BLK_ST 401-0 Research Seminar in Black Studies (1 Unit)  

Introduction to central debates in Black Studies on a graduate level. Emphasizes critical thinking, research design and method, forms of argumentation, and theory building. Readings highlight a range of methods -- historiographic, literary, ethnographic, social scientific etc. Assignments focused on developing student independent research projects.

BLK_ST 402-0 Theorizing Black Genders and Sexualities (1 Unit)  

Examines the multiple and changing meanings and political effects of gender and sexuality on Black identity in different socio-cultural contexts. Puts in dialogue global Black feminist theory and Black queer theory through the discussion of topics such as: slavery, colonialism, diaspora, citizenship, activism, labor, kinship, desire, art, reproduction, violence, and others.

BLK_ST 403-0 Theorizing Blackness and Diaspora (1 Unit)  

Introduces students to cultural, social, historical, artistic, and theoretical approaches to developing a global analytics of Blackness. Surveys Blackness as a category of critical analysis for both historical and contemporary social formations in the African Diaspora. Considers how gender, class, sexuality, and nationality shape the territory of Blackness.

BLK_ST 410-0 Black Feminist and Black Queer Theories (1 Unit)  

Team taught course stages a series of dialogues between US black feminist theory and black queer theory through the discussion of such topics as the legacy of slavery; activism; work, family and self-esteem; body politics, i.e. sexuality, reproduction, HIV/AIDS, popular culture representation; appropriations and alliances.

BLK_ST 420-0 Expressive Arts and Cultural Studies (1 Unit)  

Utilizes slave narratives, fiction, poetry, music, drama, critical theory, and the visual arts to survey how African-descended writers, artists, and theorists have grappled with such issues as: the relationship to Africa; self-articulation and struggle; performance as a site of knowledge production and contestation; and the global circulation of Black cultural production.

BLK_ST 440-0 Black Historiography (1 Unit)  

Interrogates the development of Black History and its writing. Introduces graduate students to key themes, debates, sources, methods, periods and events that have shaped the emergence of Black Historiography. Examines historical methodology, including the histories of archives, their sources, and the challenges faced by historians seeking to uncover the Black past.

BLK_ST 441-0 History of Black Women in the Diaspora (1 Unit)  

Examines the voices, struggles, theorizing, leadership, and writings of Black women, individually and collectively, locally and in Diaspora. Interrogates and challenges definitions of Black women by probing categories of difference, including ethnicity, religion, class, sexuality, gender identity, spirituality, and migrant/immigrant status.

BLK_ST 442-0 Africans in Colonial Latin America (1 Unit)  

Historiography of Africans and their descendents in Latin America, from early colonial times to abolition. Focuses on a series of historical problems affecting Africans, including the realities of slavery, free black life, gender and sexuality, culture, and questions of identity formation.

BLK_ST 444-0 Civil Rights/Black Liberation (1 Unit)  

Surveys the scholarship on what many historians have termed "the long Civil Rights Movement." Begins with the labor activism of the 1930s and the global wars of the 1940s, and treats the U.S. Black Freedom Movement as part of the broader anti-colonial upheaval of the 20th century.

BLK_ST 445-0 Historicizing Race in Latin America (1 Unit)  

Surveys the principle themes, sources, methods and arguments animating scholarship on race, sexuality, and modernity in Latin America.

BLK_ST 460-0 Race, Politics, Society, and Culture (1 Unit)  

Uses texts from sociology, anthropology, political science, and other social sciences to consider how the concepts of "race" and "Blackness" have functioned across time and space. Explores how race and Blackness reflect, inflect and inscribe inequality as well as group consciousness, struggle, and everyday life.

BLK_ST 467-0 Ethnographies of Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity (1 Unit)  

Interdisciplinary examination of texts for their theoretical, contextual, and methodological approaches to immigration, race, and ethnicity. Themes include the politics of location, representation, and fieldwork.

BLK_ST 469-0 Poststructuralism and Black Political Thought (1 Unit)  

Developing theoretical perspectives on the conceptualization of Black politics in the work of different Black thinkers, using the poststructuralist distinction between 'politics and the political'.

BLK_ST 475-0 Genealogy of Racism as a Concept: Deconstruction & Governmentality (1 Unit)  

Interrogates the histories and logics of racism as a concept since its formulation and formation during the early 20th century. Critiques the discursive traditions in which racism has been traditionally narrated as a historically self-evident object of moral condemnation or political critique.

BLK_ST 480-0 Graduate Topics in African American Studies (1 Unit)  

Explores special topics pertinent to Black Studies. Content changes with instructor.

BLK_ST 490-0 Independent Study (1 Unit)  

Individualized reading, research, discussion, and/or writing with faculty member.

BLK_ST 491-0 Reading and Pedagogy (1 Unit)  

Individualized training and practice as a teaching assistant (TA). Students registered for 491 and 2 other courses are considered full time.

BLK_ST 590-0 Research Seminar (1-3 Units)  

Independent research in first two years of PhD program, including summers. Students registered for 590 and 2 other courses are considered full time.