BLKS 320 Critical Health Issues in Black Communities Credits: 3

Beginning with the African context and the opposition of chattel slavery, this course examines social, cultural and historical factors affecting the health status of African Americans to the present era.

Prerequisites: BLKS 201.

BLKS 321 The Black Family and Male-Female Relationships Credits: 3

This course examines the historical evolution and current status of the African American family in the United States. Utilizing the African experience as its starting point, the course conveys a broad understanding of the role of the family in human survival and progress. We investigate such issues as male-female relationships, sexual practices, dating, marriage, single parenting, the education and socialization of children, and so on. We also examine an array of social and economic issues, including institutionalized inequality, that affect the viability of today's African American family.

Prerequisites: BLKS 201.

BLKS 325 African American Business Development Credits: 3

This course investigates the various challenges to African American business development and entrepreneurship in the United States. We study the lives of successful, pioneering African American businesswomen and men in order to assess how they managed to transcend the barriers of racism and structured inequality. We explore why certain kinds of enterprises emerged among African Americans and why others did not, and we scrutinize the traditional business problems for African Americans of capitalization, distribution, market penetration, and wealth creation.

Prerequisites: BLKS 201.

BLKS 330 African American Migrations in Literature Credits: 3

The course examines representations of two different trajectories of migration in African American literature: African American journeys from the south to northern and mid-western regions of America, and concurrent migrations of Caribbean people to the US in the early twentieth century.

Prerequisites: DISC 200 or ENGLISH 225.

BLKS 331 African American Literature I Credits: 3

A survey of African American literature from its origins into the Harlem Renaissance, covering a range of authors, texts, and contexts.

Prerequisites: DISC 200 or ENGLISH 225.

BLKS 332WI African American Novel Credits: 3

This course will examine the African American novel in the 19th and 20th centuries; the emphasis will be on the period from the 1920s to the present. The novels will be examined in their historical and cultural contexts.

Prerequisites: ENGLISH 225.

BLKS 333 African American Literature II Credits: 3

A survey of African American literature from the late Harlem Renaissance to the present, covering a range of authors, texts, and contexts.

Prerequisites: DISC 200 or ENGLISH 225.

BLKS 334 From Field Shout to Hip Hop: African American Poetic Traditions Credits: 3

This course examines the development of African American poetry from its early forms as field shouts, ballads, and blues to present forms including spoken word and hip hop. Includes authors such as Phillis Wheatley, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Tupac Shakur, and Jessica Care Moore.

Prerequisites: DISC 200 or ENGLISH 225.

BLKS 335 Stages Toward Freedom: African American Dramatic Traditions Credits: 3

This course explores the development of African American dramatic traditions from the eighteenth century through the Harlem Renaissance Black Arts Movement, to current postmodernism. Includes authors such as W.W. Brown, Zoran N. Hurston, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks.

Prerequisites: DISC 200 or ENGLISH 225.

BLKS 337 The Civil Rights Movement in African American Literature Credits: 3

This course examines how African American literature shaped ideas about freedom, rights, citizenship and race in the civil rights movement. It draws on a variety of literary forms-speeches, essays, autobiographies, fiction, drama, poetry and film-to explore the movement's impact on communities and cultures as well as its various debates and competing visions.

Prerequisites: DISC 200 or ENGLISH 225.

BLKS 338 Women's Literature in Africa and the African Diaspora Credits: 3

This course is a comparative examination of the variety of literary works produced by women of African descent in the United States, the Caribbean and Africa. Students will explore the cross-cultural implications of texts in light of the intersections of gender, race and class.

Prerequisites: DISC 200 or ENGLISH 225.

BLKS 349 Symbols and Codes from the Diaspora: African American Visual Arts Survey Credits: 3

This course provides an examination of the theoretical and conceptual parameters of African and African American visual aesthetics. Through the writings of key scholars in African American aesthetics, students will study symbolic forms and patterns from various African cultures throughout the Diaspora and investigate formal image categories within African Diaspora visual culture.

Prerequisite: BLKS 201.

BLKS 351 African American Art History: Part I, 1600-1960 Credits: 3

This course presents a comprehensive survey of African American visual art from 1600 through 1960. Critical issues in early American art history highlight the expressions of African American artists and scholars. Students will investigate artistic expressions of this period.

Prerequisite: BLKS 201.

BLKS 403WI Writing for African American Studies Credits: 3

This course instructs students in how to produce advanced knowledge in the field of African American studies. It provides training in the construction of quality research papers for graduate, scholarly, and professional work and exposes students to a wide array of scholarly journals, databases, and authoritative resources in African American studies. Each time the courses taught, students will develop their research around a specific topic defined by the instructor.

Prerequisites: ENGLISH 225.

BLKS 404 Research Seminar Credits: 3

This course introduces the logic, theory, and techniques of empirical research and applies them to African American Studies. It exposes students to a variety of research approaches in order to examine their utility for producing knowledge within the field.

Prerequisite: BLKS 201.

BLKS 410 African American Art History: Part II, 1960-Present Day Credits: 3

This course presents a survey of African American visual arts from 1960 to the present. Visual arts include new media and processes for Diaspora artists. Students investigate contemporary artists within African Diaspora visual culture.

Prerequisite: BLKS 201.

BLKS 458 Slave Narratives: Race, Gender, and Writing Freedom Credits: 3

A truly American, home grown genre and powerful force in the development of American political and social realities, the African American Slave Narrative is an established, recognized influence in the development of African American and American literary history. In this course you will have the opportunity to explore the historical trajectory of the Slave Narrative, looking at early formulations of its structure, purpose and conventions—especially in terms of gender and race, subsequent various permutations, and the eventual development of the Neo-slave Narrative as its resurrection, which adds to the complexity and theoretical impact of the literary autobiography from black perspectives.

Prerequisites: DISC 200 or ENGLISH 225.

BLKS 480 Special Topics/Seminar Credits: 1-3

In-depth exploration of special topics in Black Studies. When available, topics will be announced prior to registration. Course may be repeated for up to six credit hours.

Prerequisite: BLKS 201.

BLKS 496 Internship in Black Studies Credits: 1-3

This Internship course presents an opportunity for undergraduate students to integrate their academic studies in the discipline of Black Studies with community service and engagement. As a student intern within a business or professional organization in the urban Metropolitan community, the student gains critical information about the processes and procedures of this business entity in relation to African American community members.

Prerequisite: Departmental consent.