Scheduled Courses
Africana Studies Classes Spring 2025
ENGL 2520: African American Literature – Taught by Prof. Earl Braggs
Tuesdays and Thursdays – 9:30-10:45 a.m.
CRN: 20241
- Readings will be largely fiction with supportive critical works and some poetry and drama to examine the development of African-American literature from the 1850s to the present. Figures may include Harper, Chestnutt, Washington, DuBois, Hurston, Wright, Ellison, Brooks, Baldwin, Walker, and Morrison.
CRMJ 3310: Race, Class, Gender and Crime – Taught by Dr. Gale Iles
CRN 21787 (or CRN 20701 (Online)
- This course will examine unique issues raised by race/ethnicity, class, and gender when analyzed in relationship to crime and social control. Special emphasis is placed on the interaction of these factors in relation to victimization, criminal behavior, and criminal justice responses.
CRMJ 3030: Comparative Criminal Justice Systems –Taught by Dr. Lindsey Whetter
CRN:21783 OR CRN: 22527 (Online)
- An examination of these two systems of justice as they function in other countries.
PSY 2420: Psychology of Black Experience – Taught by Prof. Dorthy Stephens
CRN: 20203
Mondays – 5:30-8:00 p.m.
- Impact of cultural differences from a psychological perspective. Principles, theories, and research in psychology applied to black experience. Differences in socialization, personality, and social processes. Topics include intelligence, racial identity, and psycholinguistics.
PSPS 3320: Civil Liberties – Taught by Prof. Michelle Deardorff
CRN: 20978
Tuesdays and Thursdays –2:00-3:15 p.m.
- Case studies of key Supreme Court decisions affecting the rights and freedoms of the individual in American society.
PSPS 4300R: Race and the Law – Taught by Prof. Michelle Deardorff
CRN: 22837
Tuesdays and Thursdays – 9:30-10:45 a.m.
- Selected topics in public law.
HIST 3920R: African American Leadership in the 20th Century – Taught by Prof. Michael Vinson Williams
CRN:22621
Mondays and Wednesdays – 3:30-4:45 p.m.
- The study of African American historical progress and development remains an integral piece of the American developmental landscape. By focusing on African American leaders, this course provides for a greater understanding of the overall struggle African Americans waged by examining the thought processes and ideas of some of its most outspoken and sometimes controversial leaders.
HIST 2480: African American History – Taught by Prof. Michael Vinson Williams
CRN:21866
Mondays and Wednesdays – 12:30-1:45 p.m.
- This course examines African American History from early West Africa to the present emphasizing the role of African American leaders, the struggle against oppression, and the evolution of race relations. Although an extensive period, central themes help connect the parts to the whole revealing an overall picture of African American culture, connections to Africa, life experiences, organized struggle, leadership, and the impact African Americans have had on the social and political development of the United States.
HIST 3920R: Race and Childhood in American History – Taught by Dr. Susan Eckelmann
CRN:22620
Tuesdays – 2:00-4:30 p.m.
- Who gets to have a childhood in American history? Are all childhoods equal? How does exclusion, discrimination, and oppression shape the lives of nonwhite youth? The course’s analytical arch centers on young people’s perspectives and recorded accounts including diaries, memoirs, and oral histories. Students will also engage with children’s material culture (toys, dress codes, and furniture); institutions and spaces (schools, recreational sites, the work place, and the streets); and media (children’s books, advertisements, comics, historical photographs, archived correspondence, and documentaries). Students will investigate and compare the lives of American youth during slavery, the Civil War, the interwar and Great Depression era, 1960s freedom struggles, and postwar urban American life.