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 course 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 foundations of Latin American society and culture throughout the centuries from colonial 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.Likewise, the course will also explore the accomplishments, controversies and tensions in race dynamics 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 focuses on political responses to urbanization in the United States. Topics include local government, national urban politics, and the changing nature of cities.

This class is designed to advance students' writing practice, discipline, and workshop and critiquing skills. Student writers will create non-fiction narrative in several forms: blogs, memoir, interviews, Q&As, essays. We will play with promotion, video, and social marketing, even grant proposals, advertisements, public service announcements, queries, and photo captions -all the forms that writers actually use throughout careers of deep reflection followed by hustle-and-pitch. The class will act as an editorial group for SafeKidsStories.org, a site to be launched in the fall of 2015. The idea is to depict safety with the specificity and drama that we usually reserve for conflict. Your writing will explore Big Questions about the social, emotional, relational and physical structures that affect our children and youth ; your research, interviews, reporting, and experience will discover and share solutions. If we do the job right, we will shine a light on people inour midst creating structures of safety for kids in an era of fear. If we make it fun to read, look at, and listen to, too, then, like a few historic college courses that participate substantively in their communities, we'll be on our way to stealth culture change.