BLST 2150 Introduction to Black Studies (4 Credits)

Black Studies began in 1968 as a discipline dedicated to understanding and improving the lived experience of Africans and African Americans. It started with the intention of providing a safe space for Black students to exercise their intellectual creativity, while engaging in accurate portrayals of the Black experience. Introduction to Black Studies is designed for all students as a cornerstone for the Black Studies minor. This course introduces students to the breadth and depth of Black Studies as a discipline, using primary and secondary sources. Introduction to Black Studies uses historical, interdisciplinary, intersectional, and transnational grounding in the study of Black people. Focused primarily on the U.S., this course examines current theories, methods, and goals in Black Studies while allowing students to delve into some of Black Studies’ most current and exciting scholarship. In this course, students will think about what freedom and democracy have meant to African American people in the United States, and the ways that they have creatively expressed these meanings over time. This interdisciplinary introduction to Black Studies combines the teaching of foundational texts in the field while reinforcing skills in reading and writing learned throughout the quarter. The course will also meet the requirements for AI/SC. This course will also be cross listed with departmental courses from the multiple programs with courses that align with the Black Studies minor ( i.e. ENGL 2xxx, HIST 2xxx, and RLGS 2xxx).

COMN 2020 On the Black Panther Party (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to the rhetorical, political, ideological, and cultural practices of the Black Panther Party. Using a variety of communicative texts, which will include texts written about the Party, the Party’s newspaper, and speeches from Party members, students will come to an understanding of the context in which the Party emerged, but also the demands the Party was making of society as a whole. In the process, the students will be given not only an overview of the Party, but a better understanding of the different communicative practices the Party engaged in to critique oppression in the US. In the process, the students will engage in critical conversations about racism, classism, and sexism not only within the Party, but within the larger US society. This course, then, uses the Party as a case study to analyze the politics of oppression in the US, in particular, but the world, in general. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

ENGL 2110 The African Imagination (4 Credits)

Focusing mainly on Africa, this course explores and connects aspects of the African imagination. These aspects include oral performances, thought systems, literature, art, cinema, and critical discourses in different eras and in various places. Studied together, these existential and intellectual signposts provide an expanded insight into African aesthetics from a continental and an interdisciplinary perspective. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

ENGL 2717 African American Writers (4 Credits)

Defines, describes and analyzes the African-American aesthetic.

ENGL 3744 African American Literature (4 Credits)

This course examines fiction, poetry, autobiography, and drama by African American writers, with strong consideration on the socio-historical conditions that gave rise to and continue to inform this literary tradition.

FREN 2502 La France et ses autres mondes (4 Credits)

IFREN 2502 La France et ses autres mondes (4 Credits) This course reexamines the historical relations and power dynamics between France and its “other” worlds. How and why has France built and maintained its empire in Africa, Asia, and the Americas? How do the leaders of the Francophone world cope with the politics of hegemony put in place by the (ex)rulers? How do the former question and reject the latter in their quest for self-affirmation and nation building before, during and after independence? Our wide range of Pan-Francophone textual and filmic selection from prominent writers and filmmakers will help us answer these questions and classic and newly emerging notions of civilizing mission, Francophonie, Francosphere, postcolonialism, neocolonialism, Afropeanism and Afropolitanism. This course is conducted in French. It counts toward Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture. Courses at the FREN 2400 through 2701 level combine introductory study of a topic in literature and/or culture with grammar review and advancement in French language skills.   Prerequisite: FREN 2003 or equivalent. .

FREN 3501 L'Afrique aux Antilles (4 Credits)

FREN 3501 L'Afrique aux Antilles (4 Credits) This seminar examines the literary and political enterprises undertaken by Francophone Caribbean novelists, essayists, filmmakers, and artists in re-rooting/routing Africa in the Caribbean. We will particularly focus on how and why the Afro-Caribbean tradition is captured in the distinctive movements of Negritude, Antillanité and Créolité. We will use the latter as standpoints from which to examine the affective, historical, and political implications of Africa in the social lives of Caribbean people. We will also discuss the visions and stances of these writers and theorists on the Black Experience and the correlations that exist between the historical and the fictional in essays as well as novels and films. The seminar is conducted in French and emphasizes discussion, writing and critical thinking. Courses at the FREN 3150 through 3701 level combine a seminar approach to a topic in literature and/or culture with advanced language study, including translation, grammar, or other exercises. Prerequisite: 8 credits of courses numbered 2400-2701 or their equivalent.

HIST 1705 Modern African History (4 Credits)

This course is a survey and introduction to modern African history from the late 19th century to the present. We will explore the period of European colonialism and its postcolonial legacy, focusing on the experiences of Africans at this time. Themes addressed in this class will include gender, age, class, race and ethnicity, and the historical legacies of both the precolonial and colonial eras to the construction of the postcolonial nation-state. Assignments will be geared towards teaching students to think and write like historians, and understand the basic tenets of historical inquiry, such as how to use primary and secondary sources and differentiate between them, and construct a basic historical argument that advances historiographical understandings of the topic in question. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

HIST 1715 Middle Passages: Atlantic World Migrations (4 Credits)

Middle Passages examines first-hand accounts by enslaved people and enslavers, modern depictions, and analyses by historians in order to trace the origins, expansion, and decline of traffic in captive Africans in addition to its impact on four continents. The course seeks to answer, among others, the following questions: Why were Europeans in Africa? Why were Africans enslaved? What did African experience on the journey to slavery in the Americas? Which came first, racism or slavery? What is the middle passage? If we want to understand how the US (and not only the South), Western Europe, parts of Latin America, and much of Africa got to be how they are now, we need to know something of the human commerce that profoundly shaped them. In this course, students consider individual, national, and institutional experiences of the Middle Passage by exploring a textbook that overviews the histories of the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and accounts from a series of primary sources.

HIST 2885 Migration, Mobility, and Movement in Africa (4 Credits)

This course will span the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial eras of African history to consider narratives of historical migration within and beyond the continent. Central to these narratives are ideas of indigeneity and foreignness, firstcomer and newcomer status, articulated in the colonial and postcolonial period as differences of race and ethnicity. Through this course, students will be introduced to the historiography of migration in Africa, as well as theories and methodologies based on linguistics, oral traditions, and archaeology. We will begin with the Bantu expansion patterns of second millennium BCE up to 1500 CE, considering the linguistic trajectory that this migration took in considering the origins of modern language groups on the continent. We will then move on to Indian and Atlantic Oceanic networks of trade and migration, including the slave trades that led to the dispersion of peoples both within and outside of the continent, and the creation and recreation of kinship groups and polities. We will consider the history of the mfecane in southern Africa, or the period of dispersal and warfare that led to wide-scale migration throughout the region in the nineteenth century. We will also explore the histories of migration to the continent by European colonizers as well as the settlement of communities from the Middle East and South Asia as part of systems of indentured labor as well as free migration. Finally, this course will take a look at contemporary issues of citizenship and xenophobia in postcolonial nations. All required readings for the course will be posted online.

INTS 3017 The Revolutions of Black, Brown, and Indigenous Peoples: Violence and Nonviolence (4 Credits)

This course focuses on revolutions of black, brown and indigenous people in the Americas, ones historically forgotten in academia, as well as the issue of violence and nonviolence in the Chinese, Indian, Tibetan and South African revolutionary movements.  It will set this glaring omission and rich discussion in the context of the eugenics which marked the study of international relations and sociology, including of revolutions, in the United States in the 1920 and 1930s and whose influence continues until now. We will begin from Robert Vitalis’s surprising White World Order, Black Power which underlines the central role of W.E.B. Dubois in challenging these racist disciplines. We will also read Aldon Morris’s The Scholar Denied on Dubois’ founding of an anti-racist American sociology and how, for political reasons, this came to be denied by the famous, egregiously racist “Chicago” school of Robert Park. We will begin from the great struggles – black soldiers on both sides in the American Revolution and how black Patriots played the decisive role on the American side, benefiting all revolutionaries (Gilbert, Black Patriots and Loyalists), the great insurrection of people who were enslaved which made Haiti (CLR James, Black Jacobins and Elizabeth Fick, The Making of Haiti),  and the role of pardos (blacks) and indigenous people in Venezuela (Robin Blackburn, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery) – in the New World. We will trace the role of those who were enslaved in forging many great revolutions – each of which is vital to creating a free society for all - which have been hidden academically and historically, by a kind of amnesia. We will then explore the debates about  violence and nonviolence central in mass uprisings against colonial racism and domination in China, Tibet, India, and South Africa. We will consider explanations of why such major revolutionary movements have been long “forgotten” in academic study and ask what new light these revolutions cast on the standard trajectory of European revolutions. At the end of the 19th century, W.E.B. Dubois, for example, refers to the “color line” in projecting twentieth century movements. In academia, the past is often interpreted in a “too European” and, unselfconsciously, “White” (often “forgetting” colonialist and racist crimes…; hostile to ordinary white folks) idiom. In addition, we will discuss the revolution from below in China - rarely considered with dispassion or even sympathetically, though Theda Skocpol and William Hinton do - as well as the oppression/ethnic cleansing of minorities in China, particularly in Tibet. We will thus contrast some strengths and weaknesses of regimes emerging from violent revolutions in the Americas, Haiti, and China, and look at attempts to forge mass nonviolent revolutions and learn from/modify Gandhi in India, Tibet and South Africa. We will also compare movements of indigenous people in the Americas, Palestinians, and Tibetans against settler colonialism. Finally, we will ask to what extent the nonviolent transition to a new regime actually limits future oppression and violence in India and South Africa. Prerequisites: INTS 1500 and INTS 1700.

INTS 3365 African Development: Patterns, Issues and Prospects for the SDGs (4 Credits)

This is an undergraduate course on Development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It introduces the student to the main issues and themes confronting contemporary African development. It draws on literature from development economics, history, comparative politics, sociology, anthropology, geography and international relations, as well as a broad range of country case studies. The course reviews patterns of development in the SSA region. It then engages with the main theories of economic growth and development and evaluates their application to Sub-Saharan Africa. The main issues include the impact of Africa’s geography, natural resources endowments and climate; the legacy of slavery and colonialism; independence, state formation and failure; patrimonialism, clientelism and corruption; Africa’s economic crisis and reform efforts; foreign aid and debt; democratization and; reflections on Africa and the sustainable development goals. The course will equip the student with knowledge and skills to be a positive and effective player in the area of African development. Prerequisites: INTS 1500 and INTS 1700.

INTS 3590 Politics in Africa: A Theoretical Approach with a Comparative Perspective (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to basic concepts and arguments in the study of contemporary African politics. The focus is on the politics in Africa post-independence. The course emphasizes theory in a comparative perspective as a way to understand politics in Africa. The basic question is whether politics differ so much in Africa as to be in a category by itself or is it simply a variation on patterns, habits, and institutions found in other regions and countries in the world? The course goal is to provide students with important concepts so as to gain a better understanding of processes in Africa and the problems that in some fashion or other account for the continent's current marginality in the world and persistent underdevelopment. In addition, the course exposes students to the application and usefulness of general theories of development in comparative politics. Prerequisites: INTS 1500 and INTS 1700.

JUST 2026 Race: Black, Jew, Other (4 Credits)

This course is cross-listed with PHIL 2026 and RLGS 2026. In its investigation of philosophical writings on race and racism, this course explores a range of existential and phenomenological lenses for interrogating race and racism, with a focus on the shared theoretical and practical intersections of anti-Black and anti-Jew discourse. The course aims to help participants read and understand difficult primary philosophical (and some theological) texts—many of which are cited and engaged by contemporary writings across a number of disciplines. In this respect, we work through philosophical writings related to race, exile, “negritude,” “the wandering Jew,” and “otherness” by engaging such authors as: Sartre, Wright, De Bois, Levinas, Senghor, Fanon, Freud, Appiah, Jankelevitch, and Cone, alongside Gilman’s work on the “Jew’s Body” and “Jewish Self-Hatred,” Bernasconi’s work on the phenomenology of race, and discourses of “Other-as-disease” in American and Nazi eugenics. In all of its content, the course aims to engage participants with key issues and questions around race and racism, including extending the implications of anti-Black and anti-Jew discourses / practices to a range of other anti-Other discourses / practices at play in the world around us. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

MUAC 1024 Black Sacred Music: A Survey (4 Credits)

This course is an experiential exploration of the spirituality of African-American sacred song. Participants will sing, consider the history of the music and explore their own connection to the songs, as well as the inspiration and challenge these songs may offer to present and future communities. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement. Note: Music majors do not receive Common Curriculum credit for this course and thus it will not fulfill AI: Society requirements for music majors.

MUAC 2251 Contemporary Gospel Music: Religion, Culture, and the Black Church (4 Credits)

This course seeks to examine the ways in which gospel music, and contemporary black gospel music in particular, has impacted not only black church culture but broader society in general. Through audio and video media, readings, and class discussion, we will discover how gospel music has influenced black church culture and popular culture. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement. Cross listed with RLGS 2251.

MUEN 3730 American Heritage Chorale (1 Credit)

This ensemble will explore through choral music the various ways in which music written by American composers has been influenced and has its roots in music from other cultures and regions of the globe. Special attention shall be given to music by African American composers. American Heritage Chorale is open to all students interested in singing. Prior choral experience is not required. A brief vocal interview will determine appropriate placement within the ensemble. The course will conclude with a performance at the end of the quarter. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

MUEN 3731 The Spirituals Project Choir (0-1 Credits)

This ensemble will explore African American spirituals as an art form, tradition, and tool for social change through performance, reading, and listening. Because the core of this ensemble is a multi-ethnic, multi-generational community choir, students will have the unique opportunity to join with and learn from a group of singers immersed in this musical tradition. Students will participate in 2-3 performances over the course of the term, the majority of which will be outside of Lamont. Through performance and study of spirituals and related music, students will gain a musical and cultural understanding of this dynamic music and gift from African Americans to the world. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

PHIL 2026 Race: Black, Jew, Other (4 Credits)

In its investigation of philosophical writings on race and racism, this course explores a range of existential and phenomenological lenses for interrogating race and racism, with a focus on the shared theoretical and practical intersections of anti-Black and anti-Jew discourse. The course aims to help participants read and understand difficult primary philosophical (and some theological) texts—many of which are cited and engaged by contemporary writings across a number of disciplines. In this respect, we work through philosophical writings related to race, exile, “negritude,” “the wandering Jew,” and “otherness” by engaging such authors as: Sartre, Wright, De Bois, Levinas, Senghor, Fanon, Freud, Appiah, Jankelevitch, and Cone, alongside Gilman’s work on the “Jew’s Body” and “Jewish Self-Hatred,” Bernasconi’s work on the phenomenology of race, and discourses of “Other-as-disease” in American and Nazi eugenics. In all of its content, the course aims to engage participants with key issues and questions around race and racism, including extending the implications of anti-Black and anti-Jew discourses / practices to a range of other anti-Other discourses / practices at play in the world around us. This course is cross-listed with JUST 2026 and RLGS 2026. This course counts for the AI:Society requirement.

RLGS 2026 Race: Black, Jew, Other (4 Credits)

In its investigation of philosophical writings on race and racism, this course explores a range of existential and phenomenological lenses for interrogating race and racism, with a focus on the shared theoretical and practical intersections of anti-Black and anti-Jew discourse. The course aims to help participants read and understand difficult primary philosophical (and some theological) texts—many of which are cited and engaged by contemporary writings across a number of disciplines. In this respect, we work through philosophical writings related to race, exile, “negritude,” “the wandering Jew,” and “otherness” by engaging such authors as: Sartre, Wright, De Bois, Levinas, Senghor, Fanon, Freud, Appiah, Jankelevitch, and Cone, alongside Gilman’s work on the “Jew’s Body” and “Jewish Self-Hatred,” Bernasconi’s work on the phenomenology of race, and discourses of “Other-as-disease” in American and Nazi eugenics. In all of its content, the course aims to engage participants with key issues and questions around race and racism, including extending the implications of anti-Black and anti-Jew discourses / practices to a range of other anti-Other discourses / practices at play in the world around us. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement. Cross-listed with JUST-2026 and PHIL-2026.

RLGS 2108 Islam in the United States (4 Credits)

A historical introduction to the presence of Islam and Muslims in the United States, from an examination of the first Muslims in North America, to the substantive influence of the minority Indian evangelical Ahmadiyya movement, to Islam in African American communities. Also examines contemporary Muslim communities in the U.S. and the ways in which ritual and faith are today developing with "American" accents. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

RLGS 2116 American Mythology (4 Credits)

Myths convey social and moral values. Myths, moreover, serve as conceptual models for society and furnish "symbolic articulation of the social patterns" of a given society. In this class, students will establish clear connections between social order and the myths that sustain it, against the view that myths are merely imaginary, misguided perceptions of reality with little social value. In this course, you will need to ask yourself, "How do each of these myths translate into social behavior? In other words, how have these myths been acted out historically and how are they "performed" today? The United States of America has always had a strong, mythic sense of identity, mission, and destiny. It is worthwhile to reflect for a semester on how the "idea of America" has taken shape and is continuing to evolve and diversify. Robert Bellah introduced the influential concept of an American "civil religion"--a secular myth of America. In addition, we must understand that America is the result of contact between at least three different groups of people: Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans. The functional equivalents of creed, scripture, prophets and religious mission are seen in the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers and Manifest Destiny. Concepts of freedom, the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness, democracy, and the right to bear arms flow from these myths. Beyond the notion of a master myth of America, we will discover that there are other myths of America that are themselves proper objects of study. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

RLGS 2250 Introduction to African American Religions (4 Credits)

This course will explore the nature and the meaning of black religion. We will examine the historical development of African American religion in the United States and explore diverse African American religious groups, such as the Nation of Islam, the Moorish Science Temple of America, Black Jews of Harlem, and others. Specific attention is given to the ways in which African American religious groups have developed in North America, especially the United States and the Caribbean, during slavery and beyond. The course will have three sections. First, we will attempt to define religion in the larger context of religious studies. Second, we will investigate how black religions and black religious scholars deploy Africa as a deep symbol. Finally, we will survey the historical and theological development of a variety of black religions that have been influential in North America. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

RLGS 2251 Contemporary Gospel Music: Religion, Culture, and the Black Church (4 Credits)

This course seeks to examine the ways in which gospel music, and contemporary black gospel music in particular, has impacted not only black church culture but broader society in general. Through audio and video media, readings, and class discussion, we will discover how gospel music has influenced black church culture and popular culture. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement. Cross-listed with MUAC 2251.

RLGS 3453 Is God a Racist Sexist?: Black Liberation and Womanist Theology (4 Credits)

What is God's race? Does God have a gender? Is God on the side of the oppressed? Black liberation and Womanist theologies have asked these questions based on experience of black oppression in the context of the United States. African Americans have compelled to make sense of God in light of chattel slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Power Movement. This questioning continues in light of today's social enviroment. This seminar course will discuss the many strands of liberation theology in the United States, including Womanist theology. In addition to black liberation theology’s methodologies and its challenges to the theological discipline, we will explore the origins and development of theological discourse in the late 1960s during the later part of the Civil Rights Movement and the emergence of the Black Power Movement. Black Theology is a theological perspective which draws on the diverse sources, including religious experience, art, literature, music, and lived narratives. These sources will inform our study. Students will engage critical voices that have shaped the movement such as James Cone, but also engage critiques of Cone and Black Theology. The course will also explore how liberation theologies attempt to deal with the problems of race, class, and gender. Student will be introduced to theological construction in African American communities and analyze the similarities and differences between these theological constructions.

RLGS 3642 Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Civil Rights (4 Credits)

In this course, students will explore the lives and religious thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, two of the most prominent black religious leaders during the height of the US Civil Rights Movement, often perceived as ideological opposites. Through engaging with their autobiographies, speeches, students will compare and contrast their thoughts on religion, race, and politics in the United States. During the course, students will be able to identify religious and political similarities and differences between the two leaders. We will also explore the development of their religious and ideological shifts in the context of the struggle for civil rights. Ultimately, we explore how their vision for racial justice developed into a call for social and economic equality and human rights.

SOCI 2370 Micropolitics of Race (4 Credits)

This class explores racialized experiences and controversies that affect daily life in the United States. We use insights from sociology to analyze racial identity and public behavior. For example, why do many people of color often “code-switch” as they move from interacting with family and friends and into their workplace? Why are some Black people accustomed to giving “the nod” to other Black people they encounter in majority-white spaces? Why are many native-born Asian-Americans told that they “speak really good English” (what sociologists would call a microaggression)? We also explore controversies, including interracial dating, gentrification, “transracial” individuals, and Elizabeth Warren’s Native American identity claims. We will situate our analyses of the everyday politics of race within institutional and structural racism. Prerequisite: SOCI 1810.

SPAN 2802 Afro-Latinos in the US (4 Credits)

Afro-Latin@s (Afro-Latinos and Afro-Latinas) is a group designation for a community that, until recently, had not tended to call itself, or to have been called, in that way. The group’s past, however, demonstrates a sense of tradition and shared social and cultural realities, and the term is increasingly being used in the twenty-first century. Particular to the USA context, as opposed to Latin American countries, is that here the Afro-Latin@ experience has to do with the cross-cultural relation between the Afro and the Latin@, which means most conspicuously the relation between Latin@s and African Americans. It is important, however, not to limit the concept to that connection and recognize the presence of a group that embodies both at once. This class explores the history of Afro-Latin@s in the USA, as well as examples of unique lived experiences of Afro-Latin@ individuals navigating their social identities as they intersect with other Blacks and Latin@s. The identity field linking Black Latin Americans and Latin@s across national and regional lines will remain within focus. The class will be grounded in the analysis and discussion of a variety of texts and artifacts including essays, poetry, narrative, and film. This class will be conducted in English and will not count toward the major or minor in Spanish. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

SPAN 3600 Caribbean Blackness: Conflictive Identity (4 Credits)

Introduces the student to the Caribbean region, particularly examining cultural characteristics of the Spanish speaking Caribbean, with an emphasis on race relations and the contributions of peoples of African descent. The focus is interdisciplinary and includes readings on anthropology, religion, and history among other subjects, together with close readings of literary texts. Prerequisite: SPAN 2350 or equivalent.

SPAN 3800 Central American Blackness: Forgotten Roots (4 Credits)

Introduces the student to the Central American region, with an emphasis on race relations and the cultural contributions of peoples of African descent. The focus is interdisciplinary and includes readings in history and demography among other subjects, together with close readings of literary texts. Prerequisite: SPAN 2350 or equivalent.

WRIT 2555 Diverse Rhetorics (4 Credits)

Rhetoric’s origins in classical texts, in the western canon, developed to serve early forms of democracy and civic participation. Despite classical rhetoric’s formative impact, plenty of languages and cultures have their own means of persuasion and civic participation. This course introduces ways that rhetoric is practiced in diverse contexts, not as a stable idea, but as an adaptive practice situated in cultures, identities, and languages, bridging writer, audience and purpose. This course starts with classical Western rhetoric, but then explores the varied practices and theories of, for example, African American, Asian, Latinx, Indigenous, and queer rhetorics, to name a few. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

WRIT 3600 Black Studies Capstone (4 Credits)

This capstone course is designed for students completing the Minor in Black Studies at the University of Denver. The primary goal of this course is to create an original capstone project that demonstrates synthesis of their study in the field and deepens their skills in research. Black Studies minors should plan to enroll in BLST 3600 after completing all course work for the minor. As part of this capstone course, each student will complete a capstone project, of their own design, that explores some aspect of Black/African American life, history, culture, or experience. This course encourages creative capstone projects that allow students to present their work in a form other than the standard written thesis model. This course will guide the capstone projects for students conducting intensive research on topics in Black Studies. Drawing from disciplinary and interdisciplinary methodologies, theories, and concepts in the humanities and social sciences, capstone project topics will cover broadly defined themes in Black Studies such as the effects of Atlantic slavery on the United States, the Americas, Africa, and Europe; the Black freedom struggle in the United States; and women, gender, and sexuality in Black America. Through a collaborative learning process, students will define clear project objectives, refine their analytical skills, effectively engage major issues in their research materials, and make critical intellectual interventions. Students will be encouraged to critically explore topics from courses they have taken in Black Studies and related disciplines as topics for their capstone research projects.