Courses

For a full course listing, please click here visit the academic catalog.

African Studies courses offered in Spring 2025 

AFST 110 A: Introduction to African Studies (M5)
LaRue; Online Asynchronous 

AFST 222 A: African Art (M5)
Cutler-Bittner; Online Asynchronous 

AFST 362 A: Narrative and Film 
LaRue; Online Asynchronous

AFST 396 A: ST: Major, Author: Baldwin
LaRue; Tue and Thu 10:30 a.m. - 11:40 a.m.

100-Level Course

AFST 110 A: Introduction to African Studies 
This course explores the significance of Africa and its global descendants through an interdisciplinary approach. The critical methodologies of the humanities and social sciences will be used to consider some of the questions provoked by African and African diaspora experiences. For example, is an African diaspora an objective reality or has it existed solely in response to American and European notions of racial difference? What have been the characteristics encompassed by that reality or those notions of race? Course materials will allow students to survey the lasting contributions of Africans and their descendants to the development of various world civilizations.  (M5). 

200-Level Courses 

AFST 222 A: African Art
Students will develop an aesthetic and cultural overview of African art, from prehistory to the present day. Sculpture is the primary medium studied in the course, but textiles, painting, artisanal works and architecture are also included. Students will consider how religion and cultural influences affect the development of regional and national styles. The influence of the African diaspora on art in Europe, Latin America, and the United States will be considered. Students will acquire the critical vocabulary required to analyze and interpret African art, and apply it to both discussion and writing. (M5)  

300-Level Courses

AFST 362 A: Narrative and Film
Through close analyses of contemporary imaginative films, this course examines the relationship between narrative and cinema. Addressing the medium's relationship with more traditional narrative forms (e.g., novels, short stories, etc.) and these forms' contributions to the constructions of categories of race, gender, sexuality, class, and (inter)nationally, we will explore the questions, "How do films narrate? and "What do they narrate?" By the end of the course, we should have a more complex understanding of how narratives are constructed, how the medium of film challenge us to reimagine the shape and limits of what a text might be, and what the narratives offered tell us about the state of our societies and/or cultures. Prereq: None

AFST 396 A: ST: Major Author: Baldwin
Jame Baldwin is one of the most incisive and astute writers the world has every known. Black, queer, and fundamentally American, Baldwin wrote the intersections and pressures of his various identities, his role as a writer, and his relationship to the nation with the force and energy of a man disappointed with the realities of what he saw but hopeful of the potential he felt remained. This course explores not only Baldwin's own impressive body of work (fictional and otherwise) but also the lasting impact he has had on the literary, social, and political world in his wake. Prerequisite: None