Our roster of cross-listed courses is updated frequently; students should visit individual department sites for the most current listings.

AAS 306/ENG 302/AMS 306
Frederick Douglass and the Long 19th Century
Seminar S01: 11:00 am – 12:20 pm MW
Douglas A. Jones
This seminar conjoins the work of Frederick Douglass - his speeches, essays, journalism, autobiographies, photographs, and fiction - with that of other contemporaneous figures as means to explore several of the philosophical, social, political, and cultural developments of nineteenth- and early twentieth century America. These include: the relationship between the public image and the private self, the politics of literary representation and a national literature, tensions among social movements, and the function of historical memory.

AAS 340/ENG 391/AMS 340
Shades of Passing
Seminar S01: 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm W
Anne A. Cheng
This course studies the trope of passing in 20th century American literary and cinematic narratives in an effort to re-examine the crisis of identity that both produces and confounds acts of passing. We will examine how American novelists and filmmakers have portrayed and responded to this social phenomenon, not as merely a social performance but as a profound intersubjective process embedded within history, law, and culture. We will focus on narratives of passing across axes of difference, invoking questions such as: To what extent does the act of passing reinforce or unhinge seemingly natural categories of race, gender, and sexuality?

AAS 351/GSS 351
Law, Social Policy, and African American Women
Lecture L01: 11:00 am – 11:50 am TTh
Imani Perry
Journeying from enslavement and Jim Crow to the post-civil rights era, this course will learn how law and social policy have shaped, constrained, and been resisted by black women's experience and thought. Using a wide breadth of materials including legal scholarship, social science research, visual arts, and literature, we will also develop an understanding of how property, the body, and the structure and interpretation of domestic relations have been frameworks through which black female subjectivity in the United States was and is mediated. 

AAS 353/ENG 352
African American Literature: Origins to 1910
Lecture L01: 12:30 pm – 1:20 pm MW
Daphne A. Brooks
This introductory course focuses on texts from the mid-eighteenth century through the early 20th century; it will cover early texts such as poetry by Phillis Wheatley & Paul Laurence Dunbar; oratory by David Walker, Sojourner Truth; slave narratives by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs; spirituals; black theatre by Pauline Hopkins, Bert Williams; fiction by Charles Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson; & non-fiction by W.E.B.DuBois, Anna Julia Cooper, Booker T. Washington. The course explores how black literature engages with the politics of cultural identity formation, notions of freedom, citizenship, and aesthetic forms.

AAS 358/REL 379/GSS 359
Sexuality and Religion in America
Seminar S01: 7:30 pm - 10:20 pm W
Wallace D. Best
Sexuality has long been a contested and contentious issue within American religions, yet only recently have scholars and practitioners begun to forthrightly address it. This course will explore the emerging literature on sexuality and religion as a way to understand how approaches to sex and sexuality within "sacred spaces" have shaped private behavior and public opinion. We will give particular attention to American Evangelical and Catholic religious expressions for the way they have been especially influential in framing (and inhibiting) sexual discourse and practices in the US and throughout the world.

AAS 384/PSY 384
Prejudice: Its Causes, Consequences, and Cures
Seminar S01: 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm W
Stacey A. Sinclair
Prejudice is one of the most contentious topics in modern American society. There is debate regarding its causes, pervasiveness, and impact. This goal of this course is to familiarize students with the psychological research relevant to these questions. We will review theoretical perspectives on prejudice to develop an understanding of its cognitive, affective, and motivational underpinnings. We will also discuss how these psychological biases relate to evaluations of, and behavior toward, members of targeted groups. In addition, research-based strategies for reducing prejudice will be discussed. 

AAS 386/AMS 386
Race and the City
Seminar S01 : 1:30 pm - 4:20 pm T
Imani Perry
Race and the City examines how the politics of race and racialization shaped the development of American cities over the course of the 20th century. The course cover a diverse array of topics including: ghettoization, urban renewal, the creation of public housing, popular music (Jazz, Motown, Hip Hop), public art and graffiti, literature of urbanity, the fair housing movement, deindustrialization and gentrification. We will have particular foci on the following cities: Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

AAS 412/ENG 425/LAO 412
Cultures of the Afro-Diaspora
Lecture L01: 1:30 pm – 2:20 pm TTh
Alexandra T. Vazquez
This course analyzes key readings and studies on Afro-diasporic cultures across the Americas in the 20th century. From reggae's unrelenting rhythms to the dances that move carnival, the New World thrums with activity from populations that have persevered conditions of displacement to create new aesthetic forms. We will investigate expansive notions of blackness that move beyond national paradigms and the productive pressure that performance puts on ontologies of identity such as the Afro-Latino, African American, and West Indian in theory and literature. Artists include Bob Marley, Katherine Dunham, Jorge Ben, and Patato y Totico.

AAS 426/HIS 426
Memory, History and the African Diaspora
Seminar S01: 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm T
Joshua B. Guild
This course uses historical scholarship, memoir, visual art, fiction and music to examine the relationship between "history" and "memory" and the different ways that race and social power have shaped that relationship in the U.S. and across the African diaspora. It considers the role played by acts of remembering in struggles for justice and self-determination, as well as the place of forgetting and erasure in processes of exclusion. We will link representations of the black past to debates on such issues as public memorials, legal justice, reparations, and affirmative action.

ENG 224/AMS 304/AAS 224
Asian American Law, Bodies, and the Everyday
Seminar S01 : 11:00 am – 12:20 pm
Anne A. Cheng

HIS 387/AAS 367
African American History from Reconstruction to the Present
Lecture L01 : 11:00 am – 11:50 am TTh
Joshua B. Guild

MUS 262/AAS 262
Introduction to the Evolution of Jazz Styles
Lecture L01 : 1:30 pm - 2:20 pm TTh
Staff

HIS 577/AAS 577
Readings in African American History
Seminar S01 : 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm W
Tera Hunter

SOC 562/AAS 562
Race & Ethnicity (Half-Term)
Seminar S01 : 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm W
Tera Hunter
 

AAS 245/ART 245
Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts Movement
Lecture L01: 10:00 – 10:50 TTh
Chika Okeke-Agulu
This course surveys important moments in 20th-Century African American art from the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s to the 1960s Black Arts movement. Our close studies of the work of major artists will be accompanied by examination of influential theories and ideologies of blackness during two key moments of black racial consciousness in the United States. We shall cover canonical artists and writers such as Aaron Douglas, James van der Zee, William H. Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, W. E. B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, James Porter and Jeff Donaldson.

AAS 310/ENG 324/MUS 256
Music from the Hispanophone Caribbean
Seminar S01: 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm Th
Alexandra Vazquez
This interdisciplinary seminar utilizes the musical cultures of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba to reflect upon the aesthetic, migratory, and social histories of the Hispanophone Caribbean. Students will listen to the sounded legacies of conquest, slavery, colonialism, and U.S. intervention and occupation. The effects of transnational migration on music's performance and reception will also be one of the key themes in the course. We will not only consider the creative traditions and receptive worlds embedded in musical recordings, but will also pay attention to music's traces in literature, film, and other ephemera.

AAS 314/COM 396
Model Memoirs: The Life Stories of International Fashion Models
Seminar S01: 7:30 pm - 10:20 pm W
Wendy Belcher
Explores the life-writing of American, African, and Asian women in the fashion industry as a launching point for thinking about race, gender, and class. How do ethnicity and femininity intersect? How are authenticity and difference commodified? How do women construct identities through narrative and negotiate their relationships to their bodies, families, and nations? This course will include guest lectures by fashion editors and models; discussions of contemporary television programs, global fashion, and cultural studies; and student self-narratives about their relationships with cultural standards of beauty, whether vexed or not.

AAS 345/AMS 346
Black Politics in the Americas
Seminar S01: 1:30 pm – 2:50 pm TTh
Danielle Clealand
This course provides an introduction to the study of black politics throughout the Americas. It will focus on the major paradigms associated with race and identity, both in the United States and Latin America such as, racial ideology, racial inequality, identity, black political behavior, affirmative action and black activism. The course will highlight the similarities and differences in black identity formation, state policy and ideology in the two regions.

AAS 349/HIS 465
Liberating Literacy
Seminar S01: 1:30 pm - 4:20 pm W
Robert Moses and Tera Hunter
Seminar participants are invited to join the faculty in an examination of conspicuous and neglected narratives about the history and functions of public education in the United States. Our focus will be on education as a prerequisite for economic, political and personal freedom. Special attention will be given to how education was understood and pursued in antislavery and civil rights movements and to the impacts of mechanization, industrialization, globalization and information-based economies.
ENROLLMENT BY APPLICATION. DEPARTMENTAL PERMISSION REQUIRED. To apply, please complete the course application and email to April Peters at aprilp@princeton.edu.

AAS 359/ENG 366
African American Literature: Harlem Renaissance to the Present
Lecture L01: 1:30 pm – 2:20 pm TTh
Farah J. Griffin
This course explores the relationship between cultural production and historical phenomena (such as the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights Movement, for example) in 20th- and 21st-century African American literature. Additionally, we will consider the place of African American literature and cultural production in a global narrative that encompasses decolonization, multiculturalism and globalization. Primary texts include novels, short stories, poetry and video and performance art.

AAS 360/GSS 380
Ain’t I A Woman? Women of Color and the Politics of Feminism
Seminar S01 : 1:30 pm - 4:20 pm T
Emily Lutenski
Women of color have produced a heterogeneous body of thought at times at odds with feminist politics that tend to be dominated by whites and with civil rights and nationalist discourses that tend to be dominated by men. This course explores this genealogy and how women of color have created knowledge and worked for justice from marginalized perspectives.

AAS 375/PSY 375
Social Stigma: On Being A Target of Prejudice
Seminar S01: 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm W
Stacey Sinclair
Individuals subject to social stigma possess, or are believed to posses, an attribute that marks them as members of a group that is devalued within a particular social context. In this course we will attempt to understand the psychological impact of being stigmatized by reading and discussing social psychological research and theories that illustrate central ideas and debates on this topic. Specifically, we will examine how social stigma affects academic performance, health, interpersonal interactions and self-understanding, as well as how people cope with stigma.

AAS 387/ENG 380/GSS 387
“Run the World”: Black Women, Popular Music Culture from Modernity to the New Millennium
Seminar S01: 1:30 pm – 2:20 pm MW
Daphne Brooks
Black women have used various forms of musical expression as sites of social and ideological resistance and revision. Through an exploration of voice, lyricism, kinesthetic performance, instrumentality and visual aesthetics, this course examines the world wide underground of black feminist sonic cultures, and it re-interrogates pop music subculture theories through the intersecting prisms of race, gender, class and sexuality.
 
AAS 407/SOC 407
Race, Social Inequality, and Education
Seminar S01: 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm T
Noliwe Rooks and Angel Harris
Education is becoming increasingly important for upward social mobility in the U.S. and abroad. Education has been linked to societal inequalities in health, income, and other life-chance measures. This course will focus on the role of education in both the production and amelioration of social inequality. Particular attention is given to racial achievement gaps. By engaging both quantitative and qualitative studies, you will acquire 1) knowledge of the historical trends and understanding of racial differences in achievement, and 2) a broad understanding of the current issues/debates in the literature.

AAS 445/ANT 445
The Post Colonial Subject
Seminar S01: 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm Th
Carolyn Rouse
Power is often represented as a "top-down" phenomenon, meaning that those who have the most power control what we do, what we know, and even how we feel. That is particularly the case in the study of marginalized people (e.g. African Americans) who are often not seen as creative agents, but as victims of the powerful. Contemporary cultural studies challenge the "top-down" understanding of power and look instead at the role of the individual in creating, recreating, and resisting power. This course will challenge both approaches from the perspectives of race, class, and gender.

DAN 211/AAS 211
The American Dance Experience and Africanist Dance Practices
Studio U01 : 2:30 pm - 4:20 pm MW
Dyane Harvey Salaam
A studio course introducing students to American dance aesthetics and practices, with a focus on how its evolution has been influenced by African American choreographers and dancers. An ongoing study of movement practices from traditional African dances and those of the African diaspora, touching on American jazz dance, modern dance, and American ballet. Studio work will be complemented by readings, video viewings, guest speakers, and dance studies.

ENG 402/AAS 408/LAO 402
Forms of Literature – Introduction to U.S. Latina/o Literature
Seminar S01 : 1:30 pm - 4:20 pm T
Alexandra Vazquez
This course introduces key readings and developments in U.S. Latina/o literature from the early twentieth century to the present. With a focus on Nuyorican, Cuban, Dominican, Chicana/o and Tejana/o populations, students will examine how literature both mirrors and informs conditions of migration; debates about race, gender and sexuality; issues of language; myths of assimilation; and oral-literary traditions.

ENG 555/AAS 555
American Literary Traditions – The Archive, Minstrelsy and American Literature
Seminar S01 : 6:30 pm - 9:20 pm T
Daphne Brooks
This interdisciplinary seminar takes the site and sign of blackface minstrelsy as a point of departure in theorizing and conducting archival studies. What can the archive tell us about how to (re)read 19th century America's most popular cultural form? How does that archive resonate in critical theory as well as cultural texts? We'll explore both "archival ephemera" (scripts and playbills, sheet music, press clippings, etc.), as well as novels, plays, early sound recordings, cinematic texts, dance performances, visual art and children's toys with the aim of mapping the "trace" of the blackface lore cycle in American literature and culture.

HIS 393/AAS 364/WWS 492
Race, Drugs, and Drug Policy in America
Lecture L01 : 11:00 am – 11:50 am TTh
Keith Wailoo
From "Chinese opium" to Oxycontin, and from cocaine and "crack" to BiDil, drug controversies reflect enduring debates about the role of medicine, the law, the policing of ethnic identity, and racial difference. This course explores the history of controversial substances (prescription medicines, over-the-counter products, black market substances, psychoactive drugs), and how, from cigarettes to alcohol and opium, they become vehicles for heated debates over immigration, identity, cultural and biological difference, criminal character, the line between legality and illegality, and the boundaries of the normal and the pathological.

REL 582/AAS 582
Study of Race, Gender & Slavery in Western & Non-Western Societies
Seminar S01 : 1:30 pm – 4:20 pm Th
Shaun E. Marmon
This seminar is an interdisciplinary inquiry that will examine: 1. The theories, practices and historiographies of slavery in non-Western societies, including pre-modern societies defined as "Western" and 2. The historiography of the constructions of race/ethnicity in both Western and non-Western contexts. The symposium "Slavery, Race and Gender in Islamic Societies: A Comparative Perspective," to be held at Princeton March 17-18, will be a component of the seminar.

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