About African American Studies 40A: African American Studies

This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to important historical, cultural, literary, and political issues concerning African Americans. Through critical readings of literary, artistic, and filmic texts, this course provides an overview of African American experiences from the 17th through mid-20th centuries. Emphasis will be placed on developing an understanding of the historical and cultural experiences of African Americans from the beginning of the Transatlantic Slave Trade through the Civil Rights Movement. To focus our journey, the course begins with a discussion of the discourse of African American Studies as an academic discipline. Students will proceed to examine the process of forced emigration from Africa, chattel slavery in the British Colonies, the formation of African American identity in the 18th and 19th centuries, and struggles for social transformation and resistance by African Americans in the United States.