Current Courses
Fall 2017 Courses
AAAD 51 – First-Year Seminar: Masquerades of Blackness
Days: TuTh Time: 9:30-10:45
This course is designed to investigate how race has been represented in cinema historically with a emphasis on representations of race when blackness is masqueraded.
AAAD 101 – Introduction to Africa
Sections: Days: Times:
001 MWF 10:10-11:00
002 MW 3:35-4:50
003 TuTh 11:00-12:15
004 TuTh 2:00-3:15
Introduction to the study of the African continent, its peoples, history, and contemporary problems of development in a globalized world, including a survey of the African past, society and culture, and contemporary political, economic, and social issues.
AAAD 130 – Introduction to African American and Diaspora Studies
Sections: Days: Times:
001 TuTh 2:00-3:15
003 TuTh 3:30-4:45
This course tracks the contours of life, societies, cultures, and history in the Atlantic African Diaspora from origins in Atlantic Africa to the present. Emphasis on forces that have created African American and African Diaspora peoples in North America, South America, and the Caribbean.
AAAD 200 – Gender and Sexuality in Africa
Days: TuTh Times: 2:00-3:15
Introduction to the study of gender and sexuality in African societies. Theoretical questions relating to the cross-cultural study of gender will be a primary focus. Topics include historical perspectives on the study of kinship and family in Africa and the impact of colonialism and other forms of social change.
AAAD 201 – The Literature of Africa
Sections: Days: Times:
001 MWF 8:00-8:50
002 TuTh 8:00-9:15
An introduction to the African literature. In addition to substantive themes, we will identify major stylistic characteristics of modern African literature with particular attention to the ways in which African language, literature, and traditional values have affected modern writing.
AAAD 212 – Africa in the Global System
Days: MW Times: 3:35-4:50
A seminar that critically examines the historical and theoretical basis of the state’s centrality in economic development in African countries. Relevant case studies drawn from sub-Saharan Africa.
AAAD 231 – African American History since 1865
Days: TuTh Times: 12:30-1:45
Special emphasis on post emancipation developments.
AAAD 232 – Black Women
Days: TuTh Times: 9:30-10:45
An examination of the individual and collective experiences of black women in America from slavery to the present and the evolution of feminist consciousness.
AAAD 240 – African American Politics
Days: TuTh Times:2:00-3:15
A survey of African American political development from emancipation to the present. The course examines the dynamics of minority group politics with African Americans as the primary unit of analysis. Students consider African American politics in domestic and global contexts and issues of local, regional, national, and international relevance.
AAAD 252 – Blacks in the West
Blacks in the West is a survey course that examines the origins, migration, and development of African descended peoples in the United States west of the Mississippi River.
AAAD 254 – Blacks in North Carolina
Days: MW Times: 3:35-4:45
This course is an overview of the black experience in North Carolina with special emphasis on Chapel Hill and Wilmington.
AAAD 258 – The Civil Rights Movement
Days: MWF Times: 8:00-8:50
An examination of the struggle by black Americans for social justice since Wold War II and of the systematic response.
AAAD 259 – Black Influences on Popular Culture
Days: TuTh Times: 9:30-10:45
This course examines the influence of African American expressive culture, particularly popular music, on American mainstream culture.
AAAD 284 – Contemporary Perspectives on the African Diaspora in the Americas
Days: TuTh Times: 2:00-3:15
An interdisciplinary survey of African-descendant communities and the development and expression of African/black identities in the context of competing definitions of diaspora.
AAAD 286 – The African Diaspora in the Colonial Americas, 1450-1800
Days: TuTh Times: 3:30-4:45
Explores the experiences of Africans in European colonies in locations such as colonial Mexico, Brazil, the Caribbean, and mainland North America. Lecture and discussion format. The major themes of inquiry include labor, law, gender, culture, and resistance, exploring differing experiences based on gender, location, and religion.
AAAD 290 – Topics in African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
Days: MW Times: 3:30-4:45
Understanding black dance throughout Cuban history and into the present-day. Focus on orisha dance interpretation, representation, and performance on and off-stage in Cuba and the diaspora. Interdisciplinary interrogation of concepts such as religion, folklore, nation, blackness, gender, history, and dance. Concepts illustrated through readings, movement practice (dance classes), and spectatorship.
AAAD 298 – Blacks in British North America to 1833
Days: MW Times: 5:45-7:00
This course looks at blacks in the British world to 1833, with particular attention on the 13 colonies and the lands that would eventually form the Dominion of Canada.
AAAD 300 – Cultures of Health and Healing in Africa
Days: TuTh Times: 3:30-4:45
This course explores contemporary economic, political, and social factors influencing the health and welfare of African peoples. Emphasis is placed on understanding the cultural perspectives that shape non-Western experiences of health, disease, and notions of spiritual and physical well-being. Readings draw from the fields of anthropology, history, and public health.
AAAD 315 – Political Protest and Conflict in Africa
Days: MWF Times: 1:15-2:15
This course surveys contemporary forms of political conflict and protest in Africa. The nature, causes, and consequences of these conflicts will be examined.
AAAD 320 – Introduction to African Music
Days: TuTh Times: 12:30-1:45
An introduction to African music new and old, focusing on the continent’s distinctive techniques and concepts, and on its musical interactions with the rest of the world. The politics of music making in various historical settings will be explored. Prior musical experience is helpful, but not required.
AAAD 333 – Race and Public Policy in the U.S.
Days: TuTh Times: 12:30-1:45
Exploration of the relationship between race and public policy in the U.S. Primary focus on African Americans, but other racial groups also studied. Key areas include reproductive justice, health care, employment, labor, welfare, education, housing, environmental justice, policing, criminalization, foreign policy, immigration, and war.
AAAD 356 – The History of Hip Hop Culture
Days: TuTh Times: 3:30-4:45
Examines the emergence and impact of Hip Hop music and culture and its broad influence in mainstream culture, as a global phenomenon and as a vehicle embodying formative ideas of its constituent communities.
AAAD 395 – Research Seminar
Days: TuTh Times: 11:00-12:15
Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Subject matter will vary with each instructor. Each course will concern itself with a study in depth of some problem in African, African American, or diaspora studies.
AAAD 412 – Regional Seminar in African Studies
Days: MW Times: 5:05-6:20
Seminar focuses on history, politics, and economic development challenges of a single region or major country of the African continent, with emphasis on contemporary issues. Region, country, and topics vary by semester and instructor.
AAAD 414 – Senegalese Society and Culture
Days: MWF Times: 1:25-2:15
This course provides an overview of Senegalese culture through movies, literary works, and scholarly books and articles. The course examines the geography, population, ethnic composition, thoughts and religious beliefs, arts and music, polygamy, status of women, and the impact of the tariqas or Sufi orders on people’s daily lives.
AAAD 421 – Languages of Africa
Days: MWF Times: 9:05-9:55
This course is an introduction to the languages of Africa. No linguistics background is required. Topics include classification, characteristic linguistic features of African languages, and their role in their respective societies.
AAAD 450 – Harlem Renaissance
Days: TuTh Times: 9:30-10:45
This course explores outstanding themes of the Harlem Renaissance through readings, prints and photographs, lectures, and class discussion.
AAAD 488 – Human Rights and Democracy in African Diaspora Communities
Days: M Times: 3:35-6:25
This course examines how questions of democracy and human rights have been conceptualized in African Diaspora communities in the Americas and Europe.
Language Courses
LGLA 401 – Elementary Lingala l
Days: MWF Times: 3:25-4:15
LGLA 403 – Intermediate Lingala lII
Days: MWF Times: 3:35-4:15
SWAH 401 – Elementary Kiswahili l (3 sections)
Sections: Days: Times:
001 MWF 9:05-9:55
002 MWF 10:10-11:00
003 MWF 12:20-1:10
SWAH 403 – Intermediate Kiswahili III
Sections: Days: Times:
001 MWF 12:20-1:10
002 MWF 10:10-11:00
SWAH 405 – Kiswahili V
Days: MWF Times: 1:25-2:15
WOLO 401 – Elementary Wolof I
Days: MWF Times: 9:05-9:55