African and Africana Studies (Bi-Co)

Department Website:
https://www.haverford.edu/africana-studies

African and Africana Studies concentrators and students hone sophisticated global frames of reference and dynamic research methods in order to study continental Africa and the African diaspora. Drawing on anthropology, economics, history, linguistics, literature, music, philosophy, political science, and sociology, students analyze and interpret processes of emancipation, decolonization, development, and globalization in Africa proper and in societies with populations of African origin.

African and Africana Studies is a Bi-College program, offered as a minor at Bryn Mawr or as an area of concentration for students at Haverford majoring in certain disciplines. The concentration at Haverford is open to majors in which at least two African and Africana Studies courses are offered. The African and Africana Studies program also belongs to a consortium with Bryn Mawr College, Swarthmore College, and the University of Pennsylvania, allowing concentrators to access resources and courses at all four participating institutions.

Learning Goals

Study continental Africa and various African diasporas through a global frame of reference.
Understand how the African continent has been linked for centuries to transcontinental movements of people, money, ideas, and things.
Study African political and cultural history and African diasporic movements and the links between them.
Understand how a variety of methodological approaches or disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, economics, history, linguistics, literature, music, philosophy, political science, and sociology, can be used to analyze social life and practices in Africa and its diasporas and understand global trade, slavery, emancipation, decolonization, and development against a background of international economic change in Africa itself and in societies worldwide with populations of African origin.
Examine the values and beliefs of persons and communities in multiple African societies as a way to critically and comparatively engage European and American history and philosophy.
Examine African peoples’ responses to racialized Atlantic slave trade, colonization, and globalization in order to cultivate a theoretical understanding of social change processes.

Haverford’s Institutional Learning Goals are available on the President’s website, at http://hav.to/learninggoals.

Curriculum

The African and Africana Studies curriculum is organized to help students develop a global understanding of African societies and experiences throughout the African diaspora. A key to realizing this goal is students’ capacities to relate disparate materials from cognate disciplines to their concentrated research in African and Africana Studies. Because African and Africana Studies concentrators must take courses in various fields and disciplines, it is vital that they have an opportunity to historically, conceptually, and theoretically frame their coursework in the concentration. To that end, concentrators in the African and Africana Studies program must take a foundation course at either Haverford or Bryn Mawr College. Students may satisfy this requirement by taking either AFST H101, “Introduction to African and Africana Studies” or HIST B102, “Introduction to Africana Civilizations.”

Students are advised to complete one of the two foundation course options as early as possible, ideally during the first two years, and by no later than the junior year.

Concentration Requirements

Concentrators must take either AFST H101, “Introduction to African and Africana Studies” (Haverford College) or HIST B102, “Introduction to Africana Civilizations” (BMC).
Other than the required introductory course, students must complete five additional courses from a list approved by the concentration coordinator.
At least two, and no more than three, courses must be completed in the departmental major.
At least three African and Africana Studies courses must be taken in at least two departments outside of the major.
At least one of the required courses must deal with the African diaspora.
Concentrators must complete either a senior thesis or seminar-length essay in an area of African and Africana Studies.

Students majoring in a department that requires a thesis satisfy therequirement by writing on a topic approved by their department and by the coordinator(s) of the African and Africana Studies program. If the major department does not require a thesis, an equivalent written exercise that is a seminar-length essay is required. The essay may be written within the framework of a particular course or as an independent study project. The topic must be approved by the instructor in question and by the coordinator(s) of the African and Africana Studies program. Successful completion of the African and Africana Studies minor/concentration is noted on students’ final transcripts.

Faculty

Below are the core Bi-Co African and Africana Studies faculty. Many other faculty at both institutions contribute courses to the program; see the Courses section for a full listing.

Core Faculty at Haverford

Kevin Quin
Assistant Professor of African and Africana Studies

Linda Strong-Leek
Provost; Professor of African and Africana Studies; Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies

Terrance Wiley
Assistant Professor of Religion and Coordinator of African and Africana Studies

Core Faculty at Bryn Mawr

Kalala Ngalamulume
Professor of Africana Studies and History and Co-Director of Health Studies

Chanelle Wilson
Assistant Professor of Education and Director of Africana Studies

Courses at Haverford

Africana Studies Courses

AFST H101 INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN AND AFRICANA STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Kevin Quin

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

An interdisciplinary introduction to Africana Studies, emphasizing change and response among African peoples in Africa and outside.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

AFST H136 BLACK ECOLOGIES (1.0 Credit)

This course engages writings and cultural works about Black eco-literary and ecological traditions. Black Ecologies focuses on the multiple ecological and spatial conditions that have over-determined Black life and relationships to nature including the middle passage, slavery, racial segregation, food apartheid, gentrification and even incarceration. All these phenomena have produced unequal access to natural resources, space, food and land through systems that racialize, gender and commodify space. By exploring Black cultural and land based worker’s literary, cultural, and community responses to anti-Black environmental conditions, we will consider how Black communities reclaim spatial autonomy through creative modes of collective liberation. Student's critical and creative writing will be based on course texts and outdoor experiences of observation and laboring collectively at Haverfarm. Open only to first-year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing. Crosslisted: AFST,ENVS.

AFST H245 ETHNOGRAPHIES OF AFRICA: CULTURE, POWER AND IDENTITY (1.0 Credit)

Zolani Ngwane

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course is a historical overview of some classic and contemporary ethnographic studies of Africa. The course focuses on the contribution of social anthropology to our understanding of the history and socio-cultural identities and practices of the people of Africa. Crosslisted: Anthropology, Africana Studies

AFST H247 AFRICANA PHILOSOPHY (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Africana philosophy has been defined as “as an area of philosophical research that addresses the problems faced and raised by the African diaspora.” (Gordon 2008) Africana philosophy, then, is a modern form of philosophy that oftentimes engages themes and questions that are neglected by Western philosophy. This course will examine philosophical problems raised by African American, Afro-Caribbean, and African philosophy, while engaging major scholars and schools of Africana philosophy. Crosslisted: AFST. Pre-requisite(s): One 100-level course in philosophy or consent of instructor.

AFST H283 AFRICAN POLITICS, AFRICAN NOVELS AND FILM (1.0 Credit)

Susanna Wing

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

The study of politics in Africa through African literature. We explore themes including colonial legacies, gender, race and ethnicity, religion and political transition as they are discussed in African literature. Crosslisted: Political Science, Africana Studies Prerequisite(s): One previous course in political science or instructor consent

AFST H319 BLACK QUEER SAINTS: SEX, GENDER, RACE, CLASS AND THE QUEST FOR LIBERATION (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

Drawing on fiction, biography, critical theory, film, essays, and memoirs, participants will explore how certain African American artists, activists, and religionists have resisted, represented, and reinterpreted sex, sexuality, and gender norms in the context of capitalist, white supremacist, male supremacist, and heteronormative cultures. Crosslisted: Africana Studies, Religion Prerequisite(s): 200-level Humanities course, or instructor consent

(Offered: Fall 2023)

AFST H334 RACE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course explores how race is intertwined with infectious diseases in producing persistent social and health inequalities in the U.S. and abroad. It will examine how human group difference is understood as a given and natural condition despite sociocultural, historical, political, and economic contexts that shape it. It will deal with incidents demonstrated racialized understanding of the body and racial discrimination and inequalities perpetuated in the context of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Ebola, Cholera and Covid 19. Crosslisted: AFST,ANTH. Pre-requisite(s): None. Lottery Preference: declared Health Studies minors, then African studies minors or Anthropology majors

AFST H361 TOPICS IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIT (1.0 Credit)

Asali Solomon

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

For the past three centuries African American writers have mined the experience of chattel slavery in the cause of literal and artistic emancipation. Slave narratives, as well as poetry, essays and novels depicting slavery, constitute a literary universe so robust that the term subgenre does it injustice. In this work spanning the 18th-21st centuries, the reader will find pulse-quickening plots, gruesome horror, tender sentiment, heroism, degradation, sexual violation and redemption, as well as resonant meditations on language and literacy, racial identity, power, psychology, democracy, freedom and the human character. This course is focused primarily on prose representations of slavery in the Americas. Our discussions will incorporate history, but will foreground literary and cultural analysis.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

AFST H376 LITERATURE AND POLITICS OF SOUTH AFRICAN APARTHEID (1.0 Credit)

Laura McGrane

Division: Humanities

This course explores the history and historiography of South African apartheid from its inception in 1948 to its democratic overthrow in 1994. We will consider the interplay between complex definitions of race, gender, nation and difference in novels, plays, and poetry written during the apartheid years. We will also discuss the tension between an ethics and aesthetics of literary production in a time of political oppression. What would it mean for one to write an apolitical text in a cultural space rife with racial and social tensions? Authors will include Nadine Gordimer, Alan Paton, J.M.Coetzee, Bessie Head, and Alex La Guma. Crosslisted with Africana Studies.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

Anthropology Courses

ANTH H212 FEMINIST ETHNOGRAPHY (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course delves into the historical development and utility of feminist anthropology. Feminist Ethnography is both methodology and method that seeks to explore how gender, race, sexuality, and subjectivity operate in a variety of contexts. We will explore articulations and critiques of feminist ethnographic methods that engage researcher positionality and the politics of research. This course is one part analytic and another part how-to. Participants will read classic and contemporary ethnographies while learning to craft auto-ethnographic research. Prerequisite(s): One ANTH course or instructor consent

ANTH H245 ETHNOGRAPHIES OF AFRICA: CULTURE, POWER AND IDENTITY (1.0 Credit)

Zolani Ngwane

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

ANTH H271 THE BODY AND EMBODIMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST (1.0 Credit)

Zainab Saleh

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course surveys anthropological and historical approaches to the body and embodiment in the Middle East, with a focus on themes of representation and power. Our aim is to read up, across, and through prisms of class, gender, and colonialism to better grasp at the stakes of politics and to question the contours and limits of the normal, the healthy, the able, and the pious. Pre-requisite(s): one 100-level course in Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, or History

ANTH H331 CRITIQUES OF THE HUMAN FROM AFRICA (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This advanced seminar focuses on approaches from Africa and the diaspora that consider the category, experience, and radical potential of being (post)human. Course readings and discussions challenge and reframe desires to transcend or go beyond the bodily, psychological, and technological limits of the human, situated in Africa and the diaspora. We engage with ethnographies and histories of/from Africa by anti-colonial writers, postcolonial leaders, Black feminists, storytellers, scholars, and working people in Africa and beyond. Pre-requisite(s): One course in Anthropology, or permission by instructor Lottery Preference: None

ANTH H334 RACE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Comparative Literature Courses

COML H312 ADV TOPICS FRENCH LITERATURE: L''AMÉRIQUE' VUE DU MONDE FRANCOPHONE: ENTRE ADMIRATION ET MÉPRIS (1.0 Credit)

Koffi Anyinefa

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Georges Duhamel, one of the authors on the program, called the United States of America “Outre-Occident”. Obviously, the term is semantically loaded and connotes above all a certain exoticism, a difference. In this course, we will study and interrogate representations of “America” by French-speaking authors: what are the dominant features of these depictions? What are the ideas that underpin them? The tradition of portraying “America” is an old and very rich one, at least since the publication of On Democracy in America, de Tocqueville's famous study. Consequently, we will limit ourselves mostly to authors of the 20th and 21st centuries: Baudrillard, Beauvoir, Dalembert, Duhamel, Godbout, Hergé, Labro and Sartre. Crosslisted: FREN and COML

(Offered: Fall 2023)

COML H377 PROBLEMS IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE: VIOLENCE, TERROR, AND IDENTITY (1.0 Credit)

Rajeswari Mohan

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

An examination of the rhetorical and narrative strategies adopted by postcolonial texts as they negotiate the aesthetic challenges and political complexities of representing violence and terror. Working with fiction, nonfiction, and film, the course will measure the different effects of realism, magical realism, surrealism, and the grotesque as modes of representing the dialectic of violation and violence. Crosslisted: English, Comparative Literature Prerequisite(s): Two 200-level English courses or instructor consent

East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses

EALC H296 CHINA AND AFRICA: HISTORICAL ENCOUNTERS AND CONTEMPORARY LEGACIES (1.0 Credit)

Ruodi Duan

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

China's economic and cultural presence in Africa has expanded dramatically since 2000, especially after the launch of the “Belt and Road Initiative." But to understand the contemporary China-Africa relationship, it is essential to examine historical precedents. This course draws from scholarship, journalism, and culture to explore modes and implications of foreign aid, diverse experiences of travel and resettlement between China and Africa, and the role of race in past and present constructions of China-Africa relations. Crosslisted: EALC. Pre-requisite(s): N/A

Education Courses

EDUC H308 INQUIRIES INTO BLACK STUDY, LANGUAGE JUSTICE, AND EDUCATION (1.0 Credit)

Alice Lesnick

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Growing out of the Lagim Tehi Tuma/”Thinking Together” program (LTT), the course will explore the implications for education in realizing the significance of global Black liberation and Black Study/ies—particularly in relation to questions of the suppression and sustenance of language diversity and with a focus, as well, on Pan-Africanism—by engaging with one particular community as a touchstone for learning from and forwarding culturally sustaining knowledge. Prerequisites: Two courses, at least one in Education, with the second in Africana Studies, Linguistics, Sociology, or Anthropology; or permission of the instructor.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

English Courses

ENGL H113 PLAYING IN THE DARK: FREEDOM, SLAVERY & THE HAUNTING OF US LITERATURE (1.0 Credit)

Gustavus Stadler

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

According to Toni Morrison, the relentless valorization of freedom in a nation built upon the enslavement of people of African descent created a literature full of ghosts and other spectral presences. This course looks at how horror, the Gothic, and the supernatural structure U. S. narrative (mostly) fiction’s engagement with race and history, focusing on how literature disorients our understanding of the “real” when that supposed real conceals histories of violence, terror, revenge, and subversion.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

ENGL H265 AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE:SATIRE IN THE BLACK TRADITION (1.0 Credit)

Asali Solomon

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course is an exploration of African American satire, focusing on fiction. While continually developing and refining our definition of satire, we will situate satire by black artists in a broader American tradition.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

ENGL H277 POSTCOLONIAL WOMEN WRITERS (1.0 Credit)

Rajeswari Mohan

Division: Humanities

This course will focus on contemporary writings by women from a range of postcolonial societies, and examine the ways they intervene in, energize, and complicate the aesthetic and political discourses that shape the norms and hierarchies pertaining to gender and sexuality. In particular, we will explore the ways writers use diverse narrative traditions such as folklore, fable, historiography, and memoir--as well as, more recently, digital writing styles--to give voice to their particular historical, cultural, and political perspectives. We will also trace the play of irony, parody, and mimicry as writers figure their ambivalent positions as women, especially around issues of modernity, immigration, sexuality, religion, nationalism, globalization, development, and neoliberalism.

ENGL H278 CONTEMPORARY WOMEN WRITERS (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Readings in novels, short fiction, poetry, and some non-fictional prose by contemporary women writers. A study of the interrelations between literature written by female authors and the questions, concerns, and debates that characterize contemporary feminsit theory. Readings in Moore, Jordan, Gaitskill, Barry, Rankine, Parks, Ng, Morrison, etc.

ENGL H361 TOPICS IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIT (1.0 Credit)

Asali Solomon

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

(Offered: Spring 2024)

ENGL H363 TOPICS IN AMERICAN LITERATURE (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course investigates representations of racial struggles for liberation in 19- and 20-century U.S. American and African American crime literature. It will introduce students to a range of crime fiction texts, including gothic literature, slave narratives, naturalist and modernist novels, hard-boiled detective literature, film noir, black pulp literature, prison literature, street fiction, and postmodern fiction. A central concern of this course is the relationship between popular cultural forms and radical political thought. Prerequisite(s): two 200-level English courses or instructor consent

ENGL H376 LITERATURE AND POLITICS OF SOUTH AFRICAN APARTHEID (1.0 Credit)

Laura McGrane

Division: Humanities

(Offered: Fall 2023)

ENGL H377 PROBLEMS IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE: VIOLENCE, TERROR, AND IDENTITY (1.0 Credit)

Rajeswari Mohan

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

Environmental Studies Courses

ENVS H136 BLACK ECOLOGIES (1.0 Credit)

Staff

ENVS H312 BLACK & ASIAN FOODWAYS: AN EXPLORATION (1.0 Credit)

Talia Young

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World; C: Physical and Natural Processes

This course will examine environmental and social histories of Black and Asian foods and cuisines in the US, including an introduction to environmental food studies, US Black and Asian migration histories, conflict, and solidarity, and case studies of specific foods. Prerequisite(s): ENVS 101 and at least one of ENVS 201–204; or permission of instructor

(Offered: Spring 2024)

French and French Studies Courses

FREN H250 INTRODUCTION À LA LITTÉRATURE FRANCOPHONE: ECRITURES/FICTIONS DE SOI FRANCOPHONES (1.0 Credit)

Koffi Anyinefa

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Writing, reflecting, about one’s life necessarily involves writing about others. How do contemporary Francophone writers and filmmakers understand and express the inter-relational nature of selfhood, identity, and community? In this course we will study a representative sample of Francophone literary and filmic texts in light of current perspectives on postcolonial autobiographical narratives. Possible writers and filmmakers may include Al Malik, Begag, Bouraoui, Bugul, Chamoiseau, Feraoun, Kane, Peck, Pineau and Rahmani. Prerequisite(s): FREN 101 and 102/105, or 005 and 102/105

(Offered: Spring 2024)

FREN H312 ADV TOPICS FRENCH LITERATURE: L''AMÉRIQUE' VUE DU MONDE FRANCOPHONE: ENTRE ADMIRATION ET MÉPRIS (1.0 Credit)

Koffi Anyinefa

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

(Offered: Fall 2023)

History Courses

HIST H114 ORIGINS OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH (1.0 Credit)

James Krippner

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course analyzes the complex histories, shifting geographies, and unequal relationships of power denoted by the term “Global South,” a designation that maps unevenly onto the formerly colonized regions of Latin America, Africa and Asia. As we shall see, the term is also at times used to describe marginalized populations and places within the “Global North,” a convenient though not entirely accurate label for today’s relatively rich and developed world regions. A basic concern of the course will be to assess how colonialism and its legacies have influenced world history, including the production of knowledge. Our collective goal will be to develop new ways of thinking about our pasts, presents and futures.

HIST H296 CHINA AND AFRICA: HISTORICAL ENCOUNTERS AND CONTEMPORARY LEGACIES (1.0 Credit)

Ruodi Duan

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

HIST H310 POLITICAL TECHNOLOGIES OF RACE AND THE BODY (1.0 Credit)

Andrew Friedman

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course examines the technologies, ideologies, and material strategies that have created and specified human beings as racialized and gendered subjects in the U.S. Readings cover biopolitics, disability studies, material culture, histories of disease, medicine, violence and industrialization. In our discussions and research, we will aim to decode the production of "reality" at its most basic and molecular level. Crosslisted: History, Health Studies

HIST H340 TOPICS IN AMERICAN HISTORY: VOICES FOR JUSTICE—SIX AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES (1.0 Credit)

Emma Lapsansky-Werner

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course will use biographies and memoirs to explore the world and human-dignity strategies of six African American activists from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Through the eyes and experiences of these individuals, the course examines the world(s) they inhabited, their interweaving with Quakers and Quaker ideas and activism--and how their efforts to analyze, navigate, and master their world have helped shape American history. Built around the biographies, writing and speeches of Massachusetts sea captain Paul Cuffee (1759-1817); Philadelphia entrepreneur James Forten (1766-1842); teacher/newspaper publisher/lawyer Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893); educator/missionary Fanny Jackson Coppin (1837-1913); Philadelphia abolitionist Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882); and March-on-Washington coordinator Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), the course surveys not only these individuals, but also the America they inhabited and influenced. Each of these six lives intersected, in various ways, with Quaker people, ideas and activities.

Health Studies Courses

HLTH H305 THE LOGIC AND POLITICS OF GLOBAL HEALTH (1.0 Credit)

Anna West

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course engages critically with changing intervention paradigms in global health from the late colonial period to the present. Topics include colonial and missionary medicine; sanitation and segregation; medicalization of reproduction; eradication campaigns; family planning; labor hierarchies; postcolonial technoscience; medical research. Prerequisite(s): HLTH 115 OR at least one course in anthropology or history OR permission of the instructor

(Offered: Fall 2023)

HLTH H310 POLITICAL TECHNOLOGIES OF RACE AND THE BODY (1.0 Credit)

Andrew Friedman

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

HLTH H316 MAKING AND MISTAKING RACE IN AMERICAN MEDICINE (1.0 Credit)

Anna West

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course examines the origins and development of American medical and scientific thinking about race. Drawing on histories of medicine, critical race theory, science and technology studies, sociology, and medical anthropology, we trouble the idea of race-as-biological-difference and explore the social construction of (pseudo)scientific knowledge about race, bodies, genes, and health. Students learn to historicize genomic and post-genomic discourses of racial difference, and develop communication strategies for confronting racial essentialism in medicine and public discourse. Pre-requisite(s): HLTH H115 or a 100-level course in Anthropology, Sociology, or History Lottery Preference: Senior Health Studies minors Junior Health Studies minors Africana Studies minors and concentrators Anthropology majors and minors

(Offered: Spring 2024)

HLTH H334 RACE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Music Courses

MUSC H127 READING JAZZ (1.0 Credit)

Richard Freedman

A study of jazz and its many meanings, from Louis Armstrong to John Coltrane, and from Charles Mingus to Sun Ra. We’ll explore the music itself, of course. But our main focus will be on the stories that its creators tell about themselves, and the stories that various eye (and ear) witnesses and critics tell about why jazz matters. Together, we will discuss, question, and write about topics such as art and entertainment, difference and race, ownership and authenticity, discrimination and community.

Philosophy Courses

PHIL H247 AFRICANA PHILOSOPHY (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

PHIL H372 TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY AND INTERSECTIONALITY (1.0 Credit)

Qrescent Mali Mason

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course will attempt to determine how and to what extent intersectionality may fit into the discipline of philosophy. Focusing on the ethical dimensions of the concept, we will determine the conceptual difficulties philosophy brings to bear on intersectionality. Prerequisite(s): 200 level Philosophy course or Instructor's Approval

Political Science Courses

POLS H235 AFRICAN POLITICS (1.0 Credit)

Susanna Wing

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Analysis of political change in Africa from the colonial period to contemporary politics. Selected case studies will be used to address central themes including democracy, human rights, gender, interstate relations, economic development, and globalization. Prerequisite(s): one course in political science or consent of the instructor.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

POLS H283 AFRICAN POLITICS, AFRICAN NOVELS AND FILM (1.0 Credit)

Susanna Wing

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

POLS H289 IMMIGRATION POLITICS AND POLICY (1.0 Credit)

Anita Isaacs

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Examines the causes and rights of forced migrants and refugees along with the responses and responsibilities of the international community. Focus on Mexico and Central America. Prerequisite(s): One political science course or instructor consent

Religion Courses

RELG H119 BIBLE, RACE AND SEXUALITY (1.0 Credit)

Naomi Koltun-Fromm

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course focuses on the interpretive history and historical contexts of a selection of biblical passages which form the core of "biblical" understandings of race, gender and sexuality. In comparative and historical textual exploration students will learn the variety of ways these texts have been understood across time and community, as well as how these same texts continue to provoke new interpretations and new understandings of race, gender and sexuality. Lottery Preference: Ten spaces reserved for first years.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

RELG H137 BLACK RELIGION AND LIBERATION THEOLOGY (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An introduction to the theological & philosophical claims raised in Black Religion & Liberation Thought in 20th C America. In particular, the course will examine the multiple meanings of liberation within black religion, the place of religion in African American struggles against racism, sexism and class exploitation and the role of religion in shaping the moral and political imaginations of African Americans.

RELG H155 THEMES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION: RITUAL (1.0 Credit)

Zolani Ngwane

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

What is it that rituals actually do? Are they enactments (affirmations) of collective ideals or are they arguments about these? Are they media for political action or are they expressions of teleological phenomena? The course is a comparative study of ritual and its place in religious practice and political argumentation. Concrete case studies will include an initiation ritual in South Africa, the Communion Sacrament in Christianity, a Holocaust commemorative site in Auschwitz, and the cult of spirit-possession in Niger. Cross-listed: Anthropology, Religion

RELG H160 FROM MALCOLM X TO DAVE CHAPPELLE: ISLAM, HUMOR, AND COMEDY IN AMERICA (1.0 Credit)

Guangtian Ha

Domain(s): A: Creative Expression; B: Analysis of the Social World

This course excavates a remarkable genealogy of African American Muslim humor that both shatters the stereotypical image of the ‘cheerful black man’ and exposes the admirable struggles of contemporary African American comedians. We will read philosophical works on humor and comedy, the history of Islam and slavery in the US and the Americas, and a range of works addressing laughter and foolery. The class includes three workshops that require close hands-on engagement. Lottery Preference: Religion; Africana Studies; Anthropology

RELG H230 RELIGION AND BLACK FREEDOM STRUGGLE (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course will examine the background for and the key events, figures, philosophies, tactics, and consequences of the modern black freedom struggle in United States. The period from 1955-1965 will receive special attention, but the roots of the freedom struggle and the effect on recent American political, social, and cultural history will also be considered.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

RELG H242 TOPICS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGIOUS HISTORY: THE RELIGIOUS WRITINGS OF JAMES BALDWIN (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course will explore the intellectual thought of novelist, writer, activist, James Baldwin. The course will cover four decades of James Baldwin's fiction and non-fiction writings. Students will also be asked to read relevant biographical materials that help to contextualize Baldwin's life and literary corpus.

RELG H254 RAP AND RELIGION: RHYMES ABOUT GOD AND THE GOOD (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

We will explore the origins, existential, and ethical dimensions of Rhythm and Poetry (RAP) music. Giving attention to RAP songs written and produced by African American artists, including Tupac, Nas, Jay-Z, The Roots, Lauryn Hill, and Kanye West, we will analyze their work with an interest in understanding a) the conceptions of God and the good reflected in them, b) how these conceptions connect to and reflect African American social and cultural practices, and c) how the conceptions under consideration change over time.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

RELG H315 RELIGIOUS ORGANIZING FOR RACIAL JUSTICE (1.0 Credit)

Molly Farneth

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course considers the role of multireligious organizations, coalitions, and movements in the struggle for racial justice in the contemporary U.S. Students will learn about the roles, practices, structures, and strategies that these groups use to build solidarity and exercise power. Through readings and discussions, interactions with local organizers, and hand-on activities, students will consider and engage the aims and challenges of religious organizing for racial justice. Pre-requisite(s): At least 2 previous courses at the 200-level in religion, political science, sociology, and/or anthropology, or permission of the instructor. Lottery Preference: Senior religion majors/minors, junior religion majors/minors, other seniors, other juniors, then open to all

RELG H319 BLACK QUEER SAINTS: SEX, GENDER, RACE, CLASS AND THE QUEST FOR LIBERATION (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

(Offered: Fall 2023)

Visual Studies Courses

VIST H216 BLACK SPECULATIVE FUTURES (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

The course will explore how black artists, theorists, and activists imagine different futures to critique power asymmetries and create radical transformation. We will investigate how the speculative works differently across genres and we will craft our own embodied speculative art.

VIST H221 BLACK OTHERWISE WORLDS: THE ART OF CONTEMPORARY BLACKNESS (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course considers the relationship between recent black art and art writing and what scholar of religion Ashon Crawley calls an “aesthetic of possibility.” Specifically, we will examine work that imagines “otherwise” through a number of strategies: rethinking the relationship between the present and the past, crafting alternative worlds, critically examining life at the end of the Anthropocene, rethinking the Enlightenment subject, and exploring black sacred practices.

VIST H222 THE (BLACK) ARTIST AS HISTORIAN (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course seeks to investigate what has been called a historical or archival turn in contemporary art production through the lens of black visual art. We will explore the varied ways that black artists have continuously probed the meaning and production of history throughout the twentieth century, but also how these explorations have changed over time and in relationship to particular subject material (e.g., the history of slavery or more local or personal histories). Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors

Writing Program Courses

WRPR H116 BLACK PHILADELPHIA (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: First Year Writing

This course will engage cultural products by Black writers, artists and activists who explore the racial and spatial politics of Black life in Philadelphia since the dawn of the 20th century. Open only to first-year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing.

WRPR H126 RADICAL BLACK FEMINISMS AND THE CARCERAL STATE (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: First Year Writing

With growing calls for the abolition of prisons and all systems of racial-sexual domination, this course will examine a long history of works by and about Black women political prisoners since the Black Power Era. Open only to first-year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing.

WRPR H127 READING JAZZ (1.0 Credit)

Richard Freedman

WRPR H136 BLACK ECOLOGIES (1.0 Credit)

Staff

WRPR H139 DOES REPRESENTATION MATTER? (1.0 Credit)

Connie McNair

Division: First Year Writing

In this course, students will explore theories of representation, along with critical race studies, structuralism and poststructuralism, global feminisms and neoliberalism, to think through contemporary discourses (like #Oscarssowhite and Girlboss Feminism) that claim representation matters when it comes to racial and gender justice. Lottery Preference: First year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

WRPR H142 PASSING, MIXING, (RE)PRODUCING: RACE & INTIMACY IN AMERICAN DISCOURSE (1.0 Credit)

Connie McNair

Division: First Year Writing

In this course, students will close-read narrative and filmic depictions of transcending, transgressing, and violating racial borders, thinking about what these narratives reflect and what they produce when it comes to understandings of race, gender and sexuality. We’ll look at the effects of both transgressive and progressive figurations of “racial mixture” and mixed race individuals, considering what functions these discourses play in larger schemas of American politics, ideologies and affects. Lottery Preference: First year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing

(Offered: Fall 2023)

Courses at Bryn Mawr

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Courses

ARCH B101 INTRODUCTION TO EGYPTIAN AND NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY (1.0 Credit)

Jennie Bradbury

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

A historical survey of the archaeology and art of the ancient Near East and Egypt.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

Dance - Arts Program Courses

ARTD B138 HIP HOP LINEAGES (0.5 Credit)

Patricia Jones

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Hip Hop Lineages is a team-taught practice-based course, exploring the embodied foundations of Hip Hop and its expression as a global phenomenon. Offered on a pass/fail basis only.

ARTD B141 AFRICAN DIASPORA: BEGINNING TECHNIQUE (0.5 Credit)

Patricia Jones

The African Diaspora course cultivates a community that centers global blackness, dance, live music, and movement culture. Embody living traditions from a selection of peoples and countries including Guinea, Ghana, Mali, Brazil, and Cuba. Offered on a pass/fail basis only.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

ARTD B210 SACRED ACTIVISM: DANCING ALTARS, RADICAL MOVES (1.0 Credit)

Lela Aisha Jones

How do practices of embodiment, choreography, artistry, performance, testifying, and witnessing guide us to transformative and liberation action in our lives? This course excavates the adornment of beings/bodies and the making of sacred spaces for embodied performance, introspection, and ceremonial dance. We will take up the notion of the being/body as an altar and the importance of costume and garb in setting the scene for activism, ritual, and staged offerings. The cognitive has gotten us here, what might continuums of believing in the being/body unveil? Expect to dance, move, write, discuss, create projects, and engage in a variety of textual and media resources. We will work individually and collectively for communal learning. The content for this course will be steeped in the lives, cultures, and practices of black and brown folks. This is a writing and dance attentive course. No dance experience necessary, just courage to move.

ARTD B348 ENSEMBLE: AFRICAN DIASPORA DANCE (0.5 Credit)

Patricia Jones

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Dance ensembles are designed to offer students significant opportunities to develop dance technique and performance skills. Students audition for entrance into individual ensembles. Original works choreographed by faculty or guest choreographers are rehearsed and performed in concert. Students are evaluated on their participation in rehearsals, demonstration of commitment and openness to the choreographic process, and achievement in performance. Preparation: This course is suitable for intermediate and advanced level dancers. Concurrent attendance in at least one technique class per week is recommended. Students must commit to the full semester and be available for rehearsal week and performances in the Spring Dance Concert.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

Classical Studies Courses

CSTS B108 ROMAN AFRICA (1.0 Credit)

Catherine Conybeare

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

In 146 BCE, Rome conquered and destroyed the North African city of Carthage, which had been its arch-enemy for generations, and occupied many of the Carthaginian settlements in North Africa. But by the second and third centuries CE, North Africa was one of the most prosperous and cultured areas of the Roman Empire, and Carthage (near modern Tunis) was one of the busiest ports in the Mediterranean. This course will trace the relations between Rome and Carthage, looking at the history of their mutual enmity, the extraordinary rise to prosperity of Roman North Africa, and the continued importance of the region even after the Vandal invasions of the fifth century.

Education Courses

EDUC B200 COMMUNITY LEARNING COLLABORATIVE: PRACTICING PARTNERSHIP (1.0 Credit)

Eshe Price

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Designed to be the first course for students interested in pursuing one of the options offered through the Education Program, this course is open to students exploring an interest in educational practice, theory, research, and policy. The course asks how myriad people, groups, and fields have defined the purpose of education, and considers the implications of conflicting definitions for generating new, more just, and more inclusive modes of "doing school". In collaboration with practicing educators, students learn practical and philosophical approaches to experiential, community-engaged learning across individual relationships and organizational contexts. Fieldwork in an area school or organization required

(Offered: Spring 2024)

EDUC B217 LESSONS IN LIBERATION: REJECTING COLONIALIST POWER IN EDU (1.0 Credit)

Formal schooling is often perceived as a positive vestige of colonization, yet traditional practices continue a legacy of oppression, in different forms. This course will analyze education practices, language, knowledge production, and culture in ways especially relevant in the age of globalization. We will explore and contextualize the subjugation of students and educators that perpetuates colonialist power and implement practices that amplify the voices of the marginalized. We will learn lessons in liberation from a historical perspective and consider contemporary influence, with a cross-continental focus. Liberatory education practices have always existed, often on the margins of colonial forces, but present nonetheless. This course will support students’ pursuit of a politics of resistance, subversion, and transformation. We will focus on the development of a critical consciousness, utilizing abolitionist and fugitive teaching pedagogy and culturally responsive pedagogy as tools for resistance. Students will engage with novels, documentaries, historical texts, and scholarly documents to explore US and Cape Verdean education as case studies. In this course, we will consider the productive tensions between an explicit commitment to ideas of progress, and the anticolonial concepts and paradigms which impact what is created to achieve education liberation.

EDUC B260 RECONCEPTUALIZING POWER IN EDUCATION (1.0 Credit)

Staff

The systematic critical exploration of the influence of power in education requires attention and re-conceptualization; this course investigates the following question: how can power be redistributed to ensure equitable educational outcomes? We will examine the production of transformative knowledge, arguing the necessity for including creativity and multi-disciplinary collaboration in contemporary societies. Supporting students’ pursuit of a politics of resistance, subversion, and transformation will allow for the rethinking of traditional education. We will also center the intersections between race, class, gender, sexuality, language, religion, citizenship status, and geographic region, assessing their impact on teaching and learning. Weekly fieldwork required.

EDUC B266 GEOGRAPHIES OF SCHOOL AND LEARNING: URBAN EDUCATION RECONSIDERED (1.0 Credit)

Kelly Zuckerman

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course examines issues, challenges, and possibilities of urban education in contemporary America. We use as critical lenses issues of race, class, and culture; urban learners, teachers, and school systems; and restructuring and reform. While we look at urban education nationally over several decades, we use Philadelphia as a focal “case” that students investigate through documents and school placements. Weekly fieldwork in a school required.

EDUC B308 INQUIRIES INTO BLACK STUDY, LANGUAGE JUSTICE, AND EDUCATION (1.0 Credit)

Alice Lesnick

English Courses

ENGL B216 NARRATIVITY AND HIP HOP (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course explores narrative and poetic forms and themes in hip-hop culture. Through close, intensive analysis of hip-hop lyrics, as well as audiovisual performance and visual art, we will consider how rappers and hip-hop artists from the late twentieth century onward have used the form to extend, further, and complicate key concerns of literature in general, and African American and African Diaspora literature in particular. We will explore key texts in hip hop from the late 1970s to the current moment. Reading these texts alongside short fiction by writers such as Gayl Jones, Octavia Butler, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Victor LaValle, Kiese Laymon, Ivelisse Rodriguez, Regina Bradley and others, we will consider how themes of socioeconomic mobility, gender and sexuality, queer and feminist critique, and intersectional political engagement animate artists’ narrative and poetic strategies across genre and media. Written work will include regular in-class presentations, short creative assignments, three short papers, and a final project. As a part of the Philly program, the course will take place in Center City, Philadelphia. Along with course readings, we will engage directly with writers, artists, and events that help shape Philadelphia’s vibrant hip-hop and literature scene. For additional information see the program's website https://www.brynmawr.edu/philly-program

ENGL B217 NARRATIVES OF LATINIDAD (1.0 Credit)

Jennifer Harford Vargas

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course explores how Latina/o writers fashion bicultural and transnational identities and narrate the intertwined histories of the U.S. and Latin America. We will focus on topics of shared concern among Latino groups such as struggles for social justice, the damaging effects of machismo and racial hierarchies, the politics of Spanglish, and the affective experience of migration. By analyzing a range of cultural production, including novels, poetry, testimonial narratives, films, activist art, and essays, we will unpack the complexity of Latinidad in the Americas.

ENGL B363 TONI MORRISON AND THE ART OF NARRATIVE CONJURE (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

A comprehensive study of Morrison’s narrative experiments in fiction, this course traces her entire oeuvre from “Recitatif” to God Help the Child. We read the works in publication order with three main foci: Morrison-as-epistemologist questioning what it is that constitutes knowing and being known, Morrison-as-revisionary-teacher-of-reading-strategies, and Morrison in intertextual dialogue with several oral and literary traditions. In addition to critical essays, students complete a “Pilate Project” – a creative response to the works under study.

French and French Studies Courses

FREN B005 INTENSIVE INTERMEDIATE FRENCH (1.5 Credits)

Agnès Peysson-Zeiss, Grace Armstrong

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

The emphasis on speaking and understanding French is continued; literary and cultural texts are read and increasingly longer papers are written in French. In addition to three class meetings a week, students develop their skills in group sessions with the professors and in oral practice hours with assistants. Students use internet resources regularly. This course prepares students to take 102 or 105 in semester II. Open only to graduates of Intensive Elementary French or to students placed by the department. Students who did not complete Intensive Elementary French must take either 102 or 105 to receive language credit. Two additional hours of instruction outside class time required. Additional meeting hours on Tuesday and Thursday will be scheduled according to students availability. Prerequisite: FREN B002IN (intensive) or Placement exam. Approach: Course does not meet an Approach

(Offered: Fall 2023)

FREN B208 LA DIVERSITÉ DANS LE CINÉMA FRANÇAIS CONTEMPORAIN (1.0 Credit)

Julien Suaudeau

Until the closing years of the 20th century, ethnic diversity was virtually absent from French cinema. While Francophone directors from Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa debunked colonialism and neocolonialism in their films, minorities hardly appeared on French screens. Movies were made by white filmmakers for a white audience. Since the 1980's and the 1990's, minorities have become more visible in French films. Are French Blacks and Arabs portrayed in French cinema beyond stereotypes, or are they still objects of a euro-centric gaze? Have minorities gained agency in storytelling, not just as actors, but as directors? What is the national narrative at play in the recent French films that focus on diversity? Is it still "us against them", or has the new generation of French filmmakers found a way to include the different components of French identity into a collective subject? From Bouchareb to Gomis, from Kechiche to Benyamina and Jean-Baptiste, this course will map out the visual fault lines of the French self and examine the prospects for a post-republican sense of community. This course will be taught in French. Open to non-majors. There will be a weekly screening on Sunday, 7:00pm-9:00pm.

(Offered: Spring 2024)

FREN B211 THE ARTS AND HEALING: THE MANY FACETS OF WEST AFRICA (1.0 Credit)

Agnès Peysson-Zeiss

This course will borrow from Achille Mbembe’s views of Africa in which it is decolonization that ushered a temporal rupture which made possible a wide array of futures for the continent. After an introduction on the history of the region (background, French influence and gender relations), the 360 students will be able to examine local and global knowledge and their potentialities on the ground through a variety of approaches that include healing practices related to well-being in various areas of life, through the arts, literature, music and film. It is this exchange with both diasporic and local artists and thinkers, through lectures, readings and workshops at Bryn Mawr and in Senegal that students will be able to find some of the answers this cluster is raising. They will investigate the consequences of decolonization into the present through a series of modules and examine the differences, consequences and overlap of all the knowledge.s, creativity and futures that exist on and for the continent.

FREN B224 RACISME ET ANTIRACISME EN FRANCE (1.0 Credit)

Julien Suaudeau

Co-constructed with students, this course considers the genealogy of French racism as a socio-political construct and as a system of domination. We will analyze how racism "made in France" was designed, theorized, and deployed, but we will also study how its legacy is deconstructed and questioned by contemporary artists whose work focuses on the French colonial history. Art will be examined as a response to the violence of racism and discrimination - a process by which creators find their agency, their voice, and their strength, emancipating the person from the victimization framework. The class will be taught in French and will include interactions with the artists.

General Studies Courses

GNST B234 ADVANCING RACIAL JUSTICE: ENGAGING WITH COMMUNITY ORGANIZAT (1.0 Credit)

This course will provide opportunities for students to engage with a diverse group of Philadelphia area community-based organizations and/or the neighborhoods of those they serve. Through time in the field, reflection essays, small group work, and class readings and discussions, students will learn about and how to use racial equity tools (RET) and develop an understanding of: the theories, practices, and levels of DEIAR, the dynamics of system-wide change, and the impact of transformative and restorative justice on individuals, organizations, and communities.

History Courses

HIST B102 INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS (1.0 Credit)

Kalala Ngalamulume

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

The course is designed to introduce students to the history of African and African Diaspora societies, cultures, and political economies. We will discuss the origins, state formation, external contacts, and the structural transformations and continuities of African societies and cultures in the context of the slave trade, colonial rule, capitalist exploitation, urbanization, and westernization, as well as contemporary struggles over authority, autonomy, identity and access to resources. Case studies will be drawn from across the continent.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

HIST B156 THE LONG 1960'S (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

The 1960s has had a powerful effect on recent US History. But what was it exactly? How long did it last? And what do we really mean when we say “The Sixties?” This term has become so potent and loaded for so many people from all sides of the political spectrum that it’s almost impossible to separate fact from fiction; myth from memory. We are all the inheritors of this intense period in American history but our inheritance is neither simple nor entirely clear. Our task this semester is to try to pull apart the meaning as well as the legend and attempt to figure out what “The Sixties” is (and what it isn’t) and try to assess its long term impact on American society.

HIST B212 PIRATES, TRAVELERS, AND NATURAL HISTORIANS: 1492-1750 (1.0 Credit)

Ignacio Gallup-Diaz

Division: Social Science

In the early modern period, conquistadors, missionaries, travelers, pirates, and natural historians wrote interesting texts in which they tried to integrate the New World into their existing frameworks of knowledge. This intellectual endeavor was an adjunct to the physical conquest of American space, and provides a framework though which we will explore the processes of imperial competition, state formation, and indigenous and African resistance to colonialism.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

HIST B237 THEMES IN MODERN AFRICAN HISTORY (1.0 Credit)

Kalala Ngalamulume

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This is a topics course. Course content varies

(Offered: Spring 2024)

HIST B243 TOPICS: ATLANTIC CULTURES (1.0 Credit)

Ignacio Gallup-Diaz

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

HIST B337 TOPICS IN AFRICAN HISTORY (1.0 Credit)

Kalala Ngalamulume

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This is a topics course. Topics vary.

(Offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2024)

HIST B349 TOPICS IN COMPARATIVE HISTORY (1.0 Credit)

Ignacio Gallup-Diaz

Division: Social Science

This is a topics course. Topics vary.

Health Studies Courses

HLTH B115 INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH STUDIES (1.0 Credit)

Arnav Bhattacharya

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

The multidisciplinary foundation for the health studies minor. Students will be introduced to theories and methods from the life sciences, social sciences, and humanities and will learn to apply them to problems of health and illness. Topics include epidemiological, public health, and biomedical perspectives on health and disease; social, behavioral, and environmental determinants of health; globalization of health issues; cultural representations of illness; health inequalities, social justice, and health as a human right.

(Offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2024)

Italian and Italian Studies Courses

ITAL B213 THEORY IN PRACTICE:CRITICAL DISCOURSES IN THE HUMANITIES (1.0 Credit)

Daria Bozzato

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

What is a postcolonial subject, a queer gaze, a feminist manifesto? And how can we use (as readers of texts, art, and films) contemporary studies on animals and cyborgs, object oriented ontology, zombies, storyworlds, neuroaesthetics? In this course we will read some pivotal theoretical texts from different fields, with a focus on race&ethnicity and gender&sexuality. Each theory will be paired with a masterpiece from Italian culture (from Renaissance treatises and paintings to stories written under fascism and postwar movies). We will discuss how to apply theory to the practice of interpretation and of academic writing, and how theoretical ideas shaped what we are reading. Class conducted in English, with an additional hour in Italian for students seeking Italian credit.

(Offered: Fall 2023)

Sociology Courses

SOCL B225 WOMEN IN SOCIETY (1.0 Credit)

Veronica Montes

Division: Social Science

In 2015, the world’s female population was 49.6 percent of the total global population of 7.3 billion. According to the United Nations, in absolute terms, there were 61,591,853 more men than women. Yet, at the global scale, 124 countries have more women than men. A great majority of these countries are located in what scholars have recently been referring to as the Global South – those countries known previously as developing countries. Although women outnumber their male counterparts in many Global South countries, however, these women endure difficulties that have worsened rather than improving. What social structures determine this gender inequality in general and that of women of color in particular? What are the main challenges women in the Global South face? How do these challenges differ based on nationality, class, ethnicity, skin color, gender identity, and other axes of oppression? What strategies have these women developed to cope with the wide variety of challenges they contend with on a daily basis? These are some of the major questions that we will explore together in this class. In this course, the Global South does not refer exclusively to a geographical location, but rather to a set of institutional structures that generate disadvantages for all individuals and particularly for women and other minorities, regardless their geographical location in the world. In other words, a significant segment of the Global North’s population lives under the same precarious conditions that are commonly believed as exclusive to the Global South. Simultaneously, there is a Global North embedded in the Global South as well. In this context, we will see that the geographical division between the North and the South becomes futile when we seek to understand the dynamics of the “Western-centric/Christian-centric capitalist/patriarchal modern/colonial world-system” (Grosfoguel, 2012). In the first part of the course, we will establish the theoretical foundations that will guide us throughout the rest of the semester. We will then turn to a wide variety of case studies where we will examine, for instance, the contemporary global division of labor, gendered violence in the form of feminicides, international migration, and global tourism. The course’s final thematic section will be devoted to learning from the different feminisms (e.g. community feminism) emerging out of the Global South as well as the research done in that region and its contribution to the development of a broader gender studies scholarship. In particular, we will pay close attention to resistance, solidarity, and social movements led by women. Examples will be drawn from Latin America, the Caribbean, the US, Asia, and Africa.

SOCL B276 MAKING SENSE OF RACE (1.0 Credit)

Piper Sledge

What is the meaning of race in contemporary US and global society? How are these meanings (re)produced, resisted, and refused? What meanings might we desire or imagine as alternatives? In this course, we will approach these questions through an array of sources while tracking our own thinking about and experiences of raced-ness. Course material will survey sociological notions of the social construction of race, empirical studies of lived experiences of race, and creative fiction and non-fiction material intended to catalyze thinking about alternative possibilities.

Haverford College

Academic Catalog 2023-2024

African and Africana Studies (Bi-Co)

Learning Goals

Curriculum

Concentration Requirements

Faculty

Core Faculty at Haverford

Core Faculty at Bryn Mawr

Courses at Haverford

Africana Studies Courses

Anthropology Courses

Comparative Literature Courses

East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses

Education Courses

English Courses

Environmental Studies Courses

French and French Studies Courses

History Courses

Health Studies Courses

Music Courses

Philosophy Courses

Political Science Courses

Religion Courses

Visual Studies Courses

Writing Program Courses

Courses at Bryn Mawr

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Courses

Dance - Arts Program Courses

Classical Studies Courses

Education Courses

English Courses

French and French Studies Courses

General Studies Courses

History Courses

Health Studies Courses

Italian and Italian Studies Courses

Sociology Courses

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