Topics vary: See the Africana Studies Program's website at www.sas.upenn.edu/africana for a description of the current offerings.

This course examines the role of race and ethnicity in the political discourse through a comparative survey of recent literature on the historical and contemporary political experiences of the four major minority groups (Blacks or African Americans, American Indians, Latinos or Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans). A few of the key topics will include assimilation and acculturation seen in the Asian American community, understanding the political direction of Black America in a pre and post Civil Rights era, and assessing the emergence of Hispanics as the largest minority group and the political impact of this demographnic change. Throughout the semester, the course will introduce students to significant minority legislation, political behavior, social movements, litigation/court ruling, media and various forms of public opinion that have shaped the history of racial and ethnic minority relations in this country. Readings are drawn from books and articles written by contemporary political scientists.

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

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

The purpose of this seminar is to provide students with some basic tools with which to understand and evaluate representations of Africa from colonial times to the present. Using a range of sources including early travel accounts, autobiography, fiction, film, visual arts and contemporary media, we will examine various ways in which discourses on "Africa" as a continent have been produced by the West, but also by African themselves. We will pay particular attention to how these discourses and representations compete with or echo each other, all the while emphasizing, beyond stereotypical representations, the diverse histories, nations, regions, geographies and peoples that make up this vast continent.

During the semester we will focus on people and communities of sub-Saharan Africa and on the ways people represent, reflect on, and react to various aspects and issues in their lives and the institutions which dominate their communities. We will focus particularly on the history, contemporary expression, and inter-relationships among politics, religion, and aesthetic practice. Members of Penn's African Studies community will share their expertise with the class and introduce the University's Africa resources. Texts consist of weekly readings, films, and recordings; and class members will be expected to attend several lectures outside of class.

The elementary Swahili 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 aquire 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 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 mid-high novice level, based on the ACTFL scale. The mid-high level proficiency skills that the students acquire constitute threshold capabilities of the second semester range of proficiency to prepare students for Elementary Swahili II course materials.

This course will study the history of African-Americans from their first encounter with Europeans in the 16th century to their emancipation during the Civil War. This course will concentrate on the variety of black responses to capture, enslavement, and forced acculturation in the New World. the difference in the slave experience of various New World countries, and the methods of black resistance and rebellion to varied slave systems will be investigated. The nature and role of the free black communities in antebellum American will also be studied.

This course will cover southern culture and history from 1607-1860, from Jamestown to secession. It traces the rise of slavery and plantation society, the growth of Southern sectionalism and its explosion into Civil War.

This course will cover southern culture and history from 1607-1860, from Jamestown to secession. It traces the rise of slavery and plantation society, the growth of Southern sectionalism and its explosion into Civil War.