Course Taught: Davidson College
AFR 101 Intro to Africana Studies (forthcoming description)
AFR 224 Race and Campus Histories (forthcoming description)
AFR 302 Black Women’s Intellectual History
This course is designed to provide students with an in-depth study of major intellectual debates and movements that have shaped the politics, history and identities of women of African descent in the United States and the African diaspora. The course will combine methodologies and concepts from multiple disciplines including, history, political theory, literature, women's studies, sociology, psychology and philosophy. Despite advances in the study of black thought as intellectual history, the writings and work by black women intellectuals is both underappreciated and neglected. Using the essays contained in Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women, we, over the course of the semester, will explore black women's places in intellectual history by engaging their work in the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean. Readings, discussions and assignments will examine and seek to develop an understanding of conventional and unconventional intellectuals, major themes and questions, and contributions of the burgeoning subfield of black women intellectual history.
AFR 495 Africana Studies Capstone (Erasure, Recovery and the Archives.
This is the senior capstone seminar for Africana Studies. The course is composed of three parts. The first part of the course will explore Africana Studies as a discipline by engaging in a series of critical foundational texts. The second part of the course will examine the question of knowledge production around erasure, collective recovery, and the archives in Africana Studies. In the third part of the course students will produce their new knowledge around Africana communities using Africana frameworks for knowledge production and problem solving. This is a readings intensive course. As such, I expect students to come to class prepared to engage with the readings for the week. During the Fall 2022 semester, students created a documentary reader chapter.
AFR 224 Slavery, Universities and Complex Legacies (Fall 2020, Davidson College syllabus)
This course introduces students to the major themes, issues and questions related to slavery and emancipation at institutions of higher education, with emphasis on Davidson College and the University of Alabama. The guiding questions include: How do institutions of higher education attempt to reconcile their slave pasts and complex legacies for present-day stakeholders? How might the current scholarship provide a pathway forward for encouraging truth and reconciliation? Over the course of the semester, students will read selections from Craig Wilder's foundational work as well as newer works by Leslie Harris, Al Brophy, Lolita Buckner Inniss, and other scholars for understanding the institution of slavery and its legacy at colleges and universities.
Students will explore this unique and often under-appreciated topic of campus history for understanding the lives of the enslaved and consequences for the postwar African American and campus communities through reading foundational scholarly text as well as newer works, participating in discussions and trips to Davidson College archives, completing short writing assignments grounded in primary and secondary sources and a final project exploring how should universities and colleges reckon with this history and tell fuller and inclusive narratives to current and future stakeholders.
AFR 224 Race and Campus Histories (forthcoming description)
AFR 302 Black Women’s Intellectual History
This course is designed to provide students with an in-depth study of major intellectual debates and movements that have shaped the politics, history and identities of women of African descent in the United States and the African diaspora. The course will combine methodologies and concepts from multiple disciplines including, history, political theory, literature, women's studies, sociology, psychology and philosophy. Despite advances in the study of black thought as intellectual history, the writings and work by black women intellectuals is both underappreciated and neglected. Using the essays contained in Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women, we, over the course of the semester, will explore black women's places in intellectual history by engaging their work in the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean. Readings, discussions and assignments will examine and seek to develop an understanding of conventional and unconventional intellectuals, major themes and questions, and contributions of the burgeoning subfield of black women intellectual history.
AFR 495 Africana Studies Capstone (Erasure, Recovery and the Archives.
This is the senior capstone seminar for Africana Studies. The course is composed of three parts. The first part of the course will explore Africana Studies as a discipline by engaging in a series of critical foundational texts. The second part of the course will examine the question of knowledge production around erasure, collective recovery, and the archives in Africana Studies. In the third part of the course students will produce their new knowledge around Africana communities using Africana frameworks for knowledge production and problem solving. This is a readings intensive course. As such, I expect students to come to class prepared to engage with the readings for the week. During the Fall 2022 semester, students created a documentary reader chapter.
AFR 224 Slavery, Universities and Complex Legacies (Fall 2020, Davidson College syllabus)
This course introduces students to the major themes, issues and questions related to slavery and emancipation at institutions of higher education, with emphasis on Davidson College and the University of Alabama. The guiding questions include: How do institutions of higher education attempt to reconcile their slave pasts and complex legacies for present-day stakeholders? How might the current scholarship provide a pathway forward for encouraging truth and reconciliation? Over the course of the semester, students will read selections from Craig Wilder's foundational work as well as newer works by Leslie Harris, Al Brophy, Lolita Buckner Inniss, and other scholars for understanding the institution of slavery and its legacy at colleges and universities.
Students will explore this unique and often under-appreciated topic of campus history for understanding the lives of the enslaved and consequences for the postwar African American and campus communities through reading foundational scholarly text as well as newer works, participating in discussions and trips to Davidson College archives, completing short writing assignments grounded in primary and secondary sources and a final project exploring how should universities and colleges reckon with this history and tell fuller and inclusive narratives to current and future stakeholders.