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BLST 1000 provides students with an overview of African culture and history and the black Diaspora. A key component of this course is to interrogate the meanings and dimensions of slavery and colonialism, and their continuing political, social and cultural implications. Approaches essentially include historical examination of African and African American societies and cultures from pre-colonial and slavery periods to the present.

Classical African Civilization is an introductory survey of the civilizations of Africa and African people prior to 1500 C.E., with emphasis on the evolution of the peoples and nations, their civilizations, and the rise and fall of indigenous states. In particular, this course will cover the classical civilizations of Kemet (Ancient Egypt), Nubia, Axum, Carthage, Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. (Cross-listed with HIST 1050)

The course surveys the cultural forms, expressions, and patterns developed by African Americans, as well as the social contexts of their development. The course will introduce students to the cultural life of African Americans, and how that life has influenced the nature of the community, and its triumphs and tragedies in the larger socio-political context of U.S. American culture.

A study of short stories written by black American authors as literature and as experience. The course explains and defines cultural terms and practices, and attempts to prepare students for multicultural living. (Cross-listed with ENGL 2260.)

Prereq: ENGL 1150, ENGL 1154, or permission of instructor.

The course examines the history of the earliest Africans in the Americas and briefly examines traditional African societies. It covers the transatlantic slave trade and its effects on Europe, Africa and the Americas, and analyzes the development of Afro-American culture and the struggle for freedom. (Cross-listed with HIST 2040)

The Black Spiritual Experience course examines the trajectory of early African religions and philosophies, and their syncretization with European settler religions in America that have been practiced and embraced by Blacks in the U.S. since slavery. Students will survey the historical development of the Black church in America, and the emergence of liberation and Black theologies to combat white supremacy, oppression, and exploitation. This course will explore the cultural importance of music, dance, and art in worship and Black spiritual expressions; the role of religion and theology in empowering and uplifting African Americans, particularly during the Black Power and Civil Rights movements; the political impact of Black religious institutions in the long fight against systemic racism, racial violence, police brutality, and voter suppression in America; and the challenges of inclusion, equity, and intersectionality within the Black church around issues of gender, class, and sexual orientation. (Cross-listed with RELI 2730).

Law and the Black Community provides an in-depth examination of the racialized American legal process as it pertains to and affects African Americans in the U.S. From the formation of the U.S. Constitution to present day, this course analyzes intersections of race, law, politics and culture, and explores the administration of justice and Black experiences through a critical legal perspective. (Cross-listed with CRCJ 3410, PSCI 3410).

Prereq: BLST 1000 OR CRCJ 1010 OR Junior standing OR instructor permission.

This course examines ways in which cultural identity is communicated through African-American cinema, defined as movies with predominantly African American filmmakers, producers, and/or actors. Cultural communication is integrated with historical, political, and social motivation for African-American cinema. (Cross-listed with CMST 3510)

Prereq: Not open to non-degree graduate students.

Critical Writing for Cultural Studies (BLST 3700) is a Writing in the Disciplines (WID) course that prepares undergraduate students, whose fields of interest include any area of humanities and/or social sciences, for the specific writing styles and research methodologies expected in cultural studies disciplines. This preparation includes instruction in resource evaluation, organization strategies, sentence style and vocabulary, documentation styles, and revision strategies.

Prereq: ENGL 1164 or by permission of the instructor.

Special Topics in Black Studies will cover courses on a particular or specific topic, not otherwise specifically covered in the courses of the BLST curriculum, using the theoretical and methodological tools of the discipline of Black Studies. The course will trace the historical evolution of that topic from its points of origin into the present, presenting a survey of the Black Studies discipline and research concerning a specific topic. Students will read works about and within the topic area, situating it within its economic, political, and social contexts as they relate to the Black Studies discipline and Africana communities. The content of this course will change periodically. Each time this course is offered it will focus, in detail and in depth, on some aspect of the Black experience, such as language and dialect, historiography and historicity, theology and religion, musicology, literature, etc.

Prereq: Junior standing or permission of instructor.

African American Psychology traces the psychological history of Africans and African Americans from self-attributes and identity, through race and racism, to cognition, learning, and language. This course will review concepts relevant to understanding the psychology of African Americans, methodological and research issues, and best practices. (Cross-listed with BLST 8156, PSYC 4150, PSYC 8156).

Prereq: BLST 1000 and Junior standing or Instructor permission

This is an undergraduate/graduate course that provides students with definitional and experiential knowledge about the origin of racial concepts, theories, and practices, definitions of ethnicity and identity, and the communicative relationship between race, ethnicity, and identity. (Cross-listed with BLST 8586, CMST 4580, CMST 8586)

Prereq: CMST 4530 or Junior standing or instructor permission; minimum cumulative GPA of 2.25.

Individualized Study in Black Studies is a course that allows a student to register to conduct research on a particular topic, in conjunction with one or more faculty members in the department of Black Studies, using the theoretical and methodological tools of the discipline. The student will prepare and have approved by their faculty supervisor, an associated project proposal with a timetable for the research. The research deliverables may take the form of a paper, a project, a presentation, or some combination thereof. This course is designed for those students who are capable of pursuing, independently, an area of Black Studies that is not covered under the existing curriculum. The student will be supervised by a faculty member of the BLST department. All course assignments, requirements, and expectations will be clearly indicated in advance.

Prereq: Must have instructor permission

African American Psychology traces the psychological history of Africans and African Americans from self-attributes and identity, through race and racism, to cognition, learning, and language. This course will review concepts relevant to understanding the psychology of African Americans, methodological and research issues, and best practices. (Cross-listed with BLST 4150, PSYC 4150, PSYC 8156).

Prereq: BLST 1000 and Junior standing or Instructor permission

This is an undergraduate/graduate course that provides students with definitional and experiential knowledge about the origin of racial concepts, theories, and practices, definitions of ethnicity and identity, and the communicative relationship between race, ethnicity, and identity. (Cross-listed with BLST 4580, CMST 4580, CMST 8586)