This course will offer a broad survey of African peoples and the African Diaspora in the world, beginning with their African origins. Special attention will be paid to the enslavement of Africans, colonization, and the resultant freedom struggles undertaken by Africans and the African Diaspora. Satisfies SEEDS Ethical Inquiry student learning outcome in alignment with Diversity and Intercultural Competency value. Mutually Exclusive with AFS 105.
This course will introduce students to the myriad forms of geography: physical, cultural, social, religious, and economic, around the globe at various points in time. Of particular concern will be the various movements leading to modern globalization. Satisfies SEEDS Analyzing Cultures and Societies student learning outcome in alignment with Diversity and Intercultural Competency value.
This course will offer a broad overview of historical and contemporary issues in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Special attention will be paid to the experiences of Latin American and Caribbean peoples; national, ethnic, and racial identities; waves of migration within the region and beyond; and US-Latin American and Caribbean relations. The course will draw on interdisciplinary materials, including scholarly articles, and fiction. Satisfies SEEDS Ethical Inquiry student learning outcome in alignment with Diversity and Intercultural Competency value. (Also LAC 116)
Prerequisite(s): WRT 105 with a final grade of C- or better. This course begins with the history of Africans, in continental Africa and their forced removal, and enslavement in North America and continues, through the Abolition movement, Emancipation, and Reconstruction. This course will examine the creolization of Africans in what became the United States, and the resultant religious, cultural, and political traditions. This is the first course in the African American History, sequence. Satisfies SEEDS Analyzing Cultures and Societies student learning outcome in alignment with Educated Citizenry value. Mutually Exclusive with AFS 207.
Prerequisite(s): WRT 109 with a final grade of C- or better. This course explores the history of Latin America and the Caribbean from Conquest to Independence. Special attention will be paid to encounters between various peoples; the economic, political, and cultural institutions of the colonial period; and the wars for independence that ended colonialism. This is the first course offered in the Latin American-Caribbean survey. Satisfies SEEDS Historical Thinking student learning outcome in alignment with Diversity and Intercultural Competency value. Mutually Exclusive with LAC 216.
Prerequisite(s): WRT 108 or WRT 109 with a final grade of C- or better. This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of writing history. Students will learn to both identify and make historical arguments, use primary and secondary sources to appropriately support an argument and successfully sustain an argument throughout academic papers of varying lengths. Students will develop their writing by editing and revising, multiple drafts of papers. Satisfies SEEDS Historical Thinking student learning outcome in alignment with Educated Citizenry value.
Prerequisite(s): WRT 105 or WRT 109 with a grade of C- or better. This course examines African American history from the end of Reconstruction to the presidency of Barack Obama, focusing on the African American experience in a global context. Key themes include the backlash from white supremacists, Jim Crow laws, the New Left, internationalism, the Black Panthers, the Civil Rights Movement, desegregation, and the role of African Americans in the military and its connection to the struggle for equality. This course satisfies the Writing Intensive requirement. Satisfies SEEDS Analyzing Cultures and Societies student learning outcome in alignment with Educated Citizenry value. Mutually Exclusive with AFS 225.
Prerequisite(s): WRT 109 with a final grade of C- or better. This course explores the history of Latin America and the Caribbean since Independence. It will pay particular attention to the colonial legacy; the abolition of slavery; economic development; twentieth-century social movements and revolutions; and relations with the United States. This is the second course offered in the Latin American-Caribbean survey. Satisfies SEEDS Historical Thinking student learning outcome in alignment with Diversity and Intercultural Competency value. Mutually Exclusive with LAC 226.
Prerequisite(s): WRT 105. This course studies the major world communities in their independent development before European exploration. Students will compare the social and political structures, family structures, economics and technology, religious belief systems, and cultures of the major societies of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas. Satisfies SEEDS Historical Thinking student learning outcome in alignment with Diversity and Intercultural Competency value.
Prerequisite(s): WRT 105. This course examines the racial and ethnic history of the United States from a global and comparative perspective. It explores both specific and pan-ethnic groups—including Native Americans, African Americans, Africans, Hispanics and Latinos, Asians, and Europeans—from pre-contact to the present, tracing their evolving roles and identities within the American experience. The course engages key themes such as the social construction of race, the intersections of race and ethnicity with economic, political, and cultural systems, and the ongoing debate over the notion of a “post-racial” United States. Through historical analysis, students will investigate how race and ethnicity have functioned as dynamic socio-economic and political projects that shape and are shaped by power, identity, and inequality. This course fulfills the SEEDS Historical Thinking Student Learning Outcomes and the Diversity and Intercultural Competency value, emphasizing critical analysis, historical inquiry, and the ability to understand and engage with diverse cultural perspectives.
Prerequisite(s): WRT 105 or WRT 109 with a final grade of C- or better. This course traces the origins and development of the people we know in present day as hispanos, Hispanics, Latinos and Latinx exploring these communities' contributions to the making of the United States. Spanning from conquest and colonization to the contemporary emergence of pan-ethnic identities like "Latino/a" and "Latinx." This course emphasizes key historical moments, movements, and cultural contributions while incorporating comparative and intersectional perspectives. The course is thematic and surveys the origins of terms such as Hispanic, Latino, and Latinx, Latino, explores the overlapping of imperial projects and cultures, the development of Latino identity and socio-political movements; the struggle for equality, migrations, representation in media, academic production and public spaces, and waves of anti-Latino sentiment in the United States. Satisfies SEEDS Analyzing Cultures and Societies student learning outcome in alignment with Educated Citizenry value. Mutually Exclusive with LAC 236.
Prerequisite(s): WRT 108 or WRT 109 with a minimum grade of C-; can be taken concurrently. Satisfies SEEDS Analyzing Cultures and Societies student learning outcome in alignment with Educated Citizenry value.
Prerequisite(s): HIS 219 with prior permission of the Instructor; WRT 107. This course provides for the in-depth study of the people society, culture, or movements during a particular historical period or for comparative analysis of society's, cultures, or movements, of people or ideas during particular periods,, or other historical moments. This course also allows for the in-depth study of particular historical events. Each student will write a major (20 page) research paper for this course. The topic and methods of evaluation will be defined by the instructor of the course.