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Courses - Fall 2023
AASP
African American Studies Department Site
AASP100
Introduction to African American Studies
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSHS, DVUP
Significant aspects of the history of African Americans with particular emphasis on the evolution and development of black communities from slavery to the present. Interdisciplinary introduction to social, political, legal and economic roots of contemporary problems faced by blacks in the United States with applications to the lives of other racial and ethnic minorities in the Americas and in other societies.
AASP100H
Introduction to African American Studies
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSHS, DVUP
Significant aspects of the history of African Americans with particular emphasis on the evolution and development of black communities from slavery to the present. Interdisciplinary introduction to social, political, legal and economic roots of contemporary problems faced by blacks in the United States with applications to the lives of other racial and ethnic minorities in the Americas and in other societies.
AASP101
Public Policy and the Black Community
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSHS
Formerly: AASP300.
The impact of public policies on the black community and the role of the policy process in affecting the social, economic and political well-being of minorities. Particular attention given to the post-1960 to present era.
AASP187
The New Jim Crow: African-Americans, Mass Incarceration and the Prison Industrial Complex
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
GenEd: DSHS, DVUP, SCIS
Recommended: AASP100.
Students will examine the birth of the racial caste system following the abolition of slavery, the parallels between the racial hierarchy of the Jim Crow system and contemporary mass incarceration, and the rise of the prison industrial complex as a multi-billon business which thrives on the oppression of low-income populations and poor communities of color.
AASP200
African Civilization
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSHU
A survey of African civilizations from 4500 B.C. to present. Analysis of traditional social systems. Discussion of the impact of European colonization on these civilizations. Analysis of the influence of traditional African social systems on modern African institutions as well as discussion of contemporary processes of Africanization.
AASP202
Black Culture in the United States
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSHS, DVUP
The course examines important aspects of African American life and thought which are reflected in African American literature, drama, music and art. Beginning with the cultural heritage of slavery, the course surveys the changing modes of black creative expression from the 19th-century to the present.
AASP202H
Black Culture in the United States
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSHS, DVUP
The course examines important aspects of African American life and thought which are reflected in African American literature, drama, music and art. Beginning with the cultural heritage of slavery, the course surveys the changing modes of black creative expression from the 19th-century to the present.
AASP210
Intro to Research Design and Analysis in African American Studies
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Introduces students to quantitative and qualitative research methods used in social science with a focus on Black populations and African American Studies Research. Uses practical exercises, such as class surveys and mock focus groups, to examine fundamental concepts of the research process from conceptualization of research questions to interpretation of data and research articles. The course is designed for undergraduate students with little or no background knowledge in social science research methods.
AASP263
Introduction to Black Women's Studies
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with: WGSS263.
Credit only granted for: WMST263, AASP298I, WGSS263 or AASP263.
Formerly: WMST263.
Interdisciplinary exploration of Black women, culture and society in the United States. Drawn primarily from the social sciences and history with complementary material from literature and the arts.
AASP265
Constructions of Manhood and Womanhood in the Black Community
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSHS, DVUP
Cross-listed with: WGSS265.
Credit only granted for: WMST265, AASP298B, WGSS265 or AASP265.
Formerly: WMST265.
Investigates the ways that African Americans are represented and constructed in public and private spheres and explores the social constructions and representations of Black manhood and womanhood from various disciplinary perspectives.
AASP298C
African-American History to 1865
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DVUP
Cross-listed with: HIST254.
Credit only granted for: HIST254 or AASP298C.
Survey of the principal developments in the history and culture of the peoples of African descent in colonial North America and the United States to 1865. Examines the African past, the Atlantic slave trade, variation in slavery, the growth of free black communities, the transformations of families and cultural forms, and patterns of resistance.
AASP298L
African-American Literature and Culture
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
GenEd: DSHU, DVUP
Cross-listed with: ENGL234.
Credit only granted for: ENGL234 or AASP298L.
An exploration of the stories black authors tell about themselves, their communities, and the nation as informed by time and place, gender, sexuality, and class. African American perspective themes such as art, childhood, sexuality, marriage, alienation and mortality, as well as representations of slavery, Reconstruction, racial violence and the Nadir, legalized racism and segregation, black patriotism and black ex-patriots, the optimism of integration, and the prospects of a post-racial America.
Cross-listed with ENGL234. Credit granted for AASP298L or ENGL234.
AASP301
Applied Policy Analysis and the Black Community
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: AASP101.
Recommended: Completion of one semester of statistics is recommended.
Development and application of the tools needed for examining the effectiveness of alternative policy options confronting minority communities. Review policy research methods used in forming and evaluating policies. Examination of the policy process.
AASP313
Black Women in United States History
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Restriction: Sophomore standing or higher.
Cross-listed with: WGSS314.
Credit only granted for: AASP313, WMST314 or WGSS314.
Formerly: WMST314.
Black American women's history from slavery to the present. Focused on gaining a fuller understanding of the effect of race, class and gender on the life cycles and multiple roles of Black women as mothers, daughters, wives, workers and social-change agents.
For Fall 2020: Also offered as HIST329E. Credit granted for AASP313, HIST329E, or WMST314.
AASP320
Poverty and African American Children
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Credit only granted for: AASP320 or AASP298P.
Formerly: AASP298P.
The United States has high levels of child poverty compared to other industrialized nations. Poverty rates are particularly high among African American children. This course focuses on how poverty and race intersect to influence the development of children and youth. Specific topics that we will consider include definitions of poverty, theories about the causes of poverty, racial disparities in child poverty, family functioning in the context of poverty, neighborhood influences, risk and protective processes, and social policies and programs designed to mitigate the impact of poverty.
AASP350
Cinema of the Black Atlantic
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
This course examines cinema from the black Atlantic world, treating key films from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. Anticolonial work by Ousmane Sembene and Sarah Maldoror, memory work by Haile Gerima and Julie Dash, and vernacular filmmaking by Charles Burnett, Spike Lee, Perry Henzell, Melvin Van Peebles, and others will introduce us to the varied concerns of Black filmmakers in moments of independence struggle and post-emancipation identity formation. While eclectic in selection, our examination of these films will be oriented around a pair of questions. What is antiblackness and how does cinema encounter, contemplate, and critique it? How do different geographies and historical experiences shift cultural and political concerns, as well as the methods of cinema along with those differing concerns? Such questions will allow us to see how questions of antiblackness and Black life operate in the between and overlapping spaces of colonial experience, ghettoization, and sites of resistance, rebellion, and radicalism.
AASP386
(Perm Req)
Experiential Learning
Credits: 3 - 6
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
Restriction: Permission of BSOS-African American Studies department; and junior standing or higher.
AASP397
(Perm Req)
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Restriction: Permission of BSOS-African American Studies department.
Directed research in African American Studies resulting in the completion and defense of a senior thesis.
Contact department for information to register for this course.
AASP398G
Selected Topics in the African Diaspora; Gender, Labor and Racial Identities in Diaspora Communities
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with AMST328K. Credit only granted for AASP398G or AMST328K.

Students will be exposed to a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, theories, and methodologies for exploring the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and racial identities in multiple post-emancipation and modern African/Black diaspora communities. The class readings and discussions will examine the interactions and linkages between and among various African diaspora/descendant and native-born African American/Black peoples, from multiple vantage points, in different historical periods and movements in the U.S., Africa, the Caribbean, Latin American and Europe.
AASP398Q
Selected Topics in the African Diaspora; Black Baltimore in the Post Racial U.S: African American Urban Culture in the Age of Obama
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with AMST328M. Credit only granted for AASP398Q or AMST328M.

Using the city of Baltimore as our case study and taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws from the scholarly fields of African American studies, sociology, geography, anthropology, history, and urban planning this course explores how both Blackness and anti-Blackness shape the city, its histories, its racial and cultural geography, its social movements, its political economy, and the competing visions for its future. This is an interactive course that will work to develop students capacity to understand and discuss major and minor moments in the history of Black Baltimore; understand and discuss the relationship between material conditions, racism, and urban policy; develop interdisciplinary frameworks through which to interpret and analyze the contemporary and historical conditions shaping the lived experiences of Black Baltimoreans; and analyze scholarship produced within the African American Studies tradition.
AASP398Z
Selected Topics in the African Diaspora; Black Contributions to History
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
This survey course sheds light on forgotten ingenuity, stolen scientific, and ignored legacy from pharaonic Egypt to the scramble for Africa (1885) to modern Black groundbreaking contributions that have changed the world. While the archeological investigation is focused on the pan-African world, the course is designed to encourage students to delve into their creative and critical thinking skills and to view themselves as inventors and problem solvers. This course also challenges students to grasp inventions that have already taken place in a particular historical context and cultural pluralism, as well as helps them to comprehend and apply scientific principles in everyday life.
AASP399
(Perm Req)
Research in African-American Studies
Credits: 1 - 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F
Contact department for information to register for this course.
AASP417
Emotions and Culture in the African American Community
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Credit only granted for: AASP417 or AASP498E.
Formerly: AASP498E.
Emotions are affective states, both positive and negative, that reflect an individual's continuous stream of experience. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the role of culture and racism in shaping the ways in which African Americans experience, express, understand, and control emotions on a behavioral, physiological, and psychological level. We will begin with exploration of historical influences such as the role of African culture on contemporary African American norms of expressivity and the role of antebellum slavery, the eugenics movement, and blackface on stimulating contemporary stereotypes about African American emotional temperament (e.g., stereotypes regarding aggressiveness, anger, and violence). We will conclude with discussions of the impact of discrimination on emotional and physiological reactivity and factors that promote emotional resiliency. The course materials will require students to grapple with the contemptuous disconnect between the African American cultural tradition of free emotional expressivity and the survival strategy to control emotions in response to a society threatened by Black emotionality.
AASP498O
Special Topics in Black Culture; African American and Latino Social, Cultural and Political Relations: 1940 to Present
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg
Cross-listed with USLT498E. Credit granted for AASP498O or USLT498E.

An examination of the social, cultural, and political relationships between African American and Latino/a/x communities. In doing so, we will explore identity conundrums such as what constitutes a Latino/a/x. Who is African American? This nation has rarely seen two groups often lumped together spatially and socially with a rich history of working together towards progress, so divided and contentious. We will also through the analysis of trends look to find points of mutual concern and possible convergence and political coalition. In this course, it will be necessary to examine residential patterns and segregation, as well as learn about Latin American political and racial formation. We also will examine Afro-latinidad, which complicates the sociopolitical landscape and relationship between African American and Latinx communities.
AASP498Y
Special Topics in Black Culture; Black Queer Studies
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with LGBT448L. Credit only granted for LGBT448L or AASP498Y.
AASP499N
Advanced Topics in Public Policy and the Black Community; News Coverage of Racial Issues
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Restriction: Junior standing or higher.