ASRC 6011 - The African American Intellectual Tradition

Fall. 4 credits. Student option grading.

K. Gaines.

We will consider a selection of recent scholarship on some of the main issues of African American and Africana Studies. The African American Intellectual tradition is so vast, that our readings will necessarily be selective. We will focus on scholarship on the assumption that students have read canonical texts (e.g. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk; Cooper, A Voice From the South). The list of assigned texts includes classic works as well as recent scholarship. Our focus will be on African American intellectual and social thought, as well as scholarship reflecting the struggles and concerns of African Americans and African descended people. Organized around themes (music, radicalism, religion, cultural studies, etc.) rather than specific thinkers, our readings reflect the field’s development beyond earlier preoccupations with race and racism, to address the intersections of “race” with gender, class, and sexuality.