Lehigh MarkLehigh Catalog 2000-2001

Section V: Courses, Programs and Curricula

Africana Studies

Professors. William R. Scott, Ph.D. (Princeton), Professor of History, program director; Elizabeth N. Fifer, Ph.D. (Michigan), Professor of English; Jean R. Soderlund, Ph.D. (Temple), Professor of History.
Associate professors. Berrisford W. Boothe, M.F.A (Maryland Institute College of Art), Associate Professor of Art and Architecture.
Assistant professors. Mary Washington, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University); Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology; Kashi Johnson, MFA (University of Pittsburgh)
Adjunct professors. Curtis Keim, Ph.D. (Indiana); Mildred Rivera- Martinez, Ph.D. (Stanford University); Sharon Levy, Ed.D. (Lehigh).

Courses

The purpose of the Africana Studies Program is to engender in Lehigh students an intellectual appreciation of the life and culture of people of African descent worldwide, especially in the United States, thereby enriching the Lehigh curriculum and increasing the relevance of a Lehigh education to a culturally diverse society and world. In the best tradition of a liberal arts education, Africana Studies expands all Lehigh students’ critical under-standing of their own heritage in interaction with other cultures.

The major and minor in Africana Studies is an interdepartmental and comparative program of study for undergraduates who wish to integrate the insights and methods of several disciplines to understand the history, culture, social, and political experience of people of African descent globally. The Africana Studies curriculum encompasses two intended lines of inquiry: (1) the diverse influences in Africa and the African diaspora that have shaped African American culture, and (2) the variety of ways that the African American experience has shaped and been shaped by American culture.

The Major

The major in Africana Studies consists of a minimum of ten (10) courses, constituting at least 30 credit hours and no less than four (4) upper level courses. It entails training across disciplinary lines as well as concentrated study in a single discipline:

In addition, students are encouraged to pursue independent study opportunities to enhance their knowledge of specific aspects of Africana Studies.

The Minor

The minor consists of a minimum of five (5) courses, constituting at least 15 hours of study that includes the introductory course and no less than two upper level courses in the field.

Core Courses:

Core courses concentrate on subject material directly relevant to the study of past and present experiences of people of African descent.

AAS 3. Introduction to Africana Studies (4)
An interdisciplinary examination of the roots, culture, and politics of the modern black world through study of classic works in Africana Studies with emphasis on the continuities among African peoples worldwide and the social forces that have shaped contemporary black life in Africa and the Americas. Scott. (SS)
AAS 5. (Hist 5) African Civilization (4)
Sub-Saharan Africa through the millennia of the ancient world to the present. Human origins, state and non-state systems, the external slave trade; colonialism, resistance to European rule; independence movements; neocolonialism. Keim. (SS)
AAS 38. (Engl 38) Introduction to African Literature (3)
Sub-Saharan African literary themes and styles, historical and social contexts, African folk tales, oral poetry, colonial protest literature, postcolonial writing, films on contemporary Africa. Staff. (HU)
AAS 64. (Eco 64, Hist 64) Plantation to Ghetto (2)
Examination of topics in the economic history of African Americans from the 1500s to the present. Explores the slave trade, slavery, post-Civil War South, the black family, migration, urbanization, and race and poverty. O’Brien, Scott. (SS)
AAS 103. (SSP 103) Sociological Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Communities (3) fall
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the sociological and historical foundations of contemporary debates about the meaning of "race and ethnicity," and the role these identities play in our understanding of economic, political, and social inequality. Although the course focuses primarily on the U.S., the student is also encouraged to consider the racial and ethnic organization of human societies and collectivities as a global phenomenon. Washington. (SS)
AAS 129. (Hist 129) Black Political Thought in America (4)
Black leadership, organizations, and philosophy in America from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Era; ideas and programs of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Scott. (SS)
AAS 130. (Hist 130) African American History (4)
Blacks in America from the first importation of Africans to the implementation of civil rights laws. West African origins, slave trade, slavery, free blacks and emancipation and study of Reconstruction, segregation, urbanization, and the struggle for racial equality. Scott (SS)
AAS 138. Introduction to African American Literature (3)
Survey of African American prose narrative and poetry from the 18th century to the present. Features writers from the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and the post-Black Power era. Levy. (HU)
AAS 140. (Thtr 140) African American Theatre (4)
Foundations of African American theater: historical, literary, and practical. Staff. (HU)
AAS 142. The Psychology of African Americans (4)
Exploration of scholarship on the attitudes and actions of black Americans stressing the psychological dynamics, popular culture and behavior of contemporary African Americans. Staff. (SS)
AAS 145. African American Women Writers (4)
Literature by African American women writers with a focus on the experiences and images of black women in the U.S. Explores the written portraits and voices of 20th century black female novelists and poets, including Hurston, Petry, Morrison, Angelou, and Walker. Levy. (HU)
AAS 148. Cultural Diversity in the Caribbean (4)
Cultural diversity in the Caribbean islands and the Guyanas, with emphasis on the African, Amerindian, and Indian influences. The sociological and cultural implications of the region’s diversity, with special emphasis on ethnicity, slavery and indenture, emancipation and independence, modernization, immigration, the impact of tourism and the development of Creole cultures. Lecture and discussion. Rivera-Martinez. (HU)
AAS 150. (Art 150) Africans in the New World (3)
African American art, architecture, and craft from pre-colonial Africa to the present. Early primitivism, neo-classicism, the Harlem renaissance, modernism, and contemporary directions. Guest lecturers, open dialogue, gallery visits, and media presentations. Writing Intensive. Boothe. (HU)
AAS 166. (SSP 166) Who Gets What?: The Social Problems of Wealth and Inequality (3)
Considers the existence of poverty amid affluence in the United States. Comparative studies of wealthiest and poorest among us, focusing on social values and social conditions. Sociological and historical analysis through debate on the causes of social problems related to the gap between the "Haves" and "Have-nots." Washington (SS)
AAS 263. Caribbean Artistic and Cultural Traditions (4)
Representation of contemporary popular culture in the Caribbean in literature, music, painting and other artistic expressions. Major attention is devoted to the influences on tradition, folklore and religion in modern Caribbean life. Martinez-Rivera. (HU)
AAS 310. (SSP 310, WS 310) Gender, Race and Sexuality: The Social Construction of Differences (3)
This course will provide the student with an opportunity to engage current debates about the meaning and use of racial and sexual classification systems in society. Using a multidisciplinary and critical approach, we will examine the historical and sociological contexts in which specific theories of racial and sexual differences emerged in the U S. Prerequisite: SSP 103, or department permission. Washington. (SS)
AAS 331. (Hist 331) United States and Africa (4)
Reciprocal relationships between North America and the African continent from the slave trade in the seventeenth century to the twentieth century Afrocentric movement; impact of Americans on shaping of modern Africa, Pan-African relations; influence of African Americans on U.S. policies toward Africa. Scott. (SS)
AAS 332. (Hist 332) Slavery and the American South (4)
The emergence and demise of the "peculiar institution" of African American slavery in British North America and the Old South. African background, colonial beginnings, 19th century slave community, the ruling race and proslavery ideology, the death of slavery and its aftermath, slavery and freedom in a comparative context. Staff (SS)
AAS 359. (Hist 359) History of South Africa (4)
South Africa’s history from its earliest human settlement to its emergence as a racist political order and transition to a non-racial democratic state. Includes comparisons with political thought and practices in the U.S. Scott. (SS)
AAS 371, 372. Independent Study (1-3)
Independent study in advanced areas of Africana Studies. Independent research with an individual faculty member in the Africana Studies program. Consent of director. (ND)
AAS 379. (SSP 379) Race and Class in America (3)
This course focuses on the ways in which various categories and groupings within the social concepts of "race" and "class" have organized the American social, economic and political structure and shaped national and international policy. An overview of the distribution of wealth and political power in the United States provides the student with the opportunity to consider how and why "race" and "class" both together and separately can be used to explain racism, residential segregation, poverty, working class identity and the existence of a wealthy power elite in the United States. Prerequisite: SSP 103, or department permission. Washington. (SS)
AAS 381. Special Topics. (ND)
AAS 382. Seminar on a topic in Africana Studies. (ND)
AAS 394. (SSP 394, WS 394) Historical Sociology: Identity and the Social Problems of Generations (3)
Some scholars believe that "historians and sociologists don’t speak the same language." However, contemporary social questions about cohabitation, marriage, the family, national politics, race and gender relations, immigration and schooling in the U.S. cannot be answered fully without the benefit of historical analysis. This seminar in applied social research will provide advanced students with both the quantitative and qualitative skills to investigate various topics in 19th and 20th century American social and economic structure. Washington. (SS)

Collateral Courses

  1. Anth 12 Human Evolution and Prehistory
  2. Hist 334 American City in the 20th Century
  3. PolS 230 Movements and Legacies of the 1960s
  4. PolS 252 Civil Rights