INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES
300A Murray Krieger Hall; (949) 824-2376
Belinda Robnett, Director
Participating Faculty
James G. Ferguson, Ph.D. Harvard University, Department Chair and Professor of Anthropology (political economy, "development," migration and culture; Southern Africa)
Ana Paula Ferreira, Ph.D. New York University, Department Chair of Spanish and Portuguese and Associate Professor of Portuguese (Portuguese and Brazilian literatures, critical theory and women's studies)
Thelma Foote, Ph.D. Harvard University, Associate Professor of History and African-American Studies (early America, African-American history)
David Theo Goldberg, Ph.D. City University of New York Graduate School and Center, Director of the UC Humanities Research Institute and Professor of African-American Studies and of Criminology, Law and Society (race, racism, race and the law, political theory, South Africa)
Douglas M. Haynes, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Associate 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, Associate Professor of Women's Studies and Comparative Literature (feminist epistemologies and theories, cultural studies, ethnic studies)
Ketu H. Katrak, Ph.D. Byrn Mawr College, Department Chair of Asian American Studies and Professor of Asian American Studies and of English and Comparative Literature (Asian American literature, post-colonial literature)
Claire Jean Kim, Ph.D. Yale University, Associate 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, UCI Chancellor's Professor of Rhetoric (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 Claire Trevor Professor of Dance (choreography, modern dance)
Nancy A. Naples, Ph.D. City University of New York, Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies (women's community activism, immigration, anti-poverty policy, and inequality)
Lorraine O'Grady, B.A. Wellesley College, Assistant Professor of African-American Studies and Studio Art (performance, installation, diaspora and hybridity, political art)
Leslie W. Rabine, Ph.D. Stanford University, Associate Dean of Humanities Graduate Study and Professor of French (nineteenth-century French literature and women's studies)
Belinda Robnett, Ph.D. University of Michigan, Director of African-American Studies and Associate Professor of Sociology (race, gender, social movements, inequality)
John Carlos Rowe, Ph.D. State University of New York, Buffalo, Professor of English (American literature, modern literature, critical theory, comparative literature)
Katherine Tate, Ph.D. University of Michigan, Professor of Political Science (voting behavior, African-American and minority politics, elections)
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/.
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
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.
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE
University Requirements: See pages 54-59.
School Requirements: See pages 218-219.
Requirements for the Major
A. Three-quarter core sequence, African-American Studies 40A, 40B, 40C; and African-American Studies 139.
B. Any three lower-division courses selected from Asian American Studies, 60A, B, C (Introduction to Asian American Studies I, II, III), Chicano/Latino Studies 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 (World 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).
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.
NOTE: Although some courses may be included in one or more of these lists 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.
Requirements for the Minor
Completion of African-American Studies 40A, 40B, 40C and four courses (16 units) selected from Historical, Political, and Social Formations; Discourses; Expressive Forms; and Genders and Sexualities; 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 minor 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.
Courses in African-American Studies
LOWER-DIVISION
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)
UPPER-DIVISION
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 iconoclastic 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.
139 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. Formerly African-American Studies 141.
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.
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.
151 Comparative Minority Politics (4). Examines the political experiences of Blacks, Latinos, and Asian Americans in the United States from roughly 1950 to the present. Focuses on how each group has pursued political empowerment via both conventional political channels and social movements. Same as Asian American Studies 132, Chicano/Latino Studies 147, and Political Science 124C. (VII-A)
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.
