Courses
AFAM-150D P5 Int AfricanAmer Studies (3)
This course addresses the social, political, and economic issues confronting people of African descent, particularly in the United States. The course is comparative and focuses on Black history and contributions as essential perspectives within world history and development. The course exposes students to the formation, development, and persistence of the Black experience over time and space; establishes the scholarly, intellectual basis for the study of African American life and culture; and highlights various perspectives and modalities for the study of Black life. We review events, trends, and biographical materials that reflect how African Americans view themselves, as well as how they have been regarded by society. Developing an appreciation for the African American experience as a pivotal and central experience within the American mosaic assists students to become positive and productive citizens in a multicultural world.
Typically offered:
Attributes: AMSS P5 YLIB
VariableAFAM-305P P5 BlackThought:20th/21stC (3)
This course introduces students to African America’s economic, social, political, religious, gender, racial, and ethnic backgrounds through an exploration of the lives, words, and deeds of the most influential minds within the race. Scholars, religious leaders, and community activists guided the largest U.S. racial minority through segregation to the present participation in political and economic institutions. Their struggle inspired freedom movements throughout the world. The course promotes an understanding of multidisciplinary learning, self-examination, and intercultural unity. The long-term goal is that pupils understand the cycle of racial oppression in the United States and how African Americans have worked to break it.
Attributes: AMSS P5 YLIBAFAM-450 African American Culture (3)
Participants conduct comparative research on the customs and mores of the social environments in communities of color in the greater Rochester area. The research methodology should infuse a deeper understanding of how factors such as poverty or race shape human lives. Students spend at least two hours weekly in the classroom and two hours on-site, interacting or working with a community-based organization. Through classroom and community activities, participants are guided to develop a comprehensive report that compares and contrasts the cultural environments.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: AFAM-150P D- OR AFAM-150T D-AFAM-1001 Civil Rights & Civil Wrongs (3)
In this learning community, students will explore historical and contemporary African American Civil Rights movements, examining legal, cultural, spiritual, and/or social reasons that inspired widespread peaceful activism across the country, including the involvement of various populations (religious communities, artists, students, teachers, children, etc.) committed to activism, and the key role of nonviolence in these efforts. Students will gain a historical understanding of the importance of the 1950s-1960s Civil Rights movement, as well as making connections to current protest movements, such as Black Lives Matter. Civil “rights” can be seen in multiple contexts, such as the legal human rights for which activists fight, as well as discussing whether there are “right” ways to go about achieving social change. Civil “wrongs” can also be seen in multiple contexts, such as denial of basic human rights to African American citizens, as well as whether there are “wrong” ways protestors (or counter-protestors) can achieve their goals.
Typically offered:
Attributes: LC YLIB
Fall
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: New Core 20-21AFAM-1002 Presence of Impact:Leaders (3)
This course will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the presence and societal impact of African American leaders in the Finger Lakes and Western New York regions. Through narrative and placed-based studies, classroom discussions and activities, and interactions with community leaders, students will investigate the historic and current impacts of African Americans on their respective communities. The course will focus on the societal settings and related leadership methods used by local African American leaders from the colonial period to the present time. Using a narrative approach, each student will independently examine and analyze an African American leader’s personal identity traits and leadership characteristics. Working in groups, the students will evaluate and demonstrate knowledge of how their selected leaders’ legacy or present-day actions relate to local community issues and challenges.
Typically offered:
Attributes: LC YLIB
Fall
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Freshman -Attribute: New Core 20-21AFAM-1003 Black Speculative Futures (3)
As a part of this course, students will explore black speculative narratives that focus on imaginings of the future. These narratives will take a wide range of forms, including but not limited to short stories, novels, podcasts, films, and music. Through these texts, students will explore how black speculative narratives are used to discuss our historical and current political realities and imagine and work toward utopic possibilities. As students better understand these narratives and how they function, they will be encouraged to develop their writing and communication skills by creating their own speculative narratives. This LC is paired with Political Science Fiction, creating a collaborative space that blends the spaces we imagine with the spaces we live, giving students a chance to explore the racialized political realities that we live in and begin developing the skills to shape these realities. Through this interdisciplinary set of Learning Collectives, students will see the applicability of their liberal arts education in forming their own critical perspectives and, at the same time, the utility of worldbuilding and fiction as a practice of making meaning, envisioning just futures, and growing them together in our uncertain world.
Attributes: LC YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Freshman, Sophomore -Attribute: New Core 20-21AFAM-1299 Research-based Writing (3)
Students study and practice skills relates to academic and professional research through the development of independent inquiry-based projects. In their projects, students assert, support, and integrate their own positions into scholarly conversation based in research. Students develop competency in the location, evaluation, analysis and documentation of sources that represent a range of different perspectives on important issues.
Typically offered:
Attributes: RW YLIB ZRES
Spring
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Freshman, Sophomore -Attribute: New Core 20-21AFAM-2101 Race Equity:Talk to Action (3)
In this course, students will read important and timely texts on racism in America today, with a particular focus on the fight for race equity of Black and Brown peoples. This course has different areas of focus each year, such as police brutality, healthcare, education, and other cultural and political issues of the moment. Each time the course is offered, students focus on a key issue, as students learn the skills to better communicate with one another and to better understand key aspects of this community issue from multiple perspectives. This class is primarily discussion-based, with multiple opportunities for self-reflection, group interaction, and dialogue. Students will engage with the community (in different forms, whether on campus or in Rochester), as students develop a group project (such as a speaker series or interviewing community members), in order to put learning into practice (through campus dialogues on race or written proposals to local politicians).
Focus for fall 2021 will be “police brutality,” with selected texts, such as All American Boys, The Hate U Give, and The New Jim Crow.
Typically offered:
Attributes: CCE YLIB
Variable
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: New Core 20-21; Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SeniorAFAM-2102 Intro to Anti-racism Prac (3)
This course offers an introduction to anti-racism practice. What are different definitions and types of racism? What does it mean to be an anti-racist? Students will engage with the Rochester community in their exploration of these questions, putting theory into practice. Depending on the semester, this could be achieved through speakers, workshops, and/or a group project. Students will also reflect upon their new learning throughout the course, as they connect scholarly and other readings with life experiences and collaborative efforts through writing exercises.
Typically offered:
Attributes: CCE YLIB
Variable
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SeniorAFAM-2350 Equal v Equity:Afric Am Exp (3)
This course is designed to cultivate students’ cross-cultural understanding, relationships, and engagement among various groups within African American communities, as well as to deepen students’ understanding of the impacts of equality and equity in politics, economics, society, technology, law, and/or the environment. Students will be introduced to analytical frameworks through which they can explore, recognize, and honor the influence of a person’s cultural background on patterns of race equality and race equity. This course is designed to develop students’ cultural humility; to facilitate bridge-building; and to encourage engagement in diversity, inclusion, equality, and equity initiatives. Through personal reflection, group dialogue, and group interaction, students explore the changing demographics of our communities; become familiar with core, secondary, and organizational dimensions of diversity; participate in powerful reflection and identity exercises; and articulate opportunities for inclusion in all areas of the work of their future professions.
Typically offered:
Attributes: DEI YLIB
Fall
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: New Core 20-21; Excluding: -Class: Freshman, Senior