Listed in: Black Studies, as BLST-111
Jared Loggins (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 Loggins. Spring semester: Professor Vaughan.
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 2:30 PM - 3:50 PM SCCE E210
Th 2:30 PM - 3:50 PM SCCE E210
| 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 Fire Next Time | Vintage Books, 1962 | Baldwin, James | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The New Jim Crow:Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness | New Press, 2012 | Alexander, Michelle | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Reyita: The Life of a Black Cuban Woman in the Twentieth Century | Duke University Press, 2000 | Castillo Bueno, Maria de los Reyes & Daisy Rubiera Castillo | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Avengers of the New World | First Harvard University Press, 2004 | Dubois, Laurent | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Africans into Creoles: Slavery, Ethnicity, and Identity in Colonial Costa Rica | University of New Mexico Press, 2014 | Lohse, Russell | 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 | ||
| Black Identities | Russell Sage Foundation, 2001 | Waters, Mary | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| African Diaspora: A History Through Culture | Columbia University Press, 2009 | Manning, Patrick | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution | Vintage Books, 1989 | James, C.L.R. | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Stamped from the Beginning | 2016 | Kendi, Ibram | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Homegoing | 2016 | Gyasi, Yaa | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Laboring Women: Reproduction and gender in New World Slavery | 2004 | Morgan, Jennifer | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Color Me English: Migration and Belonging | 2011 | Phillips, Caryl | Amherst Books | TBD |
These books are available locally at Amherst Books.