Topics vary. See the Africana Studies Department's course list at https://africana.sas.upenn.eud for a description of the current offering.

This course is an examination and analysis of the changing images and achievements of African Americans in motion pictures and television. The first half of the course focuses on African-American film images from the early years of D.W. Griffith's "renegade bucks" in The Birth of a Nation (1915); to the comic servants played by Steppin Fetchit, Hattie McDaniel, and others during the Depression era; to the post-World War II New Negro heroes and heroines of Pinky (1949) and The Defiant Ones (1958); to the rise of the new movement of African American directors such as Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing), Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust), Charles Burnett, (To Sleep With Anger) and John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood). The second half explores television images from the early sitcoms "Amos 'n Andy" and "Beulah" to the "Cosby Show," "Fresh Prince of Bel Air," and "Martin." Foremost this course will examine Black stereotypes in American films and television--and the manner in which those stereotypes have reflected national attitudes and outlooks during various historical periods. The in-class screenings and discussions will include such films as Show Boat (1936), the independently produced "race movies" of the 1930s and 1940s, Cabin in the Sky (1943), The Defiant Ones (1958), Imitation of Life (the 1959 remake) & Super Fly (1972).

A study, under faculty supervision, of a problem, area or topic not included in the formal curriculum.

Topics vary. Recents topics are,"The Black Body and the Lens" and "Race in Brazil." Fall 2014 Topic: Black Feminist Approaches to History & Memory. Using materials such as slave narratives, social criticism, oral histories, and archival sources, this course will explore the theoretical and practical applications of black feminist thought in nineteenth and twentieth century North American culture and politics. In particular, we will consider the symbols and practices (storytelling, myth-making, art, archival research) that black women use to document lives. We will ask: how do these methods of documentation inform our understanding of the past and the production of historical knowledge? We will give particular attention to the concepts such as gender, race, memory, the archive, and embodied knowledge to complicate our understanding of historical documentation, epistemology, and authenticity. The course material will include scholarship by Harriet Jacobs, Audre Lorde, Myriam Chancy, Hazel Carby, Hershini Young, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Toni Morrison, and others.


See the Africana Studies Department's website at https://africana.sas.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.

This course will explore the role of peoples of African descent in the making and transformation of the Atlantic world between the revolutionary era of the late 18th century, which saw the establishment of the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere, and the early decades of the 20th century, when a new pan-African consciousness emerged. We will look at the roles that slavery and the slave trade played in marking the boundaries of a black Atlantic, and we will pay special attention to the part that people of African descent played both in struggles against slavery in the Americas and in the struggles to define the meanings of freedom and peoplehood there and elsewhere.

This course will explore the role of peoples of African descent in the making and transformation of the Atlantic world between the revolutionary era of the late 18th century, which saw the establishment of the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere, and the early decades of the 20th century, when a new pan-African consciousness emerged. We will look at the roles that slavery and the slave trade played in marking the boundaries of a black Atlantic, and we will pay special attention to the part that people of African descent played both in struggles against slavery in the Americas and in the struggles to define the meanings of freedom and peoplehood there and elsewhere.

This course will explore the role of peoples of African descent in the making and transformation of the Atlantic world between the revolutionary era of the late 18th century, which saw the establishment of the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere, and the early decades of the 20th century, when a new pan-African consciousness emerged. We will look at the roles that slavery and the slave trade played in marking the boundaries of a black Atlantic, and we will pay special attention to the part that people of African descent played both in struggles against slavery in the Americas and in the struggles to define the meanings of freedom and peoplehood there and elsewhere.

This course will explore the role of peoples of African descent in the making and transformation of the Atlantic world between the revolutionary era of the late 18th century, which saw the establishment of the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere, and the early decades of the 20th century, when a new pan-African consciousness emerged. We will look at the roles that slavery and the slave trade played in marking the boundaries of a black Atlantic, and we will pay special attention to the part that people of African descent played both in struggles against slavery in the Americas and in the struggles to define the meanings of freedom and peoplehood there and elsewhere.

The purpose of this course is to engage students in the rigorous process of mining experiences for material that can be transformed into a public performance piece. In-class writing, group discussions, and field work in the Philadelphia area.


Fall 2014 Topic: AUGUST WILSON - The people need to know the story. See how they fit into it. See what part they play. - August Wilson, King Hedley II. In this seminar, students will read groundbreaking playwright August Wilson's 20th Century Cycle: ten plays that form an iconic picture of African American traumas, triumphs, and traditions through the decades, told through the lens of Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood. Other readings include supporting material on Wilson's work and African American theatre, the works of contemporary playwrights whom Wilson has influenced (such as Suzan-Lori Parks and Tarell Alvin McCraney), and context on Penn's relationship with West Philadelphia. As an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course, Writing Out Loud gives students the opportunity to enhance their understanding of the plays, and history and culture that shaped them, by forming meaningful relationships with West Philadelphia residents. Wilson's plays provide the bridge between the two groups. The course culminates with students writing an original theatre piece inspired by the readings and relationships, which they will share at an end-of-semester performance.

This is a topics course: Topics in Women and Literature. The course is cross-listed with ENGL 290 (Black Women and Literature) when the title is "Black Women and Literature." See the Department of Africana's website at www.sas.upenn.edu/africana for a description of the current offereings.


SPRING 2014: As controversial terms like "post-feminism" and "post-racial" continue to shape our understandings of politics and culture today, canonical figures and a new generation of black women writers continue to grapple, deconstruct, and redefine those terms with contemporary literature. We will examine how "black" women who live in the United States as novelists, essayists, poets, and playwrights expand notions of race and what it means to be "African American" at the very same moment they have become the "voice" of modern feminism and global fiction. The course will feature writers like Chimamanda Adichie, Elizabeth Alexander, Edwidge Danticat, Roxane Gay, Ayana Mathis, Maaza Mengiste, Toni Morrison, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, ZZ Packer, Emily Raboteau, Nelly Rosario, Natasha Trethewey, Jesmyn Ward, and Alice Walker (to name a few).