Topics vary. See the Africana Studies Department's course list at https://africana.sas.upenn.edu for a description of the current offering. After an examination of the philosophical, legal, and political perspectives on Human Rights, this course will focus on US policies and practices relevant to Human Rights. Toward that end, emphasis will be placed on both the domestic and the international aspects of Human Rights as reflected in US policies and practices. Domestically, the course will discuss (1) the process of incorporating the International Bill of Human Rights into the American legal system and (2) the US position on and practices regarding the political, civil, economic, social, and cultural rights of minorities and various other groups within the US. Internationally, the course will examine US Human Rights policies toward Africa. Specific cases of Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt, as well as other cases from the continent, will be presented in the assessment of US successes and failures in the pursuit of its Human Rights strategy in Africa. Readings will include research papers, reports, statutes, treaties, and cases.

Urban development has been influenced by religious conceptions of social and economic justice. Progressive traditions within Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Baha'i, Humanism and other religions and systems of moral thought have yielded powerful critiques of oppression and hierarchy as well as alternative economic frameworks for ownership, governance, production, labor, and community. Historical and contemporary case studies from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East will be considered, as we examine the ways in which religious responses to poverty, inequality, and ecological destruction have generated new forms of resistance and development.

This course will interweave issues of land dispossession and land rights, both in Africa and in the Americas, with endogenous concepts and practices of space and place. Specifically, this course will trace the the concept of property, as developed among Europeans and European descendants, and explore how this concept interacted with the formation of the concept of race in order to established forms of social control and domination. The first part of this course will focus on Africa generally using Kenya as a case study. The material will cover the impact of colonialism and its legacy on land rights after independence. This first part will also explore contemporary forms of land dispossession happening through international land investments, often termed land grabs. The second part of the course will turn to the experiences of African descendants in the Americas. Using a few case studies, this section will examine different countries, histories, and rural and urban areas to unravel how different types of control over land interact with social relationships and specifically with the formation of race and racism. In both sections, we will also look at forms of resistance and resilience as local populations demand not only access to and control over land, but also impose their own ideologies of what it means to occupy space. By the end of this course, students should be able to more fully articulate the significance of control over land as it impacts and effects social relationships and specifically how it relates to the formation and continuation of inequalities along racial lines. Students will apply the concepts learned throughout the course to their own independent research done on an area in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania.

This seminar will explore the ways in which literary and visual representations of sexual difference and gender roles disrupt the cultural imagination of everyday life in North Africa and its Diasporas. Special attention will be given to representations of Arab women and queer subjectivities as sites of resistance against dominant masculinity. We will analyze the ways in which representations of gender have allowed for a redeployment of power, a reconfiguration of politics of resistance, and the redrawing of longstanding images of Islam in France. Finally, we will question how creations that straddle competing cultural traditions, memories and material conditions can queer citizenship. Course taught in English.

The presence of Africans and their descendants produced a complex visual culture in colonial and 19th century Latin America. This course introduces students to a rich body of imagery from the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Americas in order to explore the multiplicity of meanings ascribed to Blackness across the region; from colonial conceptions rooted in lineage and bloodlines, to the construction of race as an material and biological 'fact' in the 19th century. Sources include the casta paintings of colonial Mexico, fashion and material culture, the popular iconography and print culture forged by costumbrismo, and late 19th century photography. Focusing on several countries including Brazil, Cuba, Mexico and Peru, this seminar provides a thematic exploration of these sources through topics including slavery, citizenship, national identities, religion, self-fashioning and resistance. The aim is to explore how ideas of Blackness were configured, imposed and remade, through representations of Afrodescendants in the visual arts, and the production and use of visual and material culture in Black self-fashioning and collective identities.

This course examines the history, politics, and significance of foreign aid to Africa since the late 19th century. While we do not typically think about the European colonial period in Africa in terms of 'foreign aid,' that era introduced ideas and institutions which formed the foundations for modern aid policies and practices. So we start there and move forward into more contemporary times. In addition to examining the objectives behind foreign assistance and the intentions of donors and recipients, we will look at some of the consequences (intended or unintended) of various forms of foreign aid to Africa over the past century. While not designed to be a comprehensive history of development theory, of African economics, or of international aid organizations, the course will touch on all of these topics. Previous coursework on Africa is strongly advised.

This course will be a broad overview on current health, culture and development topics in Ghana. The health segment will focus on the experience, treatment and impact of sickle cell anemia. The course will cover basic principles of Ghanaian culture as it relates to health and development. The first part of the class will be taught through lectures, case studies, discussions on campus and a local field trip in the Philadelphia area. The second part of the course will involve a field trip to Ghana during spring break to help students gain a global perspective on a health and development topics that impact Africans across the diaspora. For more information: https://global.upenn.edu/pennabroad/pgs.

This course will be a broad overview on current health, culture and development topics in Ghana. The health segment will focus on the experience, treatment and impact of sickle cell anemia. The course will cover basic principles of Ghanaian culture as it relates to health and development. The first part of the class will be taught through lectures, case studies, discussions on campus and a local field trip in the Philadelphia area. The second part of the course will involve a field trip to Ghana during spring break to help students gain a global perspective on a health and development topics that impact Africans across the diaspora. For more information: https://global.upenn.edu/pennabroad/pgs.