A study of the major traditions of African-American writing from the nineteenth century to the present, including Frederick Douglass, Linda Brent, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Ernest Gaines, Toni Morrison, and Rita Dove.
An introduction to the ecology and management of forests and natural resources in the tropical biome. Social and technical aspects of forestry and natural resource management are considered. Topics include tropical forest ecology, techniques of forest and natural resource management, land tenure, the use of plants as pharmaceuticals, agroforestry, trees in traditional management systems, the forest as habitat, and the role of western environmental assistance in tropical countries.
A survey of the major topics and issues in African-American history from 1865 to the present: the era of emancipation, the turn-of-the-century nadir of race relations, black participation in both world wars, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and various dimensions of contemporary black life. The course will also explore some of the historiographical themes that have catalyzed current scholarship and will analyze diverse theories about the black experience in America.
This American History course covers the Black Power Movement’s history from its origins in the late 1960s and early 1970s through the current Black Lives Matter era. Together we review how the Black Power Movement empowered individuals and groups to protest police brutality, advance criminal justice reform, advocate for self-defense, promote Black collective interests, advance Black values, create Black institutions, and secure Black autonomy.
The course introduces students to the concepts of “culture” and “globalization” with an emphasis on exploring how cultural practices are shaped by border-crossing and other forms of cross-cultural exchange. Specifically, the context of Africa allows the examination of shared characteristics of globalization through colonization and other historical developments. The majority of the course then explores the cultural hybridity and heterogeneity that result from this process and continue to inform cultural practice in the contemporary period. Africa as a geographic region provides insight into the complexity of “globalization” outcomes that depend upon the diverse economic, social, cultural, and historical contexts in which cross-cultural exchange occurs.
This course exposes students to essential theories on American voting behavior developed by leading political scientists. At the end of the course, students will be equipped to contribute competently to academic discussions on the topic.
This course offers a psychological exploration of human diversity, with a primary focus on minority groups in the U.S. Students examine a wide range of psychological topics within a cultural context, including gender, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, social class, personality, intelligence, health, intergroup relations, and intercultural communication. The course also introduces cross-cultural research methods that enable diverse perspectives to shape psychological theory and practice. Students develop a nuanced appreciation of how diversity impacts various aspects of life, including research, service delivery, workplace dynamics, and personal relationships.
American Studies
Reading and discussion of significant texts from various disciplines including important theoretical analyses of American cultural and intellectual life.
Like Abraham Lincoln’s announcement of “a new birth of freedom” in the Gettysburg Address, the American literature covered in English 378 struggles to articulate, then problematize, American freedom in the era surrounding the Civil War and emancipation. What is freedom? To whom does it extend? What are its blessings and its costs? Nobody has ever thought more profoundly about these issues than the American writers who emerged before, during, and after the war America fought with itself: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Harriet Jacobs, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Henry James, Charles Chesnutt, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and others.
The most innovative American novelist of the twentieth century is also the writer we need to make sense of the twenty-first. “The past is never dead,” Faulkner said. “It isn’t even past.” But why isn’t it? Why can’t we, as so many Americans ask, “just move on”? Faulkner’s novels keep asking this plaintive question, his characters yearning for the freedom of the fresh start but caught by a tragic past that doesn’t want to let go. This class focuses on the major novels Faulkner wrote, in blindingly quick succession, between 1929 and 1942, what he later called his “matchless time.”
A study of the major traditions of African-American writing from the nineteenth century to the present, including Frederick Douglass, Linda Brent, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Ernest Gaines, Toni Morrison, and Rita Dove.
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of the United States.
A survey of the major topics and issues in African-American history from 1865 to the present: the era of emancipation, the turn-of-the-century nadir of race relations, black participation in both world wars, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and various dimensions of contemporary black life. The course will also explore some of the historiographical themes that have catalyzed current scholarship and will analyze diverse theories about the black experience in America.
This seminar compares the warfare that accompanied colonial encounters in North America and southern Africa, from the first European contact through the early twentieth century. It focuses on wars fought in response to resistance by native peoples and on the use of native allies in warfare between imperial foes as windows into the processes of acculturation, resistance, dispossession, and representation that characterized the colonial encounter as a whole. Texts range from traditional military history to religious, cultural, environmental, and comparative approaches to the topic.
A study of the institution and processes of the American Congress, including its design and development over time. This course studies Congress by 3 approaches—Congress and its constituents, Congress and its members, Congress and the American political system—with special attention to its representation and law-making functions.
Students are introduced to foundational theories of public policy, gaining valuable insight into "who gets what, when, and how" in the political process. Through a series of case studies in environmental, social welfare, criminal justice, and health policy, students are asked to apply and critically evaluate policy problems and solutions, given existing public policy theories.
The course explores the ideas that influence environmental thought, examines various environmental problems and suggested solutions, and critically evaluates the role that political institutions play in creating and enforcing environmental policy. Specific topics include environmental justice, environmental federalism, environmental health, and regulatory behavior. Not open for credit to students who have completed ENST 334.
An introduction to and critical interrogation of what counts as "America" and "religion." It asks how these terms have been defined and debated and to what effect. This course examines select moments, figures, debates, and movements from colonial encounter to the present that have helped form and reshape these concepts (religion, America/n), particularly as they intersect with other categories of human distinction and difference-making, including race, space, gender, sex, and class.
An introduction to and critical interrogation of what counts as "America" and "religion." It asks how these terms have been defined and debated and to what effect. This course examines select moments, figures, debates, and movements from colonial encounter to the present that have helped form and reshape these concepts (religion, America/n), particularly as they intersect with other categories of human distinction and difference-making, including race, space, gender, sex, and class.
Anthropology
Introducing perspectives of Socio-Cultural Anthropology, the class explores how culture (the way of life shared by a group of people) creates varied realities and life experiences worldwide in relation to socially-generated understandings of gender, religion, ethnicity, class, race, and kinship. Focused on patterns of difference and similarity across cultures around the globe, this course teaches students the value of cross-cultural comparison and how to analyze their own cultural backgrounds through the anthropological lens.