AFAM 2000 Prof.

Feracho
Spring 2019 MWF 10:10-11:00am.
lferacho@uga.edu JRL 510
(During the course students are asked to use ELC email)

Introduction to African American Studies

What is African American Studies? What does it say about African American
identities, histories, cultural and political developments? How do writers address what it
means to be part of an African American community as well as their relationship to national
identity? What does it mean to be part of the African diaspora?
Through historical, literary and cultural texts this course will explore origins of the
African Diaspora from the Slave trade through its routes across the Americas, and key
historic and cultural moments for African Americans that demonstrate important
strategies of survival, resistance, cultural development and innovation, as well as
significant themes related to the African Diaspora in the Americas beyond the United
States.

Academic Honesty
“All academic work must meet the standards contained in "A Culture of Honesty." Students are
responsible for informing themselves about those standards before performing any academic
work.
The University of Georgia seeks to promote and ensure academic honesty and personal integrity
among students and other members of the University Community. A policy on academic honesty
has been developed to serve these goals. All members of the academic community are responsible
for knowing the policy and procedures on academic honesty.
The link to more detailed information about academic honesty can be found at:
http://www.uga.edu/ovpi/honesty/acadhon.htm”

Required Texts -Course packet: Bel-Jean Copy/Print Center (163 E. Broad St.)
-Ta-Nehisi Coates. Between the World and Me. (UGA Bookstore)
(Additional material will be posted on ELC. Students will be requested on occasion to print and bring copies
of the literary texts from ELC to class. In addition, students may also need to bring copies of critical texts
found on ELC)
Film Viewing: During the course of the semester students will be asked to view several films: some to be
viewed at home (some as rental):

1-12 Years a Slave (Library Reserve. Home Viewing: Amazon; iTunes: $3.99)
2-Ethnic Notions (UGA Library: Films on Demand)
http://fod.infobase.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=49775
3-Black Power Mixtape: (Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bryh0IFMhg)
4-13th – (Netflix)
5-Cuban Roots, Bronx Stories. (UGA Library: Kanopy)

Distribution of Grades: 100-93 A 4.0

- Attendance: 5% 92-90 A- 3.7
-Participation: 14% 89-87 B+ 3.3
-Mini-presentation(2): 12% 86-83 B 3.0
-Short essay (5): 10% 82-80 B- 2.7
-Short film responses: 3% 79-77 C+ 2.3
-Midterm Exam: 16% 76-71 C 2.0
- Final Paper: 10% 70-68 C- 1.7
-Final Exam: 30% 67-60 D 1.0
60-0 F 0
Final Exam: Friday May 3, 2019 8:00-11:00am

Class Responsibilities:
1. Participation: Each student will be responsible for coming to class having read the material and ready
to contribute in class with relevant, thoughtful comments and questions. Attendance and participation are
both important parts of your final grade. 3 absences without penalty are allowed for the semester, after
which time deductions will be made to your attendance grade. Any documentation of medical reasons for
absence must be turned in within 2 class periods of the student’s return.

Using a laptop or phone during class meetings is not permitted, unless an activity requires it. Students are
expected to stow away all devices before class begins. Why? See “Advantages of Longhand over Laptop
Note Taking” http://pss.sagepub.com/content/25/6/1159; “Laptop multitasking hinders classroom
learning for both users and nearby peers”
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254?np=y; and, “Media ‘multitaskers’
pay mental price, Stanford study shows” http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/august24/multitask-
research-study-082409.html. If maximizing your memory interests you, I recommend The New Science of
Learning.

2. Presentations: Students will be responsible for 2 group presentations. A handout sheet will be
circulated in the first weeks of the semester for presentation selection with presentation dates
a. Literary Presentation: For the first presentation students,in groups of 2, will be responsible for giving
an analysis of significant themes in the text (literary and critical) being discussed that week and its
connection to contemporary issues relating to African American experience(s) and communities as well as
provide 1-2 questions to facilitate class discussion. Students will also hand in a short class handout (1-2
pages) + written group narrative summary (of 2 pages) of important thematic points of the presentation
and works used/cited - to be handed in to me on the day of the presentation.
b. Cultural Presentation: For this presentation students in groups of 2-3 will present on an aspect of
African American (or African diasporan) culture as it relates to themes of community, history, social justice,
or cultural and/or communal celebration, mobilization or critique.
For both presentations all students will be expected to meet with their group atleast once outside of class
as part of their preparation and all are expected to equally participate in the preparation and presentation.
The group grade will reflect individual contribution + group presentation + thematic points covered +
discussion questions (among other criterion which will be specified).
3.Short Essays and Final Paper: Throughout the semester students will be expected to hand in five 2 page
written short essays (double spaced; 12 pt) of one theme in one or more of the texts discussed up to that
point as indicated by the professor.
During the semester students will also be asked to view films related to the course content and will submit
a short response to specific films as indicated by the professor.
The final paper will be a 5-7 page comparative, research paper on select texts and themes of the course,
incorporating primary and secondary sources, as indicated by the professor. All papers must be handed
in on the indicated day of the assignment. No late papers will be accepted. Any difficulty handing in the
assignment on time must be discussed with me prior to the date it should be received.
4. Exams: During the semester students will take a midterm(short essay and identification of terms and
texts ) and final exam (similar format+ 1 question based on your final paper). A review guide will be provided
prior to these exams. No makeup date for the final exam can be granted unless there is a documented
scheduling conflict presented atleast two weeks prior to the final exam.
During the semester, in accordance with the course needs and at the professor’s discretion changes to the
syllabus (changes in readings or addition of quizzes for example) can be made. Students will be notified
of such changes in a timely fashion.

JANUARY
Week 1 (1/9; 1/11): Introduction to African American Studies

-Introduction to course
-Freedom on My Mind: Chap. 1 (pp. 2-26)

Week 2: (1/14, 1/16; 1/18): Introduction to African Americans: From Africa to the
Americas

Readings: Freedom on my mind: conclusion of Chap. 1

-Creating Black Americans : Ch.3: “A Diasporic People”.
-Thematic Introduction: the politics of difference” (pp.72-top of 81)

Week 3 (1/21, 1/23; 1/25): African American Studies-An Introduction

Monday -No Class MLK Jr. Day

Readings- Conclude “Thematic Introduction: the politics of difference”
-Perry Hall: “African American Studies: Discourses and Paradigms”
-Interview with Manning Marable

Week 4 (1/28, 1/30; 2/1): Development of Ethnic Studies and the Early Voices: Equiano,
Wheatley and Sojourner Truth

Readings : Black Studies Programs : Discussion of Student Activism and Black Studies
history(ELC)
- “The Literature of Slavery and Freedom”(ELC)
-Olaudah Equiano : The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
-“The Vernacular Tradition”; bell hooks reading
-Sojourner Truth: “Ain’t I a Woman”(Both versions)
Suggested Readings : Martha Biondi. The Black Revolution on Campus (select chapter)
bell hooks chapter on Sojourner Truth (from Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism)
Hand in Short Essay 1

FEBRUARY
Week 5 (2/4; 2/6; 2/8): The Pursuit of Freedom: Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass

Readings: Phyllis Wheatley: select poems

-Alice Walker. “In Search of our mother’s gardens” (excerpt)
-Harriet Jacobs – Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (selections)

Week 6 (2/11; 2/13; 2/15): Visions of Freedom: Frederick Douglass and Citizenship

Readings: Frederick Douglass: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

- “What to the slave is the fourth of July?”
- Race, slavery and film: Discussion of “12 Years a Slave” (Home viewing)

Week 7 (2/18; 2/20; 2/22): African American Voices of Persuasion: Chestnutt, DuBois
and the Souls of Black Folk (1903)

Readings: “Literature of the Reconstruction to the New Negro Renaissance: 1865-

1919”
-Charles Chestnutt: “Goophered Grapevine”
-Booker T. Washington: “The Atlanta Exposition Address (1895)”
-W.E.B. DuBois : The Souls of Black Folk: “The Forethought” ; “Of Our Spiritual
Strivings”
Hand in Short Essay 2

Week 8 (2/25; 2/27; 3/1): Representations of Blackness and Visions of Home

Readings: W.E.B. DuBois “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others”

-Film discussion : Ethnic Notions (Home viewing) (Film Response 1)
Friday- Midterm Exam

MARCH
Week 9 (3/4; 3/6; 3/8): Harlem Renaissance and the Female Voice: From Claude
McKay to Zora Neale Hurston, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday

Readings: “Harlem Renaissance 1919-1940”

-Claude McKay: “If We Must Die”, “The Outcast”(poems); From Home to Harlem:
Chapter XVII: “He Also Loved”
-Zora Neale Hurston, “How it Feels to Be Colored Me”
-Discussion of Race, Gender and the Blues: “Backwater Blues” (Bessie Smith) and
“Strange Fruit”( Billie Holiday)

Spring Break: March 11-15

Week 10 (3/18; 3/20; 3/22): Gender and Society: Hurston, Larsen and contemporary
‘passing’

Readings: Zora Neale Hurston- Their Eyes Were Watching God (Chapters 1,2)
-Nella Larsen Passing (selections)
-Toi Derricotte-The Black Notebooks. (selection)
-Claudia Rankine. Citizen: An American Lyric (selection)
Hand in Short Essay 3

Week 11 (3/25; 3/27; 3/29): Transitional Dialogues: Hughes’ Harlem Renaissance and
Guillén’s Negrismo

Readings: W.E.B. DuBois“Critique of Negro Art”; Langston Hughes-“The Negro Artist

and the Racial Mountain”
-Langston Hughes poetry: select poetry
-Langston Hughes and Nicolás Guillén (select poems)
Suggested Readings – George Schuyler - “Negro-Hokum”; Richard Jackson -Black Writers and Latin America

APRIL
Week 12: (4/1; 4/3; 4/5) Transitions Pt. 2: From Baldwin’s Modernism to Black Arts
Movement

Readings: “Realism, Naturalism, Modernism 1940-1960”

-James Baldwin – “The Uses of the Blues” (Home viewing: I am not your Negro(Dir. Raoul Peck)
-“Sonny’s Blues”
-“The Black Arts Era 1960-1975
-The Autobiography of Malcolm X- Chapter 11
Suggested viewing: Malcolm X (Director Spike Lee)
Hand in Short Essay 4

Week 13: (4/8; 4/10; 4/12): The Black Arts Era and Beyond: Contemporary Voices

Readings: Black Arts Poetry: Audre Lorde; Sonia Sanchez; Amiri Baraka; Nikki
Giovanni
Home viewing: Black arts film - The Black Power Mixtape (Film Response 2)
- “Literature Since 1975”
- Alice Walker – “In search of our Mother’s Gardens”
-Contemporary African American Reading

(4/12) Hand in overview of Final paper

April
Week 14: (4/15; 4/17; 4/19) Between the World and Me

Readings: Richard Wright “Between the World and Me”

Ta-Nehisi Coates. Between the World and Me
Hand in Short Essay 5
Week 15: (4/22; 4/24; 4/26): Between the World and Me

Readings: Conclude Between the World and Me

Home viewing: Ava DuVernay-13th (Film Response 3)
-Cultural Presentations

Week 16: (4/29; 4/30) African-American and Afro-Latinx Dialogues

Readings: Afro-Latinx Identity texts: Piri Thomas; Willie Perdomo; Nellie Rosario
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdQ5m-tZy_c
-Concluding Thoughts and Review
Suggested viewing: Cuban Roots, Bronx Stories (2001)

Final Exam: Friday May 3, 2019 8:00-11:00am