Continuation of AFST 598.

Language specific sections for students interested in doing country-specific research in a target language. Courses cover project-based skills for AFST research.

The Elementary Swahili I course can be taken to fulfill a language requirement, or for linguistic preparation to do research on East Africa/Africa-related topics. The course emphasizes communicative compentence to enable the students to acquire linguistic and extra-linguistic skills in Swahili. The content of the course is selected from various everyday life situations to enable the students to communicate in predictable common daily settings. Culture, as it relates to language use, is also part of the course content.


Students will acquire the speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills at the mid-high novice level, based on the ACTFL scale. The mid-high level proficiency skills that the students will acquire constitute threshold capabilities of the second semester range of proficiency to prepare students for Elementary Swahili II course materials.

This course covers topics in 20th-century literature, its emphasis varying with instructor.

This course explores the creation and transformations of the American constitutional system's structures and goals from the nation's founding through the period of Progressive reforms, the rise of the Jim Crow system, and the Spanish American War. Issues include the division of powers between state and national governments, and the branches of the federal government; economic powers of private actors and government regulators; the authority of governments to enforce or transform racial and gender hierarchies; and the extent of religious and expressive freedoms and rights of persons accused of crimes. We will pay special attention to the changing role of the Supreme Court and its decisions in interpreting and shaping American constitutionalism, and we will also read legislative and executive constitutional arguments, party platforms, and other influential statements of American constitutional thought.

This course explores the creation and transformations of the American constitutional system's structures and goals from the nation's founding through the period of Progressive reforms, the rise of the Jim Crow system, and the Spanish American War. Issues include the division of powers between state and national governments, and the branches of the federal government; economic powers of private actors and government regulators; the authority of governments to enforce or transform racial and gender hierarchies; and the extent of religious and expressive freedoms and rights of persons accused of crimes. We will pay special attention to the changing role of the Supreme Court and its decisions in interpreting and shaping American constitutionalism, and we will also read legislative and executive constitutional arguments, party platforms, and other influential statements of American constitutional thought.

This course critically examines colorism as it relates to African Americans and the evolving meanings conected to this phenomenon. Colorism is the discrimination based on gradations of skin color and is related to and distinct from racism. Colorism typically privileges lighter-skinned individuals and penalizes darker-skinned individuals within and across racial and ethnic groups. Four broad themes will guide this course; 1) the history and development of colorism; 2) the psychology and politics of colorism; 3) gender and colorism; and 4) colorism and the media.