AFRC0016 - First Year Seminar - Black Spiritual Journeys: Modern African American

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
First Year Seminar - Black Spiritual Journeys: Modern African American
Term
2025C
Subject area
AFRC
Section number only
401
Section ID
AFRC0016401
Course number integer
16
Meeting times
W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Vaughn A Booker
Description
This first year seminar presents African Americans who have created religious and spiritual lives amid the variety of possibilities for religious belonging in the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century. By engaging an emerging canon of memoirs, we will take seriously the writings of Black spiritual gurus, theologians, hip hop philosophers, religious laity, activists, LGBTQ clergy, religious minorities, and scholars of religion as foundational for considering contemporary religious authority through popular and/or institutional forms of African American religious leadership. Themes of spiritual formation and religious belonging as a process—healing, self-making, writing, growing up, renouncing, dreaming, and liberating—characterize the religious journeys of the African American writers, thinkers, and leaders whose works we will examine. Each weekly session will also incorporate relevant audiovisual religious media, including online exhibits, documentary films, recorded sermons, tv series, performance art, and music.
Course number only
0016
Cross listings
RELS1080401
Fulfills
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Humanties & Social Science Sector
Use local description
No

AFRC0320 - First Year Seminar: Black Queer Traditions

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
First Year Seminar: Black Queer Traditions
Term
2025C
Subject area
AFRC
Section number only
401
Section ID
AFRC0320401
Course number integer
320
Meeting times
MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Dagmawi Woubshet
Description
This first-year seminar provides a critical introduction to Black Queer literature, art, and politics. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.
Course number only
0320
Cross listings
ENGL0320401, GSWS0320401
Fulfills
Arts & Letters Sector
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Use local description
No

AFRC0010 - Homelessness & Urban Inequality

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Homelessness & Urban Inequality
Term
2025C
Subject area
AFRC
Section number only
401
Section ID
AFRC0010401
Course number integer
10
Meeting times
F 1:45 PM-4:44 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Dennis P. Culhane
Description
This first-year seminar examines the homelessness problem from a variety of scientific and policy perspectives. Contemporary homelessness differs significantly from related conditions of destitute poverty during other eras of our nation's history. Advocates, researchers and policymakers have all played key roles in defining the current problem, measuring its prevalence, and designing interventions to reduce it. The first section of this course examines the definitional and measurement issues, and how they affect our understanding of the scale and composition of the problem. Explanations for homelessness have also been varied, and the second part of the course focuses on examining the merits of some of those explanations, and in particular, the role of the affordable housing crisis. The third section of the course focuses on the dynamics of homelessness, combining evidence from ethnographic studies of how people become homeless and experience homelessness, with quantitative research on the patterns of entry and exit from the condition. The final section of the course turns to the approaches taken by policymakers and advocates to address the problem, and considers the efficacy and quandaries associated with various policy strategies. The course concludes by contemplating the future of homelessness research and public policy.
Course number only
0010
Cross listings
SOCI2940401, URBS0010401
Fulfills
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Society Sector
Use local description
No

AFRC3515 - Race, Rights and Rebellion

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Race, Rights and Rebellion
Term
2025C
Subject area
AFRC
Section number only
401
Section ID
AFRC3515401
Course number integer
3515
Meeting times
R 5:15 PM-8:14 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Keisha-Khan Perry
Description
This course provides an in-depth examination of theories of race and different kinds of social struggles for freedom around the globe. We will critically engage the latest scholarship from a variety of scholars and social movement actors. From anti-slavery revolts to struggles for independence to anti-apartheid movements, this course will emphasize how racialized peoples have employed notions of rights and societal resources grounded in cultural differences. Though much of the readings will highlight the experiences of African descendant peoples in Africa and its diaspora, the course will also explore the intersections of Black struggles with social movements organized by indigenous peoples in the Americas. Students will also have the unique experience of accessing readings primarily written by primarily Black scholars, some of
whom have participated as key actors in the social movements they describe. Key concepts include power, resistance, subaltern, hegemony, identity politics, consciousness, and intellectual activism.
The course will be organized around the following objectives:
1. To explore a range of contemporary theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to the
study of social movements;
2. To focus on the relationship between race, gender, class, culture, and politics in the African diaspora;
3. To study the historical development of organized struggles, social protests, uprisings, revolutions,
insurgencies, and rebellions;
4. To examine the political agency of African descendant peoples in the global struggle for liberation and citizenship.
Course number only
3515
Cross listings
ANTH2515401, LALS3515401, SOCI2907401
Use local description
No

AFRC1190 - Introduction to Postcolonial Literature

Status
A
Activity
LEC
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Introduction to Postcolonial Literature
Term
2025C
Subject area
AFRC
Section number only
401
Section ID
AFRC1190401
Course number integer
1190
Meeting times
MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Sara Kazmi
Description
English is a global language with a distinctly imperial history, and this course serves as an essential introduction to literary works produced in or about the former European colonies. The focus will be poetry, film, fiction and non fiction and at least two geographic areas spanning the Americas, South Asia, the Caribbean and Africa as they reflect the impact of colonial rule on the cultural representations of identity, nationalism, race, class and gender. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.
Course number only
1190
Cross listings
CIMS1190401, COML1190401, ENGL1190401, GSWS1190401, SAST1190401
Fulfills
Cross Cultural Analysis
Use local description
No

AFRC2163 - Creating Race and Nation: African American Thought and Culture since Emancipation

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Creating Race and Nation: African American Thought and Culture since Emancipation
Term
2025C
Subject area
AFRC
Section number only
401
Section ID
AFRC2163401
Course number integer
2163
Meeting times
W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM
Level
undergraduate
Description
As jazz composer Duke Ellington once said, African Americans are “something apart” from
mainstream American society, but still “an integral part” of the nation’s identity and history. This course takes up Ellington’s provocation to consider how Black Americans have advanced important ideas about race, citizenship, activism, and culture that offer vital insight into African American and American history alike. Taking a broad view of intellectual history, the course will pair secondary literature with relevant primary
sources from politics, literature, education, and the visual and performing arts. We will explore how, denied full access to political representation, education, and mobility in public space, African Americans have developed innovative and insurgent modes of making their ideas about the world known to a multiracial public. Each week, we will ask: what does it mean to be an intellectual? How are ideas and actions interconnected? What forms can ideas take, and how do they circulate beyond texts? How do these examples help us understand discourse, culture, and activism in our current moment? Across class discussion and written assignments, students will come to appreciate the breadth, multiplicity, and dynamism of African American thought and culture. Together, we will examine the complex ambitions, morals, struggles, and triumphs of African American people to unlock a more profound understanding of past and present.
Course number only
2163
Cross listings
HIST2163401
Use local description
No

AFRC1060 - Race and Ethnic Relations

Status
A
Activity
REC
Section number integer
402
Title (text only)
Race and Ethnic Relations
Term
2025C
Subject area
AFRC
Section number only
402
Section ID
AFRC1060402
Course number integer
1060
Meeting times
R 3:30 PM-4:29 PM
Level
undergraduate
Description
The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials.
Course number only
1060
Cross listings
ASAM1510402, LALS1060402, SOCI1060402, URBS1060402
Fulfills
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Use local description
No

AFRC1060 - Race and Ethnic Relations

Status
A
Activity
REC
Section number integer
403
Title (text only)
Race and Ethnic Relations
Term
2025C
Subject area
AFRC
Section number only
403
Section ID
AFRC1060403
Course number integer
1060
Meeting times
R 5:15 PM-6:14 PM
Level
undergraduate
Description
The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials.
Course number only
1060
Cross listings
ASAM1510403, LALS1060403, SOCI1060403, URBS1060403
Fulfills
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Use local description
No

AFRC9003 - Storytelling in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
640
Title (text only)
Storytelling in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction
Term
2025C
Subject area
AFRC
Section number only
640
Section ID
AFRC9003640
Course number integer
9003
Meeting times
W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM
Level
graduate
Instructors
Kathryn Watterson
Description
This creative writing workshop will focus on how to write a good story whether it's "true" or not. By using both nonfiction and fiction writing techniques, students will ask: What kind of truth are you looking to find? What is visible? What matters that is invisible? What is most important to you and why?
Course number only
9003
Cross listings
ENGL9003640, GSWS9003640, MLA5003640, URBS9003640
Use local description
No

AFRC8001 - The Craft of Dissertation Writing in Africana Studies

Status
X
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
301
Title (text only)
The Craft of Dissertation Writing in Africana Studies
Term
2025C
Subject area
AFRC
Section number only
301
Section ID
AFRC8001301
Course number integer
8001
Meeting times
CANCELED
Level
graduate
Instructors
Keisha-Khan Perry
Description
Black thought, culture, history, socio-economic conditions, and politics worldwide matter. How we tell the stories about the vastness of Black lives in our scholarship matter even more greatly. The course will focus on the craft of writing the dissertation in the interdisciplinary field of Africana Studies with a focus on producing innovative scholarship as emergent scholars. Targeting students who have advanced to doctoral candidacy, the primary intent is to learn from African diaspora scholars who write about writing as well as to admire the writers in our field who craft stories about Black lives that we want to read. We will devote some class time to discussing some prominent writers (Alice Walker, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, bell hooks, Claudia Tate, Binyavanga Wainaina) who have discussed their craft of writing to shine a light on Africa and the diaspora. However, the main aim of the course is to give advanced PhD students the time and physical space to write their dissertations in community with students. In this workshop style course, the focus will be on supporting students through the challenging task of completing dissertations in ways that illustrate their innovative and critical approaches to research and writing.
The course objectives include:
1. To provide advanced doctoral students with the consistent time and physical space to complete at least one chapter of their dissertations.
2. To introduce students to discussions about the craft of writing about Black lives in global contexts.
3. To teach students how to craft detailed outlines and writing plans for significant bodies of work such as a dissertation and a book.
4. To teach how to organize original research data and archival materials to write narratives that give significant attention to those materials.
5. To learn how to balance theoretical engagement with existing scholarship and offering new insights drawn from the dissertation research.
6. To provide students with the tools for processing substantive feedback on the writing and organizing critiques for revision of the dissertation, and how to turn the dissertation into articles and a book.
Prerequisite: Doctoral candidates in the Department of Africana Studies and students who have received the Certificate in Africana Studies who are actively writing the dissertation.
Course number only
8001
Use local description
No