit at the crossroads between critical theoretical studies and creative engagement. uses creative writing and digital media production as methods of inquiry. Her process-based work results in short stories, personal essays, longer hybrid narratives, time-based forms of these things (films and videos), and sometimes web environments. Her current areas of inquiry include climate change and the interactions of place and identity, in particular as related to the idea of home. Students working with Anne will have opportunities to work on one or more literary projects in the early development phase. Activities will include concept development, research, preliminary structuring, proposal writing, grant writing, and critique of early draft creative writing. Students may also work with Anne to continue development of an internet-based project related to climate change. (writing and media arts) is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily with time-based art for the page, the screen, and installation. Presently, Marilyn is particularly focused on the video essay as an ascendant form for creative and critical experiments with text, sound, and image. Her immediate projects include two video essay productions and a book—  (University of Chicago Press, 2014). These projects provide opportunities for advanced students to assist with research and to enhance media arts skills through working directly with Marilyn in preproduction, production, and post-production of the video essays. (creative nonfiction) draws from experience and field, archival and library research to write creative essays about experiences and constructions of place, and about cultural practices of embodiment. She also experiments with juxtapositions of diagrams, images and words, including hand-drawn mapping. Students working with Joli will be able to learn their choice of: critical reading approaches to published works (reading as a writer), online and print research and associated information assessment skills, identifying publishing markets for specific pieces of writing, or discussing and responding to creative nonfiction in draft form (workshopping). Joli’s projects underway include a series of essays on place and aging; an essay on physical achievement and ambition; and a visual/word piece exploring the relationship of the local to the global. (experimental media and performance art) creates films, videos, performances and written works that explore issues of race, gender, and embodiment. The majority of her work includes an archival research element that explores historical social relationships and mythic identities. She is currently working on a series of short films and performances that explore racial identity in rural settings. Students working with Naima would have opportunities to learn media production and post-production skills (including storyboarding, scripting, 16mm and HD video shooting, location scouting, audio recording, audio/video editing, etc) through working with a small crew comprised of students and professional artists. Students would also have opportunities to do archival and historical research on African-Americans living in rural settings, and on literature, film and visual art that deals with similar themes. Please go to the catalog view for specific information about each option. Naima Lowe Anne de Marcken (Forbes) Marilyn Freeman Joli Sandoz Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Winter Winter Spring
Undergraduate Projects in Critical and Creative Practices with N. Lowe
Naima Lowe
Signature Required: Winter  Spring 
  Research SO–SRSophomore - Senior V V Day, Evening and Weekend W 13Winter S 13Spring This is an opportunity for students to work with faculty from a diverse set of disciplines on creative and scholarly projects. Students will come away with invaluable skills in library and archival research practices, visual arts studio practices, laboratory practices, film/media production practices, critical research and writing, and much more. Critical and Creative Practices is comprised of a diverse group of artists, theorists, scientists, mathematicians, writers, filmmakers and other cultural workers whose interdisciplinary fields of study sit at the crossroads between critical theoretical studies and creative engagement. (experimental media and performance art) creates films, videos, performances and written works that explore issues of race, gender, and embodiment. The majority of her work includes an archival research element that explores historical social relationships and mythic identities. She is currently working on a series of short films and performances that explore racial identity in rural settings. Students working with Naima would have opportunities to learn media production and post-production skills (including storyboarding, scripting, 16mm and HD video shooting, location scouting, audio recording, audio/video editing, etc) through working with a small crew comprised of students and professional artists. Students would also have opportunities to do archival and historical research on African-Americans living in rural settings, and on literature, film and visual art that deals with similar themes. Naima Lowe Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Winter Winter Spring