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: 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-2105 Afro-Caribbean Indentities (3)
This course examines the cultural, historical, and political landscapes of the Caribbean through the intertwined legacies of African enslavement, Indigenous survival, and European colonization. Focusing on Puerto Rico, Cuba, and surrounding islands, students will examine how slavery, colonial rule, and resistance movements shaped music, religion, language, and identity. Special attention will be paid to the survival of Taíno culture in Puerto Rico and its intersections with African diasporic traditions, highlighting how Afro-Caribbean cultures emerged as powerful sites of resilience, creativity, and political struggle. This course also addresses contemporary issues, including colorism, migration, decolonization, and the politics of identity, in Puerto Rico and the wider Caribbean.
Attributes: CCE YLIB
Students will engage with community partners to explore how local Afro-Caribbean communities in Rochester celebrate and sustain their cultural traditions. Through guest speakers, field trips, and civic engagement opportunities, students will gain firsthand insight into cultural practices and community resilience. Engagements may include supporting events such as Carifest and the Puerto Rican Festival, fostering meaningful connections between course themes and community participation.
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: 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: Senior
HIST-304 Hip Hop Punk Rock Amer His (3)
Students will study recent American history through engagement with hip hop and punk rock songs, primary sources related to American politics, and secondary sources that describe the culture, politics, economics, and social dynamics of contemporary US history. Students will examine the intersection of culture and politics and apply historical methods to understanding and writing about how culture informs politics and politics informs culture in the United States since 1970.
Attributes: YLIBHIST-322 Reconstruction and Race (3)
Four million slaves celebrated freedom at the close of the Civil War, only to find it invaded and eroded over the ensuing decade and a half. Reconstruction marked a time of great hope and success for African Americans while Redemption, as it was known in the South, focused on ending all racial progress and the re-affirmation of long-standing prejudices and practices. Students will explore these significant years and their lasting impact on our society considering the question, how did we get to where we are today?
Typically offered:
Attributes: YLIB
Spring – Even YearsHIST-353 The Civil Rights Movement (3)
The African American civil rights movement was the most significant social movement in the history of the United States. Activists sought to make real the promise of life, liberty, and happiness for all people – from the Second World War through the Assassination of Dr. King. In this class students will study this ‘heroic period’ of the longer Black Freedom Struggle, focusing on the emergence and power of nonviolence, the rise of the Black Power Movement, and the ongoing challenges posed by this social movement that sought to make real for all people the ideals enshrined in our nation’s founding documents.
Attributes: YLIB
ENGL-335 Studies in AFAM Literature (3)
This course will explore the work of African American writers throughout American history. Students will learn about African American history and culture by reading fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from various literary periods. In addition, we’ll read folklore, poetry, plays, novels, cultural analysis, and philosophical arguments by influential black scholars, writers, and creatives as Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. De Bois, James Baldwin, and Alice Walker. Beyond the individual works themselves, we will consider the political and social background of various African American movements and genres. Examples include the abolitionist movement, the Harlem Renaissance, and Afrofuturism.
Attributes: CLTC ENEA ENLT YLIB
Pre-requisites: -
SOCI-344 Soc Determ Hlth & Healthcr (3)
A basic premise of this course is that health needs and health outcomes at the individual, community, and population levels depend significantly on the social, economic, and environmental conditions under which people live and work. Students examine the critical connections between health outcomes and a range of factors such as poverty, illiteracy, health literacy, malnutrition, inadequate housing, and low-paid, unstable employment. A basic aim of this course is to consider such factors in relation to the incidence of infectious and chronic diseases with the goal of developing effective prevention strategies to promote healthy individuals and communities. Students in this course thus consider (a) how social, economic, and environmental conditions contribute to the spread of disease, (b) how societies contribute to the perpetuation of these conditions, and (c) what strategies and policies have proven effective in alleviating morbidity and mortality for populations living under these conditions.
Typically offered:
Attributes: YLIB
Variable
POSC-365 Reprod Rights Fem Lens (3)
The 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision overturned 50 years of established precedent regarding reproductive rights in the United States. This course examines this significant shift in rights and liberties affecting half of the population, focusing on the intersections of African American experiences, class, and gender. We will explore reproductive rights from the nation’s founding through the Dobbs decision, primarily utilizing case law, social movement theory, gender theory, Black feminist theory, and African American Studies. This will be complemented by political analysis to better understand these transformations within a broader historical and institutional context. Students will be required to engage in regular writing assignments and maintain a rigorous reading schedule. By the end of the course, students will gain a deeper understanding of how the law is organized around key concepts such as privacy, racial identity, discrimination, expression, equal protection, and due process. They will also learn how these concepts impact our daily lives and what the legal landscape looks like for these issues in both the near and distant future, particularly from an African American perspective.
Attributes: YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Junior, Senior
SUST-304 Environmental Racism (3)
This course explores the connections between climate change, environmental politics, and sustainability practices, particularly focusing on their political, social, and community impacts on African American communities. We will also examine how these communities have responded to these challenges. Specifically, we will investigate how international negotiations on climate change and environmental policy influence the domestic politics of individual nations, especially through the lens of African Americans. We will assess the current positions of the U.S. government regarding climate change and sustainability and their implications for Black communities. Our discussions will address how public opinion evolves in response to political discourse and how these views are expressed through various forms of organized political participation within African American communities. Ultimately, in this class, we will consider and explore the actions that African American communities can take in response to these pressing issues.
Attributes: YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Junior, Senior