Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies
Bachelor of Arts in African American and African Diaspora Studies
Students on Summer 2018, Fall 2018, or Spring 2019 requirements AAADBA
Requirements
The major requires at least 30 credit hours, including the requirements listed below.
- Introductory course. One (1) course:
- AAAD-A 150 Survey of the Culture of Black Americans
AAAD-A 150 Survey of the Culture of Black Americans
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- Required for the major
- Description
- Explores the culture of Blacks in America viewed from a broad interdisciplinary approach, employing resources from history, literature, folklore, religion, sociology, and political science.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- African American History. One (1) course:
- AAAD-A 355 African American History I
- AAAD-A 356 African American History II
AAAD-A 355 African American History I
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- History of blacks in the United States. Slavery, abolitionism, Reconstruction, and post-Reconstruction to 1900.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 355 or HIST-A 355.
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
AAAD-A 356 African American History II
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: AAAD-A 355
- Description
- 1900 to the present. Migration north, NAACP, Harlem Renaissance, postwar freedom movement.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 356 or HIST-A 356.
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- African American Literature. One (1) course:
- AAAD-A 379 Early Black American Writing
- AAAD-A 380 Contemporary Black American Writing
AAAD-A 379 Early Black American Writing
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- African American writing before World War II, with emphasis on critical reactions and analyses. Includes slave narratives, autobiographies, rhetoric, fiction, and poetry.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
AAAD-A 380 Contemporary Black American Writing
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: AAAD-A 379
- Description
- The black experience in America as it has been reflected since World War II in the works of outstanding African American writers: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Senior Seminar. One (1) course:
- AAAD-A 493 Senior Seminar in African American and African Diaspora Studies
AAAD-A 493 Senior Seminar in African American and African Diaspora Studies
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- African American and African Diaspora Studies major; and senior standing
- Description
- Lecture/discussions on African American studies as an interdisciplinary field of inquiry and scholarship. Students will develop individual or group projects that synthesize their experiences as majors by demonstrating the interrelated nature of the department's concentration areas.
- Focal Area. 18 credit hours, at least 9 of which must be at the 300–499 level, to include the following:
- Primary Area. Nine (9) credit hours from one of the following Focal Areas:
- Arts
- AAAD-A 100 African American Dance Company: Foundations and Practices
- AAAD-A 104 Groups Theatre Workshop
- AAAD-A 110 African American Choral Ensemble: Foundations and Practices
- AAAD-A 112 Black Music of Two Worlds
- AAAD-A 120 Soul Revue: Foundations and Practices
- AAAD-A 221 Dance in the African Diaspora
- AAAD-A 222 Black Women Artists
- AAAD-A 243 Race and Representation in American Art
- AAAD-A 251 Photography of and by the African Diaspora
- AAAD-A 277 Images of Blacks in Films: 1903-1950s
- AAAD-A 278 Contemporary Black Film
- AAAD-A 283 Blacks in American Drama and Theatre, 1767-1945
- AAAD-A 290 Sociocultural Perspective of African American Music
- AAAD-A 295 Survey of Hip Hop
- AAAD-A 297 Popular Music of Black America
- AAAD-A 320 Black Dance History
- AAAD-A 330 African American Cinematic Experience
- AAAD-A 331 Visual Arts of the Harlem Renaissance
- AAAD-A 332 Art of the Civil Rights Movement
- AAAD-A 337 Soul Revue: Advanced Studies and Practices
- AAAD-A 338 African American Dance Company: Advanced Studies and Practices
- AAAD-A 339 African American Choral Ensemble: Advanced Studies and Practices
- AAAD-A 345 Hip Hop Music and Culture
- AAAD-A 352 African American Art II: African American Artists
- AAAD-A 359 Ethnic/Racial Stereotypes in American Film
- AAAD-A 384 Blacks in American Drama and Theatre, 1945-Present
- AAAD-A 385 Seminar in Black Theatre
- AAAD-A 388 Motown
- AAAD-A 393 History of Jazz
- AAAD-A 394 Survey of African American Music
- AAAD-A 395 Contemporary Jazz and Soul Music
- AAAD-A 396 Art Music of Black Composers
- AAAD-A 430 The Cinema of Africana Women
- AAAD-A 496 Black Religious Music
- Literature
- AAAD-A 131 Early African American and African Diaspora Literature
- AAAD-A 132 Recent African American and African Diaspora Literature
- AAAD-A 169 Introduction to African American Literature
- AAAD-A 249 African American Autobiography
- AAAD-A 479 Contemporary Black Poetry
- AAAD-A 480 The Black Novel
- History, Culture, and Social Issues
- AAAD-A 113 Atkins Living-Learning Center Foundational Course
- AAAD-A 154 History of Race in the Americas
- AAAD-A 156 Black Liberation Struggles against Jim Crow and Apartheid
- AAAD-A 203 Studying Blacks of the New World: African Americans and Africans in the African Diaspora
- AAAD-A 205 Black Electoral Politics
- AAAD-A 210 Black Women in the Diaspora
- AAAD-A 238 Communication in Black America
- AAAD-A 250 U.S. Contemporary Minorities
- AAAD-A 255 The Black Church in America
- AAAD-A 263 Contemporary Social Issues in the African American Community
- AAAD-A 264 History of Sports and the African American Experience
- AAAD-A 265 Modern Sports and the African American Experience
- AAAD-A 292 African American Folklore
- AAAD-A 304 Black Paris
- AAAD-A 350 Black Atlantic
- AAAD-A 354 Transnational Americas
- AAAD-A 360 Slavery: Worldwide Perspective
- AAAD-A 363 Research on Contemporary African American Problems I
- AAAD-A 382 Black Community, Law, and Social Change
- AAAD-A 386 Black Feminist Perspectives
- AAAD-A 387 Black Migration
- AAAD-A 391 Black Nationalism
- AAAD-A 398 Advanced Topics in Social and Historical Studies for African American and African Diaspora Studies
- AAAD-A 399 Advanced Topics in Arts and Humanities for African American and African Diaspora Studies
- AAAD-A 405 Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, 1954-1974
- AAAD-A 407 African American and African Protest Strategies
- AAAD-A 408 Race, Gender, and Class in Cross-Cultural Perspective
- AAAD-A 420 Transforming Divided Communities and Societies
- AAAD-A 425 The Black Family in Twentieth-Century Rural America, 1900-1970
- AAAD-A 427 Cross-Cultural Communication
- AAAD-A 447 Race, Crime, and Media
- AAAD-A 452 Historical Issues in Black Education
- AAAD-A 481 Racism and the Law
- Credits
- 2
- Prerequisites
- Consent of instructor by audition
- Notes
- R: Previous dance training desirable but not essential
- Description
- Emphasis on ethnic and jazz traditions, although other genres are regularly performed. Repertoire varies from semester to semester. Participation in on- and off-campus concerts, workshops, and lecture demonstrations required.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated individually or in combination with AAAD-A 110 or AAAD-A 120 for a maximum of 12 credit hours.
- Credits
- 2
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Open to summer Groups Program students only. Through a musical/theatrical piece chosen for study and performance, students are encouraged to explore and develop their abilities and to experience growth and motivation that comes from participating in a unified and motivating group experience.
- Credits
- 2
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- The ensemble performs music composed by, for and about blacks, including spirituals, gospel, art songs, and excerpts from operas and musicals. Repertoire varies from semester to semester. Participation in on- and off-campus concerts, workshops, and lecture demonstrations required. No audition required. Students meet the first day of class prepared to sing. Vocal evaluations and part assignments will be done during class. Ability to read music is desirable but not essential.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated individually or in combination with AAAD-A 100 or AAAD-A 120 for a maximum of 12 credit hours.
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- An exploration of the relationships among musics of West and Central African people and their descendants in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Emphasis placed on the conceptual and aesthetic continuities between musical expression in Old and New World contexts--a uniformity which exists because of shared African cultural ancestry.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 112, FOLK-E 112, or FOLK-F 112.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE GCCcourseFall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Credits
- 2
- Prerequisites
- Consent of instructor by audition
- Description
- Introduces the richness and depth of black popular tradition through authentic performance practices. Repertoire varies from semester to semester. Participation in on- and off-campus concerts, workshops, and lecture demonstrations required. Ability to read music desirable but not essential.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated individually or in combination with AAAD-A 100 or AAAD-A 110 for a maximum of 12 credit hours.
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Introduction to the history, culture, music, and body movements of dances in the African American and African Diaspora tradition with a focus on African-derived dances, primarily from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and America. Instruction through classroom lectures, discussions, videos, readings, and movement sessions.
- Spring 2025CASE GCCcourseFall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines black female creativity in the United States from colonial times through the present. Studies art and creativity under slavery, nineteenth-century pioneering artists, racial and gender stereotypes in visual culture, the Harlem Renaissance, WPA art, civil rights and Black Power movements, feminist art, abstraction, conceptual and performance art, vernacular art, postmodernism, and black feminist futurism.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines representations of racial identity in American visual culture from the colonial period through the present. Focuses on evolving conceptions of European American, Native American, African American, Asian American, and Mexican American identities. Considers the political and social climate in which art was made, its consumption, and its place within existing histories.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Investigates the complex relationship between photography and the African Diaspora from the invention of photography in 1839 through the present. Focuses on a range of photographic genres. Provides historical and theoretical reflections on photography of and by black people by considering the political and social climate in which these images were made, their consumption, and their place within existing histories. Emphasizes image making in the United States with occasional reference to African and European photography.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Images of blacks in films, mainly American, from before "The Birth of a Nation" (1915) to the 1950s. Course will include segments as well as complete feature films (also "race films" when available), shorts, cartoons, and documentaries viewed in historical perspective.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Problems raised by proliferation of films acted, authored, directed, and/or produced by blacks. Exploration of legitimacy of "black film aesthetic" and its reception by various segments of the black community.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Images of blacks as reflected in American drama from 1767 to 1945. Selected dramas of both white and black playwrights, such as Isaac Bickerstaffe, William Wells Brown, Eugene O\'Neill, and Richard Wright, who depicted blacks on the stage.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 283 or AAAD-A 383.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Survey of cultural, social, and political attitudes that influenced blacks in the development of and participation in blues, jazz, urban black popular music, and "classical" music.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines rap music and hip hop culture as artistic and sociocultural phenomena with emphasis on historical, cultural, economic, and political contexts. Topics include the coexistence of various hip hop styles, their appropriation by the music industry, and controversies resulting from the exploitation of hip hop as a commodity for national and global consumption.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 295, FOLK-E 295, or FOLK-F 295.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A chronological survey of Black popular music from 1945-2000: rhythm and blues, soul, funk, disco, hip hop, and their derivative forms. Emphasis placed on the context for evolution and the contributions of African Americans to the development of a multi-billion dollar music industry.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 297, AAAD-A 397, FOLK-E 297, FOLK-F 397, or MUS-M 397.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Acquaints students with dancers and choreographers from the African American and African Diaspora who choose to communicate historical, political, recreational, and social themes through the modern, jazz, ballet, tap, and traditional (African and Caribbean) forms of dance and the expressive nature of movement from the black perspective and experience.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines the historical and contemporary portrayals of African Americans in Hollywood and in independent narrative film focusing on the social and political functions of film, its legitimization of race, and its oppositional formations, interventions, and practices. Considers how film mediates and interrogates race and social relations in American society.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Considers visual artistic production (painting, sculpture, photography, and film) during the Harlem or "New Negro" Renaissance, a period in which African American artists sought radical reconceptualizations of self and community through visual and literary expression.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Considers visual artistic production (painting, sculpture, photography, and film) during the American Civil Rights and Black Power Movements.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 2
- Prerequisites
- AAAD-A 120
- Description
- Focuses on music industry concerns related to the ensemble's live presentations of Black popular music. Explores how Black popular music is manifested within the broader context of the music industry. Readings explore music industry structures and practices (copyright law, publishing, creative production, etc.) that directly impact African American artists' creative output and livelihood.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated for a maximum of 8 credit hours individually or in combination with AAAD-A 338 and AAAD-A 339.
- Credits
- 2
- Prerequisites
- AAAD-A 100
- Description
- Students learn dance technique and experience performance from the perspective of the African American and African diaspora. Students perform in choreographic works created by the director and in works produced from student collaborative projects.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated for a maximum of 8 credit hours individually or in combination with AAAD-A 337 and AAAD-A 339.
- Credits
- 2
- Prerequisites
- AAAD-A 110
- Description
- Through meetings with the instructor, students may complete a research project, and develop advanced-level choral leadership skills in vocal techniques, advanced sight reading, and intermediate piano skills. Students will organize and perform in small ensembles to demonstrate their abilities to perform Black choral music.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated for a maximum of 8 credit hours individually or in combination with AAAD-A 337 and AAAD-A 338.
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- Junior or senior standing
- Description
- Examines rap music as artistic and sociological phenomena with emphasis on its historical and political contexts.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 345, AAAD-A 489, FOLK-F 345, or FOLK-F 389.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A survey of the artistic traditions of the African in the New World, from the period of slavery in North and South America through contemporary African American and expatriate black American artists.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A study in cross-cultural stereotyping as evidenced in the film medium. Analysis of Native American, Asian, black, Hispanic, and Jewish groups. Features, shorts, and animations screened to illustrate the "classic" stereotypes of each group and to demonstrate their impact on American society.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Images of blacks as reflected in American drama from 1945 to the present. Emphasis on the contributions of black playwrights such as Lorraine Hansberry, Langston Hughes, Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Ted Shine, and Ed Bullins.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- AAAD-A 283, AAAD-A 379, AAAD-A 380, AAAD-A 383, or AAAD-A 384; or consent of instructor
- Description
- Contributions of blacks to the theatre in America. Reading and discussion of selected dramas and critiques with opportunities for involvement in the oral interpretation of one or more of the plays.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- This course surveys the development of Motown Record Corporation, Detroit Era (1959-1972). Through lecture, discussion, guided listening, and visual experiences, the course studies the musical works, creative processes, business practices, historical events, media, technology, and sociocultural factors that contributed to Motown's identity as a unique artistic and cultural phenomenon.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 388, AAAD-A 389, or FOLK-E 388.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- None
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 393 or MUS-M 393.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A chronological survey of sacred and secular African American musical traditions in North America from the African past to the present. Emphasis placed on context for evolution, musical processes and aesthetics, interrelationships among genres and musical change, issues of gender, and music as resistance.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 394, FOLK-E 394, or MUS-M 394.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A survey of contemporary jazz and soul (rhythm and blues) music and musicians in the United States.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 395 or MUS-M 395.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A study of black music and musicians in the United States with emphasis on the black composer in contemporary music.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 396 or MUS-M 396.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Historical and critical overview of films produced by African American women from the 1940s to the present. The course emphasizes how black women filmmakers combine their creative abilities with a desire to capture dominant issues that affect black women's lives in America.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- An in-depth investigation of Negro spirituals and gospel music, with some treatment of the traditions of lining-out and shape note singing. Examination of genres will address and integrate both the musical and the sociocultural perspectives.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 496 or FOLK-E 496.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines historical texts and introduces them and tropes emphasized by writers to articulate issues of freedom, identity, and salvation as perceived by blacks in diaspora communities. Teaches students how to relate literary works to historical and cultural contexts and how to think critically about ideas, images, and master narratives as presented by African American writers and writers of the black diaspora.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines recent literary texts and introduces students to transnational themes and tropes emphasized by black writers to articulate issues of freedom, identity, and salvation; utilizes interdisciplinary methods to teach students how to appreciate literary artistry; relate literary works to historical and cultural contexts; and think critically about ideas, images, and master narratives as presented by African American writers and writers of the black diaspora.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Representative African American writings including poetry, short story, sermons, novels, and drama.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A survey of autobiographies written by black Americans in the last two centuries. The course emphasizes how the autobiographers combine the grace of art and the power of argument to urge the creation of genuine freedom in America.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- An examination of black poetry from Dunbar to the present, emphasizing the emergence, growth, and development of black consciousness as a positive ethnic identification.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: AAAD-A 379 or AAAD-A 380
- Description
- Analysis of the African American novel from the Harlem Renaissance to the present: genesis, development, and current trends. Emphasis on traditions arising out of the black experience and on critical perspectives developed by black critics and scholars.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 1
- Prerequisites
- Must be an Atkins Living-Learning Center student.
- Description
- Examines the impact of African American history and culture on the nation as a whole and on the international community.
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Exploration of the development of racism and racial ideologies in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, and South America from colonial times to the present. Emphasizes the interaction among cultural, political, and economic factors in shaping patterns of conflict and collaboration, domination and resistance.
- Spring 2025CASE GCCcourseFall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A comparative perspective on American race relations, specifically the similarities and differences of the struggles against Jim Crow in America and against apartheid in South Africa. In both places, the late twentieth century witnessed a revolt against the legal and philosophical framework of white supremacy.
- Spring 2025CASE GCCcourseFall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A comparative study of the cultural, historical, and socioeconomic life patterns of African Americans and Diaspora-based Africans in the United States.
- Spring 2025CASE GCCcourseFall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- The course will explore black participation in the formal structures of American government and in the processes by which these structures are accessed. Black participation in local, state, and federal government arenas will be focused upon, and the political benefits to the black community of these involvements will be assessed.
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Interdisciplinary examination of salient aspects of black women's history, identity, and experience, including policies, cultural assumptions, and knowledge systems that affect black women's lives. While the primary focus is North America, the lives of black women in other cultural settings within the African Diaspora are also examined.
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Communicative experiences of black Americans, including black dialect, language and ethnicity, interracial communication, recurring themes, spokespersons in black dialogue, and sociohistorical aspects of black language and communication.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 238 or CMCL-C 238.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- An interdisciplinary study of how members of four minority groups--Native Americans, Asian Americans, blacks, and Hispanics--combine their struggle for social justice with their desire to maintain their own concepts of identity.
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- The church's role as a black social institution from slavery to the present, its religious attitudes as expressed in songs and sermons, and its political activities as exemplified in the minister-politician.
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A seminar, primarily designed for sophomores and juniors, directed toward critical analysis of selected topics germane to the future socioeconomic and political position of African Americans.
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examination of the historical participation and contributions of African Americans in sport. Students study African American sports pioneers and the social conditions affecting their participation. Period studied includes pre-slavery to the civil rights era (1500 to 1960s).
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- The impact of African American sports heroes, famous teams, and annual sporting events on the shaping of African American culture and the combating of American racism.
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- African American culture in the United States viewed in terms of history (antebellum to present) and social change (rural to urban). Use of oral traditions and life histories to explore aspects of black culture and history.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 292, AAAD-A 392, or FOLK-F 354.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours of literature
- Description
- The common and divergent experiences of African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and African travelers to the "City of Light," from eighteenth-century New Orleans Creoles to twenty-first-century youth of African descent, as seen through literature, performance, film, and other arts. Issues of colonization, expatriation, immigration, exile, the Harlem Renaissance and "negritude," race and diaspora, transnationalism.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 304 or CMLT-C 363.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Spring 2025CASE GCCcourseFall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- This course is an interdisciplinary and comparative study of historical, cultural, and political issues related to Africa and the African Diaspora (the Americas and Europe). Emphasis will also be on team teaching using IUB faculty. Course will be of interest to students in all university departments and schools.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Comparative colloquium that explores the recent literature on racial connections between "the local" and "the global" in contemporary American experience. Through immersion in the new "transnational" critiques of the United States, students analyze texts that describe African, Asian, European, indigenous, and Latino sensibilities about culture, homelands, belonging, and exclusion.
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines several aspects of the classical, indigenous, and modern political/social bondage.
- Spring 2025CASE GCCcourseFall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A research seminar, primarily designed for juniors and seniors, directed toward critical analysis of selected topics germane to the future socioeconomic and political position of African Americans. Reading and discussion of relevant texts, studies, and articles. Includes theory construction, research design, and data collection.
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Legal evolution of civil rights and analysis of specific relevant legal decisions that stimulated social change (the role of slavery, racial segregation, inequality of educational opportunity, and voting laws).
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examination of the history, development, and manifestation of feminist consciousness among African American women. The course is particularly concerned with how black women's lived experience defines that consciousness, and the differing impact it has among various groups of black women, and in their larger social, political, and cultural communities.
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Explores the process, patterns, and paradoxes of the incorporation of individuals and groups identified and/or perceived as "immigrants" from a comparative-interdisciplinary perspective. Focuses on persons from "sending" countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia to the United States. Also examines developments in other labor-importing, postindustrial countries such as France and England in relation to the people who settle there.
- Spring 2025CASE GCCcourseFall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Consequences of the black diaspora in North America; shifting views of blacks toward their native continent; analysis of current geographic, economic, and political relationships.
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Advanced study and analysis of selected issues and problems within the African American and African Diaspora experience utilizing interdisciplinary interpretation through analytical reasoning and philosophical discussions. Varied topics primarily in the areas of history, politics, sociology, anthropology, and economics.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Advanced study and analysis of selected issues and problems within the African American and African Diaspora experience utilizing interdisciplinary interpretations through analytical reasoning and philosophical discussions. Varied topics primarily in the areas of dance, music, film, theatre and drama, and literature.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Spring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines the fight for civil rights by protest organizations such as Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and Congress of Racial Equality; the emergence of black leaders such as King, Farmer, and Malcolm X; the challenge posed by Black Power advocates in the Black Panthers and Black Muslims; and the changes in American society made by the black revolution.
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- An examination of the historical roles, structures, the impact of black protest strategies, and the origins of black movements to assess their impact on communities in Africa and in the diaspora.
- Spring 2025CASE GCCcourseFall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examination of the influence of race, gender, and class from a perspective of power and culture. Use of interdisciplinary sources, including essays, fiction, art, and social science research to examine how different social groups vie for representation, self-definition, and power in different social and cultural settings.
- Spring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Histories, theories, policies, and citizen, state, corporate, nonprofit sector models of transforming past and present societies divided by race, ethnicity, gender, class, caste, tribe, and religion through restorative and distributive justice movements and policies such as civil rights, affirmative action, reparations, and reconciliation tribunals.
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines the economic, social, cultural and political development of black families residing primarily in rural areas of southern US prior to 1970. Primary attention given to institutional development, race relations, population, and migration.
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- A survey study of national, cultural, and cross-cultural persuasion in theory and practice.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of AAAD-A 427 or CMCL-C 427.
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Focuses on crime reporting in America, addressing the question of whether or not the media distort the picture of crime. In particular, this course explores the mass media treatment of African Americans in the coverage of crime.
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Education of black Americans and its relationship to the African American experience. Trends and patterns in the education of black Americans as they relate to the notions of education "for whom and for what."
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Contemporary racial problems in American society with regard to law and constitutional principles of basic freedoms and associated conflicts. Effects of societal norms and impact of racism.
- Spring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Other Areas. 3 credit hours from each of the other two focal areas above (6 credit hours total).
- Elective. Three (3) additional credit hours of AAAD coursework from any focal area.
AAAD-A 100 African American Dance Company: Foundations and Practices
AAAD-A 104 Groups Theatre Workshop
AAAD-A 110 African American Choral Ensemble: Foundations and Practices
AAAD-A 112 Black Music of Two Worlds
AAAD-A 120 Soul Revue: Foundations and Practices
AAAD-A 221 Dance in the African Diaspora
AAAD-A 222 Black Women Artists
AAAD-A 243 Race and Representation in American Art
AAAD-A 251 Photography of and by the African Diaspora
AAAD-A 277 Images of Blacks in Films: 1903-1950s
AAAD-A 278 Contemporary Black Film
AAAD-A 283 Blacks in American Drama and Theatre, 1767-1945
AAAD-A 290 Sociocultural Perspective of African American Music
AAAD-A 295 Survey of Hip Hop
AAAD-A 297 Popular Music of Black America
AAAD-A 320 Black Dance History
AAAD-A 330 African American Cinematic Experience
AAAD-A 331 Visual Arts of the Harlem Renaissance
AAAD-A 332 Art of the Civil Rights Movement
AAAD-A 337 Soul Revue: Advanced Studies and Practices
AAAD-A 338 African American Dance Company: Advanced Studies and Practices
AAAD-A 339 African American Choral Ensemble: Advanced Studies and Practices
AAAD-A 345 Hip Hop Music and Culture
AAAD-A 352 African American Art II: African American Artists
AAAD-A 359 Ethnic/Racial Stereotypes in American Film
AAAD-A 384 Blacks in American Drama and Theatre, 1945-Present
AAAD-A 385 Seminar in Black Theatre
AAAD-A 388 Motown
AAAD-A 393 History of Jazz
AAAD-A 394 Survey of African American Music
AAAD-A 395 Contemporary Jazz and Soul Music
AAAD-A 396 Art Music of Black Composers
AAAD-A 430 The Cinema of Africana Women
AAAD-A 496 Black Religious Music
AAAD-A 131 Early African American and African Diaspora Literature
AAAD-A 132 Recent African American and African Diaspora Literature
AAAD-A 169 Introduction to African American Literature
AAAD-A 249 African American Autobiography
AAAD-A 479 Contemporary Black Poetry
AAAD-A 480 The Black Novel
AAAD-A 113 Atkins Living-Learning Center Foundational Course
AAAD-A 154 History of Race in the Americas
AAAD-A 156 Black Liberation Struggles against Jim Crow and Apartheid
AAAD-A 203 Studying Blacks of the New World: African Americans and Africans in the African Diaspora
AAAD-A 205 Black Electoral Politics
AAAD-A 210 Black Women in the Diaspora
AAAD-A 238 Communication in Black America
AAAD-A 250 U.S. Contemporary Minorities
AAAD-A 255 The Black Church in America
AAAD-A 263 Contemporary Social Issues in the African American Community
AAAD-A 264 History of Sports and the African American Experience
AAAD-A 265 Modern Sports and the African American Experience
AAAD-A 292 African American Folklore
AAAD-A 304 Black Paris
AAAD-A 350 Black Atlantic
AAAD-A 354 Transnational Americas
AAAD-A 360 Slavery: Worldwide Perspective
AAAD-A 363 Research on Contemporary African American Problems I
AAAD-A 382 Black Community, Law, and Social Change
AAAD-A 386 Black Feminist Perspectives
AAAD-A 387 Black Migration
AAAD-A 391 Black Nationalism
AAAD-A 398 Advanced Topics in Social and Historical Studies for African American and African Diaspora Studies
AAAD-A 399 Advanced Topics in Arts and Humanities for African American and African Diaspora Studies
AAAD-A 405 Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, 1954-1974
AAAD-A 407 African American and African Protest Strategies
AAAD-A 408 Race, Gender, and Class in Cross-Cultural Perspective
AAAD-A 420 Transforming Divided Communities and Societies
AAAD-A 425 The Black Family in Twentieth-Century Rural America, 1900-1970
AAAD-A 427 Cross-Cultural Communication
AAAD-A 447 Race, Crime, and Media
AAAD-A 452 Historical Issues in Black Education
AAAD-A 481 Racism and the Law
- Primary Area. Nine (9) credit hours from one of the following Focal Areas:
- Additional requirements.
- No more than six (6) credit hours at the 100–199 level.
- No more than six (6) credit hours at the 200–299 level
- Major GPA, Hours, and Minimum Grade Requirements.
- At least 18 credit hours in the major must be completed in courses taken through the Indiana University Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program.
- At least 18 credit hours in the major must be completed at the 300–499 level.
- Except for the GPA requirement, a grade of C- or higher is required for a course to count toward a requirement in the major.
- A GPA of at least 2.000 for all courses taken in the major—including those where a grade lower than C- is earned—is required.
- Exceptions to major requirements may be made with the approval of the department's Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to final approval by the College of Arts and Sciences.
The Bachelor of Arts degree requires at least 120 credit hours, to include the following:
- College of Arts and Sciences Credit Hours. At least 100 credit hours must come from College of Arts and Sciences disciplines.
- Upper Division Courses. At least 42 credit hours (of the 120) must be at the 300–499 level.
- College Residency. Following completion of the 60th credit hour toward degree, at least 36 credit hours of College of Arts and Sciences coursework must be completed through the Indiana University Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program.
- College GPA. A cumulative grade point average (GPA) of at least 2.000 is required for all courses taken at Indiana University.
- CASE Requirements. The following College of Arts and Sciences Education (CASE) requirements must be completed:
- CASE Foundations
- CASE Breadth of Inquiry
- CASE Culture Studies
- CASE Critical Approaches: 1 course
- CASE Foreign Language: Proficiency in a single foreign language through the second semester of the second year of college-level coursework
- CASE Intensive Writing: 1 course
- CASE Public Oral Communication: 1 course
- Major. Completion of the major as outlined in the Major Requirements section above.
Most students must also successfully complete the Indiana University Bloomington General Education program.