African American Studies

University of California, Berkeley

This is an archived copy of the 2015-16 guide. To access the most recent version of the guide, please visit http://guide.berkeley.edu.

Overview

The Department of African American Studies is an intellectual community committed to producing, refining and advancing knowledge of Black people in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and Africa. A key component of the mission is to interrogate the meanings and dimensions of slavery and colonialism, and their continuing political, social and cultural implications.

The Department fully embraces the notion that a public institution can lead in shaping and defining disciplines, not just teaching them. It contributes to this mission by investing in a strong faculty and talented and ambitious graduate students from a variety of backgrounds. Faculty is drawn from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, cultural studies, linguistics, literature, history, sociology, performance, and education. But, the Department is not simply a collection of experts from traditional disciplines; it is united by a relentless commitment to pushing the boundaries of knowledge through excellence in scholarship and pedagogy that are at once interdisciplinary and innovative.

Undergraduate Programs

African American Studies : BA, Minor

Graduate Program

African American Studies : PhD

Visit Department Website

Courses

African American Studies

AFRICAM 201A Interdisciplinary Research Methods 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
This seminar will provide a detailed introduction and working knowledge of the various methodological techniques appropriate for interdisciplinary research on the African Diaspora.

AFRICAM 201B Qualitative Research Methods for African American Studies 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
A review of competing epistemologies in qualitative research of African Americans.

AFRICAM 201D Theories of the African Diaspora 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2013
This course is intended to provide students with an initial background for the composition of the position paper discussing the concept and study of African Diaspora necessary for passing department qualifying exams. It will introduce some of the theoretical frameworks for, and approaches to, scholarship concerning the African Diaspora.

AFRICAM 240 Special Topics in Cultural Studies of the Diaspora 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
One hour of lecture per week per unit. Topics will vary from term to term depending on student demand and faculty availability.

AFRICAM 241 Special Topics in Development Studies of the Diaspora 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
One hour of lecture per week per unit. Topics will vary from term to term depending on student demand and faculty availability.

AFRICAM 242 Special Topics in African Linguistics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2012
Topics will vary to suit student demand or interest. The seminar will require solid grounding in linguistic theory.

AFRICAM 250 Black Intellectuals: Social and Cultural Roles 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2011, Spring 2001, Spring 1999
The course will examine the development of an intellectual group in African American life from the 18th century to the present. Implicit in the examination is consideration of the social and cultural roles, writers, scholars, artists, and other thinkers have played in American and African American culture.

AFRICAM 256B Diaspora, Citizenship, and Transnationality 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2008
This seminar analyzes the social construction and reproduction of diasporic communities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. It examines the relations of the diaspora to the homeland in the context of the globalization process. The role of transnational migration and deterritorialization in the production of bipolar, fragmented, and multiple identities will be analyzed. Postnational models of citizenship--differentiated, transnational, and multicultural--will
be assessed in light of poststructuralist theories.

AFRICAM 257A Identity Politics in the Caribbean and Africa 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2008, Spring 2006
An exhaustive examination of the conditions under which identity constructs (race, ethnicity, nation, religion, language, region, etc.) come to occupy the symbolic center in the organization of mass political movements in non-industrialized Third World societies. The course will be comparative in scope using case histories from Africa and the Caribbean. It will focus on the relationship between the "politics of identity," national
economic decision making, and the distribution of economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital.

AFRICAM 257B Power, Domination, and Ideology 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2011, Spring 2009
This course will focus on theories and realities of power, domination, and ideology as they pertain to issues of identity in the post-World War II political economies of Africa and the African diaspora.

AFRICAM 262 Black Feminist Criticism 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2009, Fall 2007, Fall 2006
This course will focus on the development of a black feminist criticism(s). We will be specifically concerned with the writings of significant black women critics of the 19th and 20th centuries who have used intersections of class, race, and gender to analyze major issues of their time.

AFRICAM C265 Research Advances in Race, Diversity, and Educational Policy 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
This introductory graduate seminar will engage the research literature on race, diversity, and educational policy to provide a foundation for examining contemporary issues in American public schooling. We will examine research on race, culture, and learning alongside more policy driven research on school structures, governance, finance, politics, and policy. In doing so, we will blend micro level examinations of teaching and learning with macro
level considerations of politics and policy.

AFRICAM C286 The Education of African-American Students 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Fall 2010, Spring 2010
This seminar will examine a wide range of perspectives on the education of African American children and adolescents in the United States. Readings will support students in understanding some of the key issues and tensions in African American education and school achievement, including the roles that culture, identity, parents, families, and communities play in the education and schooling of African American students; systemic issues in educational
improvement and the perpetuation of "achievement gaps"; and language and power.

AFRICAM 296 Directed Dissertation Research 1 - 13 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session
Open to qualified students who have been advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree and are directly engaged in doctoral dissertation research.

AFRICAM 298 Master's Examination Preparation Course 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This class is designed to prepare second year graduate students for the spring Master's Examination in African Diaspora Studies. Basing our syllabus upon the established reading list, we will meet weekly to discuss individual texts, methods of interpreting and critiquing works across disciplines, strategies for reading, studying, and ultimately taking the exam itself.

AFRICAM 299 Individual Study or Research 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session
Individual study or research program to be worked out with sponsoring faculty before approval by department chair. Regular meetings arranged with faculty sponsor.

AFRICAM C375 Critical Pedagogy: Instructor Training 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
The seminar provides a systemic approach to theories and practices of critical pedagogy at the university level. Examines the arts of teaching and learning and current disciplinary and cross-disciplinary issues in African/diaspora and Ethnic Studies. Participation two hours per week as practicum in 39, "Introduction to the University: African American Perspectives" is mandatory. The course is required for students expecting to serve as
graduate student instructors in the department.

AFRICAM 601 Individual Study for Master's Students 1 - 8 Units

Terms offered: Not yet offered
Individual study for the master's requirements in consultation with the adviser. Units may not be used to meet either unit or residency requirements for the master's degree.

AFRICAM 602 Individual Study for Doctoral Students 2 - 12 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 10 Week Session, Summer 2017 8 Week Session
Individual study, in consultation with group faculty, to prepare students for the doctoral oral examinations. A student will be permitted to accumulate a maximum of 8 units toward examination preparation. Units earned in this course may not be used to meet academic residence or unit requirements for the master's or doctoral degree.

Faculty and Instructors

Faculty

Brandi N. Catanese, Associate Professor. Critical race theory, African American theater, non-traditional casting, racial performativity, gender studies, sexuality studies, American popular culture.
Research Profile

Chiyuma Elliott, Assistant Professor.

Nikki Jones, Associate Professor. African American communities, policing, racial/gender disparities and the criminal justice system, violence and violence interventions.
Research Profile

Michel Laguerre, Professor. Globalization, information technology, urban studies.
Research Profile

Jovan Scott Lewis, Assistant Professor. Jamaica and the USA; constructions and infrastructures of poverty, inequality, race (blackness), economy, and the market.
Research Profile

Sam A. Mchombo, Associate Professor.

Na'Ilah Nasir, Professor.

G. Ugo Nwokeji, Associate Professor. Atlantic slave trade, historical demography, African history and political economy, oil and gas policy.
Research Profile

Tianna Paschel, Assistant Professor.

John Powell, Professor. Civil rights and civil liberties, structural racialization, racial justice and regionalism, concentrated poverty and urban sprawl, opportunity based housing, voting rights, affirmative action in the United States, South Africa and Brazil, racial and ethnic identity, spirituality and social justice, and the needs of citizens in a democratic society.
Research Profile

Leigh Raiford, Associate Professor. Social movements, visual culture, memory, photography, African American history and culture.
Research Profile

Darieck Scott, Associate Professor.

Janelle Scott, Associate Professor. Educational policy, charter schools, politics of education, race and education, school choice, desegregation, philanthropy and education, advocacy.
Research Profile

Stephen Small, Associate Professor. Public history, collective memory, African diaspora in Europe.
Research Profile

Ula Taylor, Associate Professor. African American studies, cultural African American history, colonial times, civil rights movement of the 60's, African American women's history, cultural, institutional and individual racism, United States.
Research Profile

Lecturers

Michael Cohen, Lecturer SOE.

Aya De Leon, Lecturer.

Justin Gomer, Lecturer.

David Kyeu, Lecturer.

Aparajita Nanda, Lecturer.

Emeritus Faculty

Robert Allen, Professor Emeritus.

William M. Banks, Professor Emeritus.

Charles Henry, Professor Emeritus. Human rights, Black politics, race and public policy.
Research Profile

Percy Hintzen, Professor Emeritus.

Margaret B. Wilkerson, Professor Emeritus.

Contact Information

Department of African American Studies

660 Barrows Hall

Phone: 510-642-7084

Fax: 510-642-0318

africam@berkeley.edu

Visit Department Website

Department Chair

Leigh Raiford

Phone: 510-642-7084

lraiford@berkeley.edu

Graduate Adviser

Lindsey Herbert

662 Barrows Hall

Phone: 510-642-3419

lherbert@berkeley.edu

Undergraduate Adviser

Althea Grannum-Cummings

608 Barrows Hall

Phone: 510-642-8513

cummings@berkeley.edu

Back to Top