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1. Introduction to the origins, relevance, scope, and developments within the discipline of African American/Black Studies/ Africana Studies/Africology.
2.  Introduction to discipline concepts such as African origins, cultural knowledge production, cultural grounding, and educational relevance; diaspora, agency, Blackness, intersectionality, gender socialization, race, racism, enslavement, white supremacy, power, privilege, oppression, and anti-Blackness
3. Exploration, comparison, and contrast of African American Studies theories such as Afrocentrism, dual consciousness, Black womanism, Afro-futurism, and Kawaida philosophy
4. Intersections of Blackness/African cultural centeredness with other social identities: culture/ethnicity, class, sexuality, dis/ability, age, religion.
5. Interdisciplinary exploration of African American Studies in history, religion, sociology, politics, psychology, creative production, and economics.
6. Historical and theoretical Black political and intellectual movements such as Black nationalism, cultural nationalism, Black womanism/feminism, integrationism, self-determination, and armed self-defense
7. Black Studies and engaged scholarship campus community relations, social change, resistance movements, policy development, discipline challenges and sustained development.

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At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Explain the origins and relevance of African American Studies/Black Studies/Africana Studies/Africology as a discipline and analyze the ways in which its varied scope, interdisciplinarity and commitment to engaged scholarship have affected the development of topics and trends within the discipline.
2. Describe and compare classical African civilizations such as Nile Valley, Western Sudanic, and Moorish civilizations and explain the evolution of these and other classical African societies.
3. Articulate the experiences of the African diaspora in Ancient America,, through enslavement, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Black Freedom Movement, and the struggles of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
4. Compare ancient African religious/spiritual traditions with subsequent and contemporary African American spirituality and other faith traditions (i.e., Yoruba, Ifa, Ma’at, Santeria, Christianity and Islam).
5. Use historical and current data and scholarship to assess contemporary critical issues related to diasporan Africans in American culture, society, politics, economics, and intellectual traditions.
6. Identify and explain movements in the history of African American artistic, musical, and literary expression from its African origins to the present.
7. Distinguish among the various schools of Black psychology.
8. Evaluate contemporary academic, political, and intellectual challenges and possibilities facing the discipline.

A student's grade will be based on multiple measures of performance unless the course requires no grade. Multiple measures may include, but are not limited to, the following:

I.    Quizzes and exams
II.    Written assignments
III.    Research reports
IV.    Field reports
V.    Class discussions, group participation
VI.    Projects and presentations
VII.    Community Engagement

1. Karenga, Maulana, Introduction to Black Studies, 4th Edition (classic)
2. Brown, Scott, Discourse on Africana Studies: James Turner and Paradigms of Knowledge, (2016)
3. Kendi, Ibram X, The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher    Education, (Classic)
4. Karla D. Kirk, Introduction to African American Studies: An African Centered Historiography of African American History and Culture,  (Kendall Hunt, 2018)
5. Norment Jr., Nathaniel, African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions, (2019)
6. Stewart, J. and Anderson, T., Introduction to African American Studies: Transdisciplinary Approaches and Implications, (2015)
7. Woodson, Carter G., The Mis-Education of the Negro, (Classic)