With its booming economy, the recent inauguration of its first female president, and its selection as host to the 2012 World Cup and Olympic games, Brazil is growing in global prestige. But amid all these exciting developments are devastating socioeconomic inequalities. Access to safe living conditions, livable wages, higher education, and overall social mobility remain painfully out of reach to many Brazilians, the majority of whom are the descendants of slaves. Why do these problems persist in a country that has had such an enduring and widespread reputation as a "racial democracy"? What are the possibilities of closing the equality gap in Brazil?

The main objective of this course is to further sharpen the Yoruba linguistic knowledge that the student acquired in level I. By the end of the course, the student should be able to (1) read, write, and understand simple to moderately complex sentences in Yoruba; and, (2) advance in the knowledge of the Yoruba culure.

This course covers the development of legal rules and principles concerning individual and group conduct in the United States since 1877. Such subjects as regulation and deregulation, legal education and the legal profession, and the legal status of women and minorities will be discussed.

This seminar will examine the experiences of recent African immigrants and refugees in Philadelphia in an historical framework. We will employ a variety of sources-newspapers, census data, legal briefs, literature and film, and diaspora internet sites-to explore the lives, aspirations, and perceptions of Philadelphia's African residents. There will be opportunities for dialogue with high school students, teachers, and parents; with representatives of African community and business organizations; and with local government and service agencies. Students will be required to do a final project which involves volunteering with an African immigrant non-profit or business and/or conducting focused research on specific African communities in Philadelphia.

This survey course considers Latin American musics within a broad cultural and historical framework. Latin American musical practices are explored by illustrating the many ways that aesthetics, ritual, communication, religion, and social structure are embodied in and contested through performance. These initial inquires open onto an investigation of a range of theorectical concepts that become particularly pertinent in Latin American contexts--concepts such as post-colonialism, migration, ethnicity, and globalization. Throughout the course, we will listen to many different styles and repertoires of music and then work to understand them not only in relation to the readings that frame our discussions but also in relation to our own, North American contexts of music consumption and production.

This coure will explore the arrival, establishment and contributions of free and enslaved Africans in Ibero-America, the region presently known as Latin America, and the Spanish Speaking Caribbean. It will look at how these actors and their descendants known today as Afro-Latinos, shaped and built the foun- dations of Latin American society and culture throughout the centuries from conial period to present. The course will seek to understand Afro-Latinos' agency and negotiations as intellectual contributors to the ideologies that led to independence and the creation of Latin American nations. Likewis, the course will also explore the accomplishments, controversies and tensios in racedynamics and politics, gender relations, socio-economic issues, among others factors that took and continue to take place as people of African descent negotiate their identity and struggle to uphold their space in Latin America and the U.S.A. today.

The Elementary Zulu II course can be taken to fulfull a language requirement, or for linguistic preparatin to do research on South Africa, Southern Africa/Africa-related topics. The course emphasizes communicative competence to enable the students to acquire linguistic and extra-linguistic skills in Zulu. 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.

The Accelerated Elementary Zulu course is intensive, and can be taken to fulfill a language requirement, or for linguistic preparation to do research on South Africa, Southern Africa/Africa-related topics. The course emphasizes communicaive competence to enable the students to acquire linguistic and extra-linguistic skills in Zulu. The content of the course is selected from various everydaylife situations to enable he students to communicae in predictable commom 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 ceiling of low intermediate level and floor of high novice level, based on the ACTFL scale. The low intermediate level proficiency skills that the students will acquire constitute threshold capabilities of the third semester range of proficiency to prepare students for Intermediate Zulu I course materials.

This course explores aspects of the origins, style development, aesthetic philosophies, historiography, and contemporary conventions of African-American musical traditions. Topics covered include: the music of West and Central Africa, the music of colonial America, 19th century church and dance music, minstrelsy, music of the Harlem Renaissance, jazz, blues, gospel, hip-hop, and film music. Special attention is given to the ways that black music produces "meaning" and to how the social energy circulating within black music articulates myriad issues about American identity at specific histroical moments. The course will also engage other expressive art forms from visual and literary sources in order to better position music making into the larger framework of African American aesthetics.