African and African American Studies

African and African American Studies
https://caaas.rice.edu/

Sherwin Bryant
Director, Center for African and African American Studies
sb212@rice.edu

The critical scholarly inquiry, mentored research, outward-facing programming, communication skills, global perspective, and commitment to justice long associated with African and African American Studies both draws on and enriches (often through deeply engaged criticism) the best of the liberal arts tradition.

At the undergraduate-level, the African and African American Studies minor is an interdisciplinary course of study drawing on disciplines from the Humanities and Social Sciences. The minor allows students to focus on issues of concern in this area of study across the university, including (but not limited to) histories of race and slavery, studies of African and African American culture, religion, philosophy, and race and racialization. Race as a general social-cultural category informs and influences the dynamics of our social world. From national politics and foreign policy, to economic developments, to community sustainability and environmental issues, to cultural clashes and claims and more, race and its implications are evident. As a result, formal attention to studying race and racialization holds great value regardless of one's chosen profession. That is to say, understanding the history and various dynamics of race/racialization as well as how it operates in the present enhances a Rice education, and helps to prepare students for life across a broad range of fields and forms of employment. 

At the graduate-level, the Certificate in African and African American Studies is a graduate-level academic credential, and the program is open to Rice graduate students in degree-granting programs.

Minor

Certificate

Director and Director of Graduate Studies

Sherwin Bryant

Associate Director

Erika Thompson

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Daniel Domingues Da Silva

Professors

Elias K. Bongmba
Jenifer L. Bratter
Tony N. Brown
Jacqueline Couti
Jeffrey B. Fleisher
W. Caleb McDaniel
Anthony B. Pinn
James Sidbury
Fay Yarbrough

Associate Professors

Sherwin Bryant
Alexander X. Byrd
Daniel Domingues Da Silva
Amy E. Dunham
Gökçe Günel
Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman
Danielle D. King
Mary Prendergast
Nicole Waligora-Davis
Kerry Ward

Assistant Professors

Lydia Beaudrot
Margarita Castromán
Laura Correa Ochoa
Amarilys Estrella
Shani Evans
Khadene Harris
Vivian Chenxue Lu
Victoria Massie
Nana Osei-Opare
Linsey Sainte-Claire
Bryan Washington
Olivia Young

Senior Lecturer

Molly Morgan

Lecturer

Chase LeSane-Brown


 

For Rice University degree-granting programs:
To view the list of official course offerings, please see Rice’s Course Catalog.
To view the most recent semester’s course schedule, please see Rice's Course Schedule.

African and African American Studies (AAAS)

AAAS 200 - KNOWING BLACKNESS: INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Short Title: INTRO TO AAAS

Department: African & African Amer Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: An exploration of the origins and development of African Studies and African American Studies. Through a focus on the articulation and resolution of field-changing debates, the course introduces students to methodologies and practices that have led to and that continue to lead to knowing Africa and African-descendent people with earnest regard for the complexity and subtlety that the subjects require.

AAAS 204 - INTRODUCTION TO BLACK ART IN AMERICA: 1900S TO TODAY

Short Title: BLACK ART IN AMERICA

Department: African & African Amer Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This class examines the history of Black art in America since the early 1900s. What is Black Art? Who are the artists, curators, scholars, and theorists who have asked and answered this question over the decades? Is a Black aesthetic inherently revolutionary and interested in the political lives of black people and their liberation? Or is a Black aesthetic best exemplified by the manipulation of materials, visual composition, and saturation? Or both? We will engage theories of black art and aesthetics that emerged in the 1920s through today to take seriously the question: how does the visual life of blackness matter? In this class we will break through the traditional rhetoric of diversity and representation and discuss how artists over the decades have insisted instead on redistributions of power, radical and speculative material practices, and structural change. It is my priority to make this course on black aesthetics joyous, safe, and accessible to students of all genders, sexualities, and disabilities. Cross-list: HART 204.

AAAS 238 - SPECIAL TOPICS

Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS

Department: African & African Amer Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar, Independent Study, Internship/Practicum, Laboratory, Lecture, Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 1-4

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Topics and credit hours may vary each semester. Contact department for current semester’s topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.

AAAS 245 - RACE, RESISTANCE, AND REVOLUTION: BLACKS AND BLACKNESS IN THE MAKING OF LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBB

Short Title: RACE, RESISTANCE, & REVOLUTION

Department: African & African Amer Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Broadly, this course is at once a colonial history of Latin America and the Caribbean that concerns itself with the role of Africans and the making of Blackness across the region. The course treats Africa, Iberia, and the Americas in dialogue, running from the early fifteenth century through the Haitian Revolution. This CAAAS course addresses slavery, freedom and the question of Black life vis-a-vis indigeneity in the early Americas as a central theme and point of departure. Cross-list: HIST 245.

AAAS 300 - CONTEMPORARY BLACK FICTION

Short Title: WRITING BLACK LIVES

Department: African & African Amer Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: In this course, students will be reading, reflecting, and dissecting short stories, novels, television scripts, and other works of fiction crafted by artists across the Black diaspora. Students will thoroughly discuss process and intent, with an extensive focus on craft.

Course URL: humanities.rice.edu/center-for-african-and-african-american-studies

AAAS 510 - INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Short Title: INTRO TO DIASPORIC STUDIES

Department: African & African Amer Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: This is the core course for the Certificate in African and African American Studies. It will provide an introduction to cross- and multi-disciplinary approaches to the histories, cultures and experiences of African and African Diasporic people, while also introducing students to the work of Rice faculty working in the field.

AAAS 524 - COMPARATIVE HISTORIES OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN THE ERA OF RACIAL SLAVERY

Short Title: COMPARATIVE HISTORIES

Department: African & African Amer Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: This graduate seminar considers the history and historiography of slavery comparatively in the era of Atlantic-racial enslavement. Considering slavery through the lens of sovereignty and political claims, this course traces slavery in Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Americas across time and space. It seeks to engage slavery's political history while analyzing key African and African American Studies theoretical interventions in relationship to the material histories of racial slavery. This study questions the extent to which scholars have engaged the archive of slavery sufficiently in their theorizations of Blackness and Black Study.

AAAS 600 - AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES COLLOQUIUM

Short Title: AF & AFAM STUDIES COLLOQUIUM

Department: African & African Amer Studies

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Research

Credit Hours: 0

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: Through readings and discussions the colloquium highlights key issues related to African and African American studies for graduate students preparing to conduct research in the field. Repeatable for Credit.

Description and Code Legend

Note: Internally, the university uses the following descriptions, codes, and abbreviations for this academic program. The following is a quick reference:  

Course Catalog/Schedule

  • Course offerings/subject codes: Courses from various subjects may apply towards this program

Department (or Program) Description and Code

  •  African and African American Studies: AAAS

Undergraduate Minor Description and Code

  • Minor in African and African American Studies: AAAS 

Graduate Certificate Description and Code 

  • Certificate in African and African American Studies: AAS

CIP Code and Description1

  • AAAS Minor: CIP Code/Title: 05.0101 - African Studies
  • AAS Certificate: CIP Code/Title: 05.0101 - African Studies