300A Murray Krieger Hall; (949) 824-2376
John Carlos Rowe, Director (Interim)
Participating Faculty
Lindon W. Barrett, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, Associate Professor of English (critical theory, African-American cultural studies)
Rae Linda Brown, Ph.D. Yale University, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Music (history, American musics)
Dickson D. Bruce, Jr., Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, Professor of History (American culture, African-American history)
Thelma Foote, Ph.D. Harvard University, Associate Professor of History and African-American Studies (early America, African-American history)
Douglas M. Haynes, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Assistant Professor of History (social and cultural history of modern Britain, social history of modern medicine)
Ulysses Jenkins, Jr., M.F.A. Otis Parsons Art Institute, Associate Professor of Studio Art (film as a primary medium)
Laura H. Y. Kang, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Assistant Professor of Women's Studies and Comparative Literature (Asian-American literature and culture, feminist theory, ethnic studies, gender)
Ketu H. Katrak, Ph.D. Byrn Mawr College, Director and Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of English and Comparative Literature (Asian American literature, post-colonial literature)
Claire Jean Kim, Ph.D. Yale University, Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies and Political Science (racial and ethnic politics, protest and social movements, contemporary political theory)
Steven Mailloux, Ph.D. University of Southern California, Professor of English (rhetoric, critical theory, American literature, law and literature)
Donald McKayle, Choreographer/Director (concert, theatre, film, television), Graduate Choreography Advisor, Artistic Director of UCI Dance, and Professor of Dance (choreography, modern dance)
James Newton, B.M. California State University, Los Angeles, Professor of Music and Director of the Charles Mingus Jazz Ensemble (jazz studies, composition)
Leslie W. Rabine, Ph.D. Stanford University, Professor of French (nineteenth-century French literature and women's studies)
John Carlos Rowe, Ph.D. State University of New York, Buffalo, Director (Interim) of African-American Studies and Professor of English (American literature, modern literature, critical theory, comparative literature)
Gabriele Schwab, Ph.D. University of Konstanz, Director of the Critical Theory Institute and Professor of English and Comparative Literature (modern literature, critical theory, psychoanalysis, comparative literature)
Pat Ward-Williams, M.F.A. Maryland Institute College of Art, Associate Professor of Studio Art (photography, installation)
Robyn Wiegman, Ph.D. University of Washington, Director of the Program in Women's Studies and Associate Professor of Women's Studies, African-American Studies, and English (feminist theory, sexuality studies, American cultural studies, race studies)
Judith A. Wilson, Ph.D. Yale University, Assistant Professor of African-American Studies and Art History (African-American visual culture, post-colonial art and theory, race representation in American visual culture)
African-American Studies is an interdisciplinary program which offers undergraduate students an opportunity to study those societies and cultures established by the people of the African diaspora. The program's curriculum encourages students to investigate the African-American experience from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and theoretical approaches. Among the topics explored in the course offerings are the process of colonization and the forced migration of African people, the positionality of African people in the racialized symbolic and social orders of the western hemisphere, the rhetoric produced by and about African people, and the cultural and aesthetic values associated with "blackness" and "Africanness." The Program offers a major leading to the B.A. degree in African-American Studies and a minor.
Descriptions for courses offered by the departments are available in the academic unit sections of the Catalogue and on the Program Web site at http://www.hnet.uci.edu/afam/.
UCI graduates with a B.A. degree in African-American Studies enhance their chances of success in the job market and in the highly competitive arena of graduate and professional school admissions, especially in the fields of medicine and other health professions, law, and business. Employers and admissions officers understand that many of their employees and graduates will one day work in communities with significant African-American populations, and for this reason they give due consideration to applicants who have in-depth knowledge of African-American culture.
University Requirements: See pages 54-59.
School Requirements: See page 198.
Requirements for the Major
A. Three-quarter core sequence, African-American Studies 40A, 40B, 40C; and African-American Studies 141.
B. Any three lower-division courses selected from Asian American Studies, 60A, B, C (Introduction to Asian American Studies I, II, III), Social Science 61, 62, 63 (Introduction to Chicano/Latino Studies I, II, III), Women's Studies 50A (Gender and Feminism in Everyday Life), 50B (Reproducing and Resisting Inequality), 50C (Gender and Popular Culture).
C. Six courses, five of which must be upper-division, distributed as follows from the lists below: two courses from Historical, Political, and Social Formations; two courses from Discourses; one course from Expressive Forms; and one course from Genders and Sexualities.
D. Four upper-division electives selected from an approved list available in the program office.
Residence Requirement for the Major: A minimum of five upper-division courses required for the major must be completed successfully at UCI.
Examples of courses which have recently been offered for satisfaction of requirement C include the following:
Historical, Political, and Social Formations: Anthropology 164A (African Societies), 164K (South Africa); History 144A (Early American Cultural and Intellectual History), 144B (Nineteenth-Century American Cultural and Intellectual History), 148A (Law and Minorities in the United States), 148B (Topics in Multicultural U.S. History1); Political Science 124A (The Politics of Protest in the U.S.), 154C (Comparative Politics: Four Nations, Three Continents); Psychology and Social Behavior P124D (Human Development in Cross-Cultural Perspective); Social Science 70A (U.S. Ethnic and Racial Cultures), 70C (Comparing Cultures), 170E (Society and Culture), 170F (History and Culture), 172B (Afro-American Culture).
Discourses: English and Comparative Literature CL 105 (Multicultural Topics in Comparative Literature1), E 105 (Multicultural Topics in English-Language Literature1); French 120 (Twentieth-Century French Literature1), 125 (African Literature of French Expression); History 144E (Racial Thought in America); Women's Studies 162 (Racism and Sexism).
Expressive Forms: African-American Studies 150 (Special Topics in African-American Studies3); Art History 165 (Studies in American Art1); Dance 110 (Ethnic Dance2); Film Studies 198 (when topic is: Melodrama: Black/White); Music 41 (Great Composers1), 78A, B (History of Jazz), 145 (Studies in Twentieth-Century Music1); Social Science 70B (Introduction to Expressive Forms in American Society), 70T (The History of Minorities in American Films), 176A (Afro-Latin American Music); Studio Art 100 (Special Topics in Studio Art1), 121 (Issues in Race and Representation1), 123 (Issues in Cultural Display1), 137 (Projects in Autobiography, Personal Narratives, and Community Histories1).
Genders and Sexualities: African-American Studies 150 (Special Topics in African-American Studies3); Women's Studies 163 (Women of Color), 180 (Gender, Feminism, and Anthropology1), 181 (Gender, Feminism, and Cognitive Psychology1).
NOTE: Although some courses may be included in one or more of the lists above as well as in the elective list, they will count only once toward satisfaction of the program requirements.
Students must meet on a quarterly basis with their designated faculty advisor who will review their plan of study.
1 When topic is on African-American or African diasporic topics.
2 Two quarters, when content is on African-American or African diasporic topics.
3 When topic is appropriate.
Requirements for the Minor
Completion of African-American Studies 40A, 40B, 40C and four courses (16 units) selected from the Historical, Political, and Social Formations; Discourses; Expressive Forms; and Genders and Sexualities lists or from the elective list available in the program office.
Students select their courses in consultation with their designated faculty advisor. No more than two of these courses may be in the student's major department.
Residence Requirement for the Minor: Four upper-division courses required for the major must be completed successfully at UCI. Two of the four may be taken through the UC Education Abroad Program, provided course content is approved in advance by the appropriate department chair.
10 Gospel Choir (2). Learning about and performing American spirituals and gospel songs. Approach is one of cultural scholarship rather than "musically straight." Performances are given throughout the year. May be repeated for credit. Same as Music 7.
40A, B, C African American Studies I, II, III (4, 4, 4). Introduction to the main contours of the African-American experience, from the importation of Africans into the Americas to the present. 40A: Focus on the unique expressions of African-American society and culture. Same as History 15B. 40B: Development, characteristics, and significant ideas of "race" in America, from colonial times into the twentieth century. 40C: African-American culture and identity. (IV, VII-A)
110 Historical, Political, and Social Formations (4). Topics which promote critical investigation into the historical, political, and social formations associated with the African diaspora. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
111A African-American Art: 1650-1900 (4). In Anglo-America, an African visual heritage tied to "pagan" beliefs collided with an iconclastic Protestant culture. Against the odds, African-American architecture, crafts, decorative arts, painting, sculpture, and photography emerged.
111B African-American Art: 1900-Present (4). From the "New Negro" to black cybernauts, the twentieth century has seen an explosion of African-American visual culture. What artistic and social forces produced a Kara Walker or a Jean Michel Basquiat? Is their art ethnically distinct? Aesthetically valid?
130 Special Topics in Discourses (4). Inscripted systems of ideology, knowledge, and value in literature, philosophy, and science. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
131 Race and Visual Representations (4). Why is it good to be "color blind" about race? How do race and vision intersect in our increasingly visual culture? These are some of the questions to be explored via theories of representation and histories of art, fashion, film, and photography.
140 New World Slave Societies and Their Legacies (4). Provides a comparative examination of New World slave societies in the Americas--Mexico, Brazil, Barbados, South Carolina, Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, and others. Emergence of racial slavery; resistance to European domination; interpenetration of European, African, and Amerindian cultures; legacies of racial slavery.
141 The Black Protest Tradition (4). History and discourses of the black protest tradition. Traces the emergence of black protest against racial slavery and white supremacy from the early colonial period to the present and the complex elaboration of identity politics within black communities in the twentieth century. Prerequisites: satisfactory completion of the lower-division writing requirement; upper-division standing.
150 Special Topics in African-American Studies (4). Designed to provide students with an opportunity to do advanced work in African-American studies. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
160 Special Topics in Expressive Forms (4). Expressions of ideology, knowledge, and value in media (e.g., dance, film, music, and others). May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
170 Special Topics in Genders and Sexualities (4). Expressions of genders and sexualities across the spectrum of African-American experience and creativity. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
198 Directed Group Study (1 to 4). Special topics through directed reading. Paper required. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. May taken for credit for a total of 24 units.
199 Independent Study (1 to 4). Investigation of special topics through directed reading. Paper required. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
