Courses - Fall 2025
AAAS
African American and Africana Studies
Open Seats as of
05/09/2025 at 09:30 AM
AAAS100
Introduction to African American and Africana Studies
Credit only granted for: AASP100 or AAAS100.
Formerly: AASP100.
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.
AAAS101
Public Policy and the Black Community
Credit only granted for: AASP101 or AAAS101.
Formerly: AASP101.
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.
AAAS200
African Civilization
Credit only granted for: AASP200 or AAAS200.
Formerly: AASP200.
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.
AAAS202
Credit only granted for: AASP202 or AAAS202.
Formerly: AASP202.
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.
AAAS210
Intro to Research Design and Analysis in African American and Africana Studies
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Credit only granted for: AASP210 or AAAS210.
Formerly: AASP210.
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.
AAAS230
Social (In)Justice and African-American Health and Well-Being
Credit only granted for: AASP230 or AAAS230.
Formerly: AASP230.
African Americans suffer worse outcomes than non-Hispanic whites on nearly every health measure and outcomes that link to overall well-being like depressive symptoms or homicides. Health disparities are experienced by other underrepresented minority groups, but because of the unique historic and current experiences of African Americans, the determinants and solutions to African American health disparities are unique. The premise of this course is that African American health disparities are due to social injustices perpetuated on the institutional level that have permeated the lived experiences of African Americans leading to racial disparities in health and well-being. As such, the solutions on the both policy, and community, level must have a social justice approach.
AAAS234
Cross-listed with: ENGL234.
Credit only granted for: ENGL234, AAAS234 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.
AAAS254
African-American History to 1865
Cross-listed with: HIST254.
Credit only granted for: HIST254, AAAS254 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.
AAAS263
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, AAAS263 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.
AAAS301
Applied Policy Analysis and the Black Community
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: AAAS101.
Recommended: Completion of one semester of statistics is recommended.
Credit only granted for: AASP301 or AAAS301.
Formerly: AASP301.
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.
AAAS310
African Slave Trade
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: AAAS202 or AAAS100; or permission of BSOS-African American and Africana Studies department.
Credit only granted for: AASP310 or AAAS310.
Formerly: AASP310.
The relationship of the slave trade of Africans to the development of British capitalism and its industrial revolution; and to the economic and social development of the Americas.
AAAS386
Experiential Learning
Credits:
3 - 6
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Restriction: Permission of BSOS-African American and Africana Studies department; and junior standing or higher.
Credit only granted for: AASP386 or AAAS386.
Formerly: AASP386.
Updating course code to align with department name change
AAAS397
Senior Thesis
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Restriction: Permission of BSOS-African American and Africana Studies department.
Credit only granted for: AASP397 or AAAS397.
Formerly: AASP397.
Directed research in African American Studies resulting in the completion and defense of a senior thesis.
AAAS398B
Selected Topics in the African Diaspora; Black Immigrants: Challenges and Impacts
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
How does immigration affect Black communities in the United States? How are foreign Blacks affected by living in the United States? Students will learn about: US history of immigration policy; pull and push factors driving Black migration; comparisons in socioeconomic outcomes between foreign and native Blacks; and differences between 1st and 2nd generation Black immigrants.
AAAS398D
Selected Topics in the African Diaspora
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with HIST338K. Credit will be only granted for AAAS398D or HIST338K.
AAAS398J
Selected Topics in the African Diaspora; Black Women in Twentieth Century America
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
AAAS398W
Selected Topics in the African Diaspora; Menace 2 Society: Structural Racism in Nihilistic Urban and Brown Films
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with: AMST328V and USLT398B. Credit only granted for: AAAS398W, AMST328V, or USLT398B.
AAAS399
Research in African-American and Africana Studies
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
AAAS400
Directed Readings in African American and Africana Studies
Prerequisite: AAAS202 or AAAS100.
Credit only granted for: AASP400 or AAAS400.
Formerly: AASP400.
The readings will be directed by the faculty of African American Studies. Topics to be covered will be chosen to meet the needs and interests of individual students.
AAAS402
Classic Readings in African American and Africana Studies
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: AAAS202 or AAAS100.
Credit only granted for: AASP402 or AAAS402.
Formerly: AASP402.
Classic readings of the social, economic and political status of Blacks and other minorities in the United States and the Americas.
AAAS412
Inventing (and Reinventing) Whiteness: The Origins, Transformations, and Future of Race in the US
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Recommended: AAAS202 or AAAS100.
Cross-listed with: AMST412.
Credit only granted for: AAAS412, AASP412 or AMST412.
Formerly: AASP412.
This course will study the historical origins of whiteness, its transformations over time, and the role it has played (and continues to play) as an organizing force of political, economic, cultural, and domestic life within America. Further, this course will draw on critical intellectual traditions within African American and Africana Studies in order to imagine the future(s) of race, including abolitionist futures where democratic modes of social organization challenge, displace, and undo racialized hierarchies.
AAAS415
"Through The Wire": The Politics and Policies of a Chocolate City
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Recommended: AAAS101 or AAAS100.
Cross-listed with: GVPT368W.
Credit only granted for: AAAS415 or GVPT368W.
We will use the HBO television series, The Wire, as a thread to integrate topics that form the basis of a thorough understanding of urban politics. Each week will have a different thematic focus - i.e., community development, inequality, crime, incarceration, policing, labor, education, and racial relations - and will couple scholarly work with in-class discussions to examine the social and political dynamics that emerge in the series. All of the assignments work together to expose students to social science, how social science is conducted, and how political science can help us better understand the world around us.
AAAS485
End Gun Violence: An Analysis of Structural Violence, Interpersonal Violence and Trauma in African-American Communities
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Recommended: AAAS101 or AAAS100.
Cross-listed with: ANTH385.
Credit only granted for: AAAS485, AASP499U, or ANTH385.
Formerly: AASP499U.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death and disability among African-American children and adult men between the ages of 15-44. Structural violence conceptualizes the ways social structures, institutions and systems are complicit in the harm of specific populations (e.g., shortened life expectancy among African Americans). These harms are often preventable. Structural and interpersonal violence, specifically community firearm violence, impacts the physical, psychological, social and emotional well-being, and quality of life of African-Americans, a demographic disproportionately impacted by the harms caused by structural and interpersonal violence. Using an interdisciplinary, structural justice and anti-racist approach this course examines the intersection of structural violence, interpersonal violence and trauma in African-American communities impacted by gun violence.
AAAS498D
Special Topics in Black Culture; Revolutionary Struggles: History, Theory, Strategy
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
AAAS498K
Special Topics in Black Culture; Tenderness in Black Expressive Culture
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with WGSS488C. Credit granted for WGSS488C or AAAS498K.
Using a Black cultural studies approach to affect theory, a field of scholarship dedicated to the humanistic study of feeling, students will engage art that prioritizes a lesser known definition of tenderness, e.g. the sensitivity from a prior wound. Throughout the semester, we will read fiction, legal documents, lyrics, poetry, prose, and theory; listento Black music, podcasts, and interviews; and watch documentary, film, and music videos. Questions to explore include, what is tenderness? Whatis affect theory s relationship to gender, race, and sexuality? Whatqualities of Black/queer life come into focus when artists subvert assumptions of their (in)capacity? What do they risk when uncommon formsof tenderness resist racial/gender norms and deviate from what is deemed respectable?
Using a Black cultural studies approach to affect theory, a field of scholarship dedicated to the humanistic study of feeling, students will engage art that prioritizes a lesser known definition of tenderness, e.g. the sensitivity from a prior wound. Throughout the semester, we will read fiction, legal documents, lyrics, poetry, prose, and theory; listento Black music, podcasts, and interviews; and watch documentary, film, and music videos. Questions to explore include, what is tenderness? Whatis affect theory s relationship to gender, race, and sexuality? Whatqualities of Black/queer life come into focus when artists subvert assumptions of their (in)capacity? What do they risk when uncommon formsof tenderness resist racial/gender norms and deviate from what is deemed respectable?
AAAS498Y
Special Topics in Black Culture; Black Queer Studies
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg
Black Queer Studies is an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach to LGBTQ+ Studies and Black Studies. In this course, we will center Blackness to meditate upon the overlapping and interwoven categories of race, gender, and sexuality with the goal of decoupling whiteness from LGBTQ+ studies and decoupling heterosexuality from Black studies. We will look at texts from the humanities and social sciences as well literature and film in order to trace topical trajectories of Black queer thought. We will explore the meaning of queerness in relation to blackness, touch upon moments in black queer history, analyze questions of black queer representation and erasure, and press upon hot button topics such as queer identity and the black church, African and global queer and trans identities, Blackness and homophobia, white LGBTQ+ racism, and Black queer pleasure. Throughout we will consider how Black queer liberation can and has provided tools and a guide for our collective liberation.
AAAS499N
Advanced Topics in Public Policy and the Black Community; Media Coverage of Diversity
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with JOUR453. Credit only granted for JOUR453 or AAAS499N.
Analysis of media coverage of issues relating to diversity in the United States, with special attention to race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation and religious affiliation.
Analysis of media coverage of issues relating to diversity in the United States, with special attention to race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation and religious affiliation.
Flagship Institution of the University System of Maryland
University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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301.405.1000
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