For the entire Africana Studies course catalog, and full course descriptions, please see Department of Religious Studies < Case Western Reserve University

ETHS/HSTY 252A: Introduction to African-American Studies

Heather Burton – T 4:00-6:30

This course is designed to introduce students to the study of Black History, cultures, economics, and politics. Students will learn about the development of the field by exploring theoretical questions, methodological approaches, and major themes that have shaped the study of black people, primarily in the U.S. context. This is a seminar-style, discussion-based course that emphasizes critical analysis and expository writing.

AFST/SOCI 202 Race and Ethnic Minorities in The United States

Cassi Claytor – TR 1:00-2:15

This course explores interactions between racial and ethnic majority and minority groups in the United States. We examine the historical origins and formation of racial/ethnic hierarchies, the institutional and normative processes for reproducing these hierarchies, and the social and economic significance of stratified racial and ethnic group identities. The course is taught from a macro perspective that examines larger structural forces (e.g., colonization, slavery, and immigration) to explain inter-group relations, and a constructionist perspective to understand the way that power fashions the social meaning of identities (e.g., symbolic violence and hegemonic discourse), social categories (e.g., panethnic Asian and Hispanic groups), and everyday interactions (e.g., stereotypes and white racial frame). Specific topics include the formation and significance of white and black identities, reactive ethnicity, the racial privilege of whiteness, the politics of immigration, and the intersectionality of class, race and gender.

Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course.

AFST/MUHI 216: Hip Hop History, Culture, Music

Daniel Goldmark – TR 4:00-5:15

This course surveys the history of hip hop. The relationship of hip hop to important currents in American life and culture will be examined, with a particular focus on how race, class, and gender shaped the evolution of the form. The origins of various styles of hip hop in the cultures of different ethnic and national groups will be discussed, along with the subsequent diffusion and transformation of such music through mass mediation. The characteristics and meanings of music, lyrics and images will be discussed, with the aid of sound recordings, music videos and films.

Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course.

AFST/BIOL/HSTY 233: The Life and Science of Ernest Everett Just

Stephen Haynesworth – TR 10:00-11:15

Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941) was one of the most important developmental biologists of the first half of the twentieth century. He made important observations, discoveries, and contributions to the scientific debate regarding the mechanisms of fertilization and early embryonic development. E.E. Just authored over 70 scientific papers and two books during his relatively short life; he died at age 57. E. E. Just was also a Black man who was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina during the post-reconstruction white redemption; a period characterized by restrictive Jim Crow laws and Klu Klux Klan violence against Black people in the South. This course will explore the life of E. E. Just in the context of his contributions to science, his life as a Black man growing up in the Jim Crow South, and as a Black scientist during a period in American history when racially discriminatory laws and customs at multiple levels prohibited or severely limited the ability of Blacks to participate in the field of scientific research. In so doing, this interdisciplinary course will connect scientific and humanistic disciplines by bringing together students interested in biology, American history, African American history, and the history of science to explore and critically analyze aspects of Just’s life and science from these various perspectives.

Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

AFST/ETHS/HSTY 260: U.S. Slavery and Emancipation

Noël Voltz – MW 12:45-2:00