African American Studies

The graduate certificate in African American Studies provides an opportunity for students to complement doctoral studies in their home department with coordinated interdisciplinary training in African American Studies while participating in an intellectually stimulating community. Students entering the program may come from any department in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Requirements for the certificate include an introductory readings course; two additional courses; participation in the yearlong Faculty-Graduate Seminar; and completion of a dissertation on a topic of significance to the field of African American Studies. Certificate requirements are designed to complement the course of study in students’ home departments. In addition to the certificate, the department’s Graduate Affairs Program sponsors programming and events throughout the academic year for graduate students at all stages with interests in African American Studies.

Students wishing to obtain a graduate certificate in African American Studies are encouraged to consult with the Director of Graduate Affairs, ideally during their first year, to plan their course of study. Formal admission to the certificate program will take place upon students’ completion of general examinations and admission to candidacy.

Interested students should contact the Director of Graduate Affairs or support staff within the Department of African American Studies.

Students cannot be admitted to Princeton University through the African American Studies Certificate Program since it is not a degree program. All graduate admissions decisions will be made through affiliated departments. The certificate does not appear on the official transcript.

Certificate

Certificate Requirements:

Courses:

Individuals' course of study should be determined in consultation with students’ home department advisers and the Director of Graduate Affairs in African American Studies. Certificate requirements include:

AAS 500: The African American Intellectual Tradition
Two other relevant courses in the Humanities or Social Sciences
Participation in the Department of African American Studies’ Faculty-Graduate Seminar for one academic year

AAS 500, The African American Intellectual Tradition, is the core graduate course in African American Studies. This interdisciplinary seminar introduces students to the African-American intellectual tradition and to Black thought from the African diaspora. Reading across disciplines and genres, the seminar engages a broad set of topics and themes, including: race, racial formation and racism; slavery; empire; religion, social movements, and cultural representation. Particular attention is paid to issues of gender and class as well as race. The course presupposes a familiarity with issues in African American Studies.

(Note: Under certain extenuating circumstances, students may petition the Director of Graduate Affairs to substitute HIS 577/AAS 577: Readings in African American History for AAS 500).

In addition to AAS 500, students are required to complete two other courses in the Humanities or Social Sciences. These should be courses (a) whose contents are judged to be devoted primarily to African American Studies or to the study of race more broadly; or (b) for which they write research papers devoted to race; or (c) which are independent study topics tailored to the student’s interests in race or African American studies. Students should consult with the DGS regarding the relevance of their course work to the AAS certificate.

Dissertation and FPO:

The dissertation is expected to center on a topic significant in African American Studies. Typically, the principal adviser for the dissertation will be a faculty member from the home department, with at least one African American Studies faculty member serving as a reader.

At the time the student receives the Ph.D. in the discipline of the home department, the chair of AAS will award the student with a letter of certification.

Additional Requirements:

Additional requirements include participation for one academic year in the Department of African American Studies’ Faculty/Graduate Seminar.

This works-in-progress seminar is convened by a faculty member around a selected theme and meets bi-weekly throughout the academic year. This interdisciplinary workshop provides a forum for faculty, graduate students, and visiting scholars to explore particular topics in the field of African American Studies while engaging multiple fields and methodological approaches. A paper circulates one week prior to seminar meetings. The paper’s author briefly presents his or her work before one or more graduate students offer a response, raising questions and concerns and guiding open discussion of the paper and presentation.

Faculty

Chair

Eddie S. Glaude

Director of Graduate Studies

Ruha Benjamin

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Naomi Murakawa

Sits with Committee

Dannelle Gutarra Cordero

Professor

Wendy L. Belcher
Ruha Benjamin
Wallace D. Best
Eddie S. Glaude
Tera W. Hunter
Chika O. Okeke-Agulu
Imani Perry
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Associate Professor

Joshua B. Guild
Naomi Murakawa
Kinohi Nishikawa

Assistant Professor

Reena N. Goldthree
Anna Arabindan Kesson
Autumn M. Womack

Associated Faculty

Jacob S. Dlamini, History
Paul Frymer, Politics
Simon E. Gikandi, English
William A. Gleason, English
J. Nicole Shelton, Psychology
Stacey A. Sinclair, Psychology
Keith A. Wailoo, History
Leonard Wantchekon, Politics
Judith Weisenfeld, Religion

Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts

Ayah Nuriddin

For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website.

Courses

Permanent Courses

Courses listed below are graduate-level courses that have been approved by the program’s faculty as well as the Curriculum Subcommittee of the Faculty Committee on the Graduate School as permanent course offerings. Permanent courses may be offered by the department or program on an ongoing basis, depending on curricular needs, scheduling requirements, and student interest. Not listed below are undergraduate courses and one-time-only graduate courses, which may be found for a specific term through the Registrar’s website. Also not listed are graduate-level independent reading and research courses, which may be approved by the Graduate School for individual students.

AAS 500 African American Intellectual Tradition This interdisciplinary seminar introduces graduate students from many departments to the African-American intellectual tradition. The perspective concentrates on African-America and the African Diaspora, with attention to issues of class and gender as well as race. A broad set of topics, including race, racism, religion, and slavery are discussed. The course presupposes a familiarity with issues in African-American studies.

AAS 510 Race, Religion, and the Harlem Renaissance (also

REL 515

) The Harlem Renaissance (HR) of the 1920s is most often depicted as "the flowering of African American arts and literature." It can also be characterized as a period when diverse forms of African American religious expressions, ideologies, and institutions emerged. This course will explore the literature of the Harlem Renaissance, particularly the writings of Langston Hughes, to understand the pivotal intersection of race and religion during this time of black "cultural production."

AAS 522 Publishing Articles in Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (also

COM 522

ENG 504

GSS 503

) In this interdisciplinary class, students of race and gender read deeply and broadly in academic journals as a way of learning the debates in their fields and placing their scholarship in relationship to them. Students report each week on the trends in the last five years of any journal of their choice, writing up the articles' arguments and debates, while also revising a paper in relationship to those debates and preparing it for publication. This course enables students to leap forward in their scholarly writing through a better understanding of their fields and the significance of their work to them.

AAS 555 Toni Morrison: Texts and Contexts (also

ENG 536

) This course provides a critical overview of the writings of Toni Morrison. Close reading, cultural analysis, intertextuality, social theory and the African American literary tradition are emphasized.

ART 529 Ancient Egyptian Kingship in Image, Architecture & Performance (also

CLA 528

AAS 529

) The institution of kingship was central to the ancient Egyptian worldview. Kings and their administrations sought to express the complex nature of a strong leader with access to the gods and secret knowledge, exceptional skill as a warrior and diplomat, and unrivaled power over and sacrifice to his people by using both mystery and overwhelming display. In this seminar we consider the nature of Egyptian kingship and how a vast body of material and visual culture shaped and expressed this essential concept from its origins in the beginning of the 4th millennium to the era of Roman rulers.

ART 560 Art and the British Empire (also

AAS 560

) This seminar proceeds through a series of thematic and case studies ranging from Britain's early colonial expansion to the legacies of empire in contemporary art and museum practice. Topics include science and ethnography; the colonial picturesque; curiosity and collecting; slavery and visual representation; art and nationalism and readings are drawn from a range of disciplines.

ENG 556 African-American Literature (also

AAS 556

) A survey of African-American narrative and critical traditions in the context of social and cultural change. Attention is also given to the changing status of black literature in the curriculum of American colleges and universities.

ENG 568 Criticism and Theory (also

AAS 568

COM 589

FRE 568

MOD 568

) A study in the major texts in criticism and theory. Authors include Plato, Aristotle, Sidney, Shelley, Derrida, and Foucault, among others. Topics include mimesis, structuralism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, and new historicism.

FRE 504 Marx in the Caribbean (also

LAS 504

AAS 503

) This class initiates a reading of Marx's classic critique of political economy, Capital, along with a selection of the principal philosophical readings of the mature Marx since the 1960s: Louis Althusser's Reading Capital, Michel Henry's Marx, and Moishe Postone's Time, Labor, and Social Domination. Emphasis is placed upon developing a categorial understanding of Marx's conceptual apparatus adequate to the contemporary context, in the wake of the collapse of actually-existing Socialism, industrialization, and the crisis of valorization in the Twenty-First century.

GER 520 Topics in Literary and Cultural Theory (also

AAS 520

) Course treats a wide range of theoretical and historical issues concerning the interpretation of literary and cultural materials. Topics include psychoanalytic approaches to literature, the Frankfurt School and its legacy, feminist theory, German-Jewish Acculturation, relations between literature and the other arts, theories of literary reception, and fascism and culture.

GSS 543 Interest Groups and Social Movements in American Politics and Policy (also

POL 543

AAS 543

AMS 543

) This course engages theoretical and empirical work about interest groups and social movements in American politics and policy-making. We examine theories of interest group and social movement formation, maintenance and decline; how interest groups and social movements attempt to influence public policy; the impact of interest groups and social movements; lobbying; the relationships between interest groups and the three branches of the federal government; interest groups, elections, campaign finance, PACs, and 527s; and the effectiveness of interest groups and social movements as agents of democratic representation.

HIS 577 Readings in African American History (also

AAS 577

) Course examines significant themes in the evolution of African American life and culture since about 1619 and ending with the signing of the Emanicipation Proclamation. Some attention will be paid to historiographical issues and to pedagogical approaches.

HIS 578 Topics in African Diaspora History (also

AAS 578

) This readings course considers the dispersals, political movements, cultural production, social bonds, and intellectual labors that together have constituted and continually re-configured the modern African diaspora, from the emergence and collapse of the Atlantic slave system through the late twentieth century. The course tracks the evolution of diaspora as an idea and analytical framework, highlighting its intersections with concepts of Pan-Africanism, black nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and citizenship.

SOC 562 Race & Ethnicity (Half-Term) (also

AAS 562

) An overview of important theories and theorists of race and ethnicity, focussing on (a) fundamental concepts of the nature and persistence of race and ethnic identity as meaningful social groupings and (b) how those groupings are related to social stratifications, socio-cultural relations, and the political and economic dynamics in society. Half-term course.

SPA 556 Slavery, Anti-Slavery, and Post-Slavery in the Iberian Atlantic (also

LAS 556

AAS 554

) This course introduces students to important texts from the immense body of scholarship on slavery, anti-slavery movements, and post-emancipation culture in the Iberian Atlantic world, focusing primarily on the "slave societies"of 19th-century Cuba and Brazil and their connections to the greater Caribbean. Grounded in historiography, the course includes literature, court documents, visual culture, studies of post-emancipation movements, theories from the black radical tradition, and films about Latin American slavery. Sub-topics include insurrections, autobiography, religion, the role of translators, conucos/provision grounds, fashion.