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Listed in: Black Studies, as BLST-111
Russell Lohse (Section 01)
[R] This interdisciplinary introduction to Black Studies combines the teaching of foundational texts in the field with instruction in reading and writing. The first half of the course employs How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren as a guide to the careful reading of books focusing on the slave trade and its effects in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. Important readings in this part of the course include Black Odyssey by Nathan Huggins, Racism: A Short History by George Frederickson, and The Black Jacobins by C. L. R. James. The second half of the course addresses important themes from the turn of the twentieth century to the present. Beginning with The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois, it proceeds through a range of seminal texts, including The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon and The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. This part of the course utilizes Revising Prose by Richard Lanham to extend the lesson in reading from the first half of the semester into an exploration of precision and style in writing. Computer exercises based on Revising Prose and three short essays—one on a single book, another comparing two books, and the last on a major theme in the course—provide the main opportunity to apply and reinforce skills in reading and writing learned throughout the semester. After taking this course, students at all levels of preparation should emerge not only with a good foundation for advancement in Black Studies but also with a useful set of guidelines for further achievement in the humanities and the social sciences.
Limited to 18 students per section. Fall semester: Professor Carol Bailey. Spring semester: Professor Lohse.
How to handle overenrollment: Preference given to Black Studies majors and first year students.
Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: written work, independent research and oral presentations.
Section 01
Tu 10:00 AM - 11:20 AM CHAP 204
Th 10:00 AM - 11:20 AM CHAP 204
| ISBN | Title | Publisher | Author(s) | Comment | Book Store | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How to Read a Book | Simon and Schuster, 1972 | Adler, Mortimer and Charles van Doren | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The Souls of Black folk | Dover Publications, 1994 | Du Bois, W.E.B. | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The Wretched of the Earth | Grove Press, 2004 | Fanon, Frantz | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Racism: A Short History | Princeton University Press, 2002 | Frederickson, George | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Revising Prose | Pearson Longman, 2007 | Lanham, Richard | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The New Jim Crow:Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness | New Press, 2012 | Alexander, Michelle | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Beloved | Vintage International, 2004 | Morrison, Toni | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 | Cambridge University Press, 1998 | Thornton, John | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World | Chapel Hill, 2004 | Burnard, Trevor | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| African History: A Very Short Introduction | Oxford University Press, 2007 | Parker, John and Richard Rathbone | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| How Europe Underdeveloped Africa | Verso, 2018 | Rodney, Walter | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Season of Migration to the North | New York, NYRB Classics, 2009 | Salih, Tayeb | Amherst Books | TBD |
These books are available locally at Amherst Books.