African Studies Major and Minor

The Center for African Studies offers a secondary major for any student. A second major can complement a first major in any other department. As a secondary major, it is not a "stand alone" major; which means, it must accompany another major.

Major Requirements:

• Complete 30 credit hours (usually 10 classes) 
  These courses must be in at least two disciplines cross-listed with African Studies
• Take AFST 150: Introduction to African Studies or EQ 104: Do You Know the Real Africa
• Fulfill a study-abroad program in Africa OR a 3 credit internship
  (The internship must deal with Africa, the Diaspora, or similar subjects, and be approved by Dr.%20Boodoo, the African Studies Director.)

Additional Information

Students may seek permission to:

• Substitute one course not cross-listed with the African Studies program.
                   *The course should include identifiable content devoted to the study of Africa, and the student must be able to do a significant project or assignment based within the field of African studies. The student must submit a short proposal to the Center%20for%20African%20Studies by mid-term of the semester in which the course is taken, explaining how the student plans to fulfill the requirement. This proposal must be approved and signed by the course instructor
• Take one directed reading course for AFST credit

Minor Requirements:

• Students must take a minimum of 15 credits in African Studies courses (usually 5 classes)
• One class (3 credits) must be an interdisciplinary credit (classes outside of their departmental major)
  Students completing the minor must have taken courses from at least two different disciplines.
• Take AFST 150: Introduction to African Studies or EQ 104: Do You Know the Real Africa

Additional Information

• The minor is available to all students and classes for the minor may count towards another minor/major.
• Courses that have a minimum of 25% African focused content can qualify as African Studies courses.
• Students can petition Dr.%20Boodoo%2C the director of the Center, to have courses not currently listed as African Studies count toward the minor. (e.g. a directed readings course or a course taken while studying in Africa)

Fundamentals of oral and written Swahili. Focus on the development of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, and culture. Special emphasis on oral communication.

• Cross Lists with MLKI 101 Elementary Kiswahili
• Offered Fall and Spring 

Continued study of the Fundamentals of oral and written Swahili. Building upon the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, established in Elementary Swahili.

• Cross Lists with MLKI 102, Elementary Swahili II - Modern Language
• Core Language
• Offered Fall and Spring

How to know the real Africa? It is the second largest continent in terms of size and population and is considered the richest in natural resources. Yet it is the poorest continent, plagued by conflict, the effects of colonization, burdening debt and political instability. In the midst of all these things there continue to be vibrant cultures, religions, music, food and people with an enduring spirit to survive and live well. Our perceptions and knowledge of the continent has been largely accepted by us without critical engagement so we will engage in collaborative research, discussion, and presentations to call attention to the varying ways in which we perceive and can re/invent our knowledge of the continent.

• Offered Fall and Spring 

Introduction to methods of astronomical observation, history of astronomy, the solar system and the question of life in the universe, with a limited context-building discussion of stars and galaxies. The focus may alternate between planetary geology and astrophysics. Delivery is straightforwardly descriptive without complex mathematics. No science or mathematics background presumed. It does not meet the requirements of physics or astronomy programs. 

• Cross Lists with UCOR 125
• Bridges Requirement: Quantitative and Scientific Reasoning 
• Only counts for credit when taken during Maymester

This course will present inter/multi-disciplinary perspectives on sub-Saharan Africa paying attention to the many factors -society, politics, economics, culture, literature, religion, ecology, among others- that have shaped the region and impact its role in our world today.

• Cross Lists with GLBH 150, AFST 150C 
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Fall and Spring
• 0-3 Credits 

This course will present inter/multi-disciplinary perspectives on sub-Saharan Africa paying attention to the many factors -society, politics, economics, culture, literature, religion, ecology, among others- that have shaped the region and impact its role in our world today. Only Available to Africa Learning Community Students.

• Cross Lists with  AFST 150, GLBH 150
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Fall Only

This survey of world history since 1900 examines major historical events around the globe and explores general themes such as tradition and modernity, war and peace, political revolutions and socio-economic change, the role of values and culture in historical development, and the complex relationship between the individual and society.

• Cross Lists with HIST 151, HIST 151C
• Bridges Requirement: Social and Historical Reasoning
• Offered Summer Only

Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, the course examines human security issues including religious and ethnic conflict within states; genocide and mass slaughter; terrorism; food security; migration and human trafficking; development and aid; and democratization. Among countries considered in the course are some of Africa's largest and most important, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia.

• Cross Lists with IR 201, PJCR 201, POSC 201
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Spring Only

In this class, we will be placing the received wisdom of the Christian religion in conversation with the ways in which it has been interpreted both by the tradition's dominant narrative as well as by women and men who challenge that narrative across generations and cultures. Emphasis will be placed on multicultural perspectives in light of issues and themes that engage feminist theologians, womanist theologians, and scholars from the Circle of Concern African Women Theologians. Some of the topics that will be discussed include sexual violence, racism, poverty and health, ways of imaging the divine and participating in religious rituals, interpretive and communal authority, and power structures. The goal of this course is to expand our worldview by considering the lives of women in diverse religious communities and to think constructively and creatively about visions and strategies that promote the flourishing of women and all persons. Through this requirement, students are assisted in learning how to be informed global citizens and challenged to take responsibility for promoting human dignity.

• Cross Lists with THEO 201, WSGS 202
• Bridges Requirement: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Fall Only

The course has two main subjects: leadership and Africa. Using case studies of a range of political and grassroots leaders, students investigate major social and political challenges in sub-Saharan African societies. In addition to biographical readings and films about leaders dealing with key social and political challenges, the course emphasizes scholarly perspectives as a way of understanding African societies and how leaders develop and effect change. Comparative perspectives on African countries in relation to developing countries on other continents will serve to highlight the myths and realities of 21st-century Africa. The course affords students the opportunity to research and write on particular African leaders and organizations working to change society.

• Cross Lists with Magazine Journalism, JMA 469W, JMA 569W
• Offered Irregularly

This is an introductory course to theology from African and African American perspectives. Students are opened not only to Roman Catholic theological traditions but also to the diversity of approaches in theology within which Black, African and Third World theologies are located. The dialectical engagement of African and Black Theologies and the methodological and interpretative shifts that account for their emergence and ongoing development are rooted in African and Black history and tradition.

• Cross Lists with Global Literature Survey, ENGL 322W, WDLI 324W, AFST 322W, WSGS 322W
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Irregularly

This course will focus on the role of social justice in educating a diverse student population. Social justice discourse is introduced as an educational tool that can be used to better understand the correlations between organizational, institutional, and/or social conditions and the widespread inequities in areas of, but not limited to, race, culture, class, and gender that challenge the educational system.

• Cross Lists with LTFL 204, GFDE 554
• Bridges Requirement: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Offered Summer Only

This course engages topics of significance generated by the context in which it is taught on the African continent.

• Offered Irregularly 

This course will focus on education in global society from a comparative education perspective. We consider how intersections of identity, such as race, culture, socio-economic class, religion and gender impact PK-12 students' educational opportunity, access, and learning in an increasingly interconnected and diverse world. This course will be offered in an international setting and students will have the opportunity to visit local schools and cultural organizations, engage with host-country students, and compare US and international educational systems.

• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Summer Only (only offered as a study abroad course)

The main aim of this course is to provide a framework for the understanding of music originating and as performed in the continent of Africa and the African Diaspora. It explores the variety of music of the continent and its diaspora, by focusing on selected musical cultures, the knowledge of which will enable the student to appreciate how social and cultural life are interlaced with music. Ideas and information will be drawn from recordings, videos, readings, lectures, discussions, and in-class performances.

• Cross-lists with AFST 316, HONR 208
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness, Communication and Creative Expression
• Offered Irregularly

This course explores how philosophers in Africa examine religion, culture, morality, wisdom, and social justice. It examines various kinds of sages and their views of God, culture, life and death, and humans and animals. This course uses philosophical texts, novels, visual arts, and film. 

• Cross Lists with PHIL 209. PHIL 209C
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Irregularly 

This course explores how philosophers in Africa examine religion, culture, morality, wisdom, and social justice. It examines various kinds of sages and their views of God, culture, life and death, and humans and animals. This course uses philosophical texts, novels, visual arts, and film. Only Available to Africa Learning Community Students.

• Cross Lists with PHIL 209C
• Offered Irregularly

This course explores how African/Diasporic literary works challenge how we think about questions of what it means to be-in-the-world.

• Offered Irregularly

An introduction to conceptual, practical, and spiritual dimensions of peace and justice. Peace and justice are treated as the by-products of intrapsychic, interpersonal, situational, organizational, regional, national, and global conflict.

• Cross Lists with PJCR 222, SOCI 222
• Bridges Requirement: Social and Historical Reasoning
• Offered Fall Only

In this course, we will critically analyze the meaning of fundamental concepts of political philosophy as perceived by great African thinkers from 1860 to the present. 

• Offered Irregularly 

This course explores the role of religion in sub-Saharan Africa, and especially during and after European colonialism. Students will examine religion and religious consciousness as a crucial, if not central, structure in the formation of African communities. The following are some of the themes and questions we will engage: are Christianity and Islam African religions? How did Europeans use Christianity as a vehicle of colonial domination? How did those Africans who adopted Christianity use it against colonialism? How was Islam used by colonial powers? How was it used against them? What is the nature of the relationship between Christianity, Islam, and indigenous African religions? What role has religion played in the development of national consciousness in sub-Saharan Africa in the twentieth century? In what ways do religious communities correspond with particular ethnic and national groups? How does fiction imagine and shape the place of religion in sub-Saharan Africa? How do African writers use fiction to rewrite their histories, to "speak" back to colonial representations of African cultures and religions?

• Cross Lists with ENGL 230, WDLI 237
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Irregularly 

This course examines African history from the development of human civilization to 1800. It is designed to provide students with a broad understanding of the cultures, history, social structures, and political organizations of Africa before the arrival of the Europeans. The focus includes, but is not limited to, the following subjects: Ancient African civilizations such as Egypt, Axum, Meroe and Kush; migrations and interactions of various African ethnic groups; state-formation in sub-Saharan Africa; trade-in sub-Saharan Africa; and the impact of external factors upon Africa such as the slave trade, Islam and Christianity.

• Cross Lists with HIST 231, HIST 231C
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness, Social and Historical Reasoning
• Offered Irregularly 

This course will explore contemporary African fiction through the lenses of ecocriticism and Africanfuturism. We will discuss the ecological concerns that inform sustainable thinking in Africa (environmental, ethical, and economic) and how these concerns manifest in fiction. We will also discuss how speculative fiction provides fertile ground for ecocritical thinking, and how Africanfuturism has contributed to this genre.

• Cross Lists with ENGL 270, ENGL 470W, ENGL 570
• Bridges Requirement: Social and Historical and Cultural Fluency
• Offered Irregularly 

This course introduces students to African cultures and to alternative approaches in bioethics discourse. It explores theoretical as well as practical issues in the field of bioethics from the African perspectives. The course intends to make students appreciate non-Western perspectives, thus equipping them for discourse on global bioethical issues. Subjects covered include sources of African ethics; the Role of Community in African Bioethics; Relational autonomy in informed consent (RAIC); The care of earth and environment in African worldview; issues at beginning of life; and end-of-life questions.

• Cross Lists with HCE 240, GLBH 240
• Bridges Requirement: Ethical Reasoning and Moral Responsibility
• Offered Fall Only

This course challenges students to consider individuals with disabilities within the context of social justice and dignity. The course focuses on how disabilities are perceived across the world's cultures and societies, the consequences of those perceptions, and the historical, political, and economic forces which perpetuate them. The goals and missions of some of the agencies and movements dedicated to addressing disabilities across the globe are explored. Through large class discussions, book readings, videos, and individual assignments, students engage in self-reflection about their personal assumptions and beliefs about individuals with disabilities as well as the ethical problems these assumptions bring to our social interactions with other people. Several classes will be conducted online through Canvas, using Discussion Board and/or Collaborate as the learning platform.

• Cross Lists with GLBH 245, PSYC 245, SLP 245
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Irregularly 

This course examines some of the various peoples of Africa over the past 500 years, but with an emphasis on the modern era. While the focus will be on cultures and cultural developments, economic conditions and political situations will also be studied.

• Cross Lists with AFST 251C, HIST 251, HIST 251C, IR 251
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness, Social and Historical Reasoning
• Offered Spring Only 

This course examines some of the various peoples of Africa over the past 500 years, but with an emphasis on the modern era. While the focus will be on cultures and cultural developments, economic conditions and political situations will also be studied.

• Cross Lists with AFST 251, HIST 251, HIST 251C, IR 251
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness, Social and Historical Reasoning
• Offered Fall Only
• Must be enrolled in one of the following Colleges: McAnulty Colg-Grad Schl Arts
• Must be enrolled in one of the following Classifications: Freshman

This course begins with a historical overview of Christian approaches towards pacifism and war, exploring why the use of lethal force has been a perennial moral problem within the Christian tradition. It then turns its attention to contemporary debates about whether or when war is ever morally justified. Contemporary approaches to post-conflict resolution may also receive some attention.

• Cross Lists with PJCR 265, THEO 264, THEO 264C, IRST 264
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsivenes
• Offered Fall Only

How the Divine is sensed and responded to in various geographical, cultural, and chronological contexts.

• Bridges Requirement: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Offered Irregularly

This course is usually offered as a study abroad course in the Maymester program.  It explores indigenous, traditional and contemporary African religious expressions and belief systems with special attention to the particular location in which the course is situated.  Through assigned readings and engagement with select African religious rituals and practices, this course seeks to give greater insight and understanding into the reasoning, practices, and expressions of African religions.

• Cross Lists with IRST 281, THEO 281, THEO 281C, THEO 284
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Fall Only

• Theme Area: Faith and Reason
• Course limited to Liberal Arts incoming freshmen registering in the Africa Learning Community

How the Divine is sensed and responded to in various geographical, cultural, and chronological contexts.

• Cross Lists with THEO 284
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Offered Fall and Spring 

The course is designed to provide a broad perspective related to public health issues that threaten the health and well-being of the African population. It will be designed to fit different school majors at the undergraduate programs as it integrates the social, economic, environmental, and political aspects that affect people's health in Africa. Students will learn about sub-Saharan African region's disease burden and frail health care systems within the context of millennium development goals.

• Offered Irregularly

This course takes students on a continental voyage from Pharaonic Egypt of ancient times to contemporary arts, such as body art, of current African culture. Lectures are approached as a "voyage", with each class treated as a "port-of-call" illustrated by powerpoint visuals. From our classroom on the Bluff, we "sail" to ancient Alexandria to explore the eternal pyramids of Giza, the rock art of the Sahel, and the Roman heritage sites and villas of the north Mediterranean coast. For our next unit, we move down around the coast of West African studying the ancient kingdoms of Ife, Yoruba and Benin, and Cameroon cultures, as well as the interior cultures of the Kuba, Kongo, and Zimbabwe. South Africa and Eastern Africa offer new traditions of art and architecture, introducing mnemonic decoration of earplugs in addition to standard tattooing in the south and an ephemeral painting tradition using the body as canvas in the east. Completing our voyage is a new section that expands on the traditional study of the legacy of Eastern Christian tradition with an exploration of contemporary church architecture in Ethiopia today.

• Cross Lists with ARHY 295
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Summer Only

This course explores in an inter/multidisciplinary manner, the connections and interchanges between African diasporic locations in the Caribbean and the African continent. It does this by investigating aspects of Caribbean locations that exhibit traits from the African continent, and features a study abroad component that will focus on a particular location in the Caribbean as a practical way to experience what is being learnt.

• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness, Social and Historical Reasoning 
• Offered Spring and or Maymester

An introduction to conceptual, practical, and spiritual dimensions of peace and justice. Peace and justice are treated as the by-products of psychological, interpersonal, situational, organizational, regional, national, and global dynamics.

• Cross Lists with PJCR 304, SOCI 304
• Bridges Requirement: Social and Historical Reasoning
• Offered Fall Only Even Years

This course will survey the social, economic, political and cultural conditions that enable human trafficking. From the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to current day human trafficking, issues relating to the illegal transfer of men, women, and children throughout the world will be analyzed. During this course, students will gain a better understanding of specific terms, such as modern-day slavery, child labor, forced labor, smuggling, and sex slavery. The material presented will also offer an understanding of how race, class, and gender are useful tools by which to understand human trafficking as a global phenomenon.

• Cross Lists with HIST 348, IR 344, PJCR 348
• Bridges Requirement: Social and Historical Reasoning
• Offered Fall Only

The main aim of this course is to provide a framework for the understanding of music originating and as performed in the continent of Africa and the African Diaspora. It explores the variety of music of the continent and its diaspora, by focusing on selected musical cultures, the knowledge of which will enable the student to appreciate how social and cultural life are interlaced with music. Ideas and information will be drawn from recordings, videos, readings, lectures, discussions, and in-class performances.

• Cross-lists with AFST 208 and HONR 208
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness, Communication and Creative Expression
• Offered Irregularly

This course will introduce students to the culture, spirituality and history of African American Catholics in the US. As people of the African diaspora, their history and spirituality are rooted in Africa. Therefore, the course will review references to Africa in scripture, early Catholic history, and some common aspects of African cultures, spiritualities and religious customs. Students will engage with African and African American Catholics through experiential opportunities. Focusing on a cross-cultural perspective, students will compare African and African American religious cultures and spiritualities. Often, African Americans Catholics are viewed as an anomaly in the Catholic Church and among other Black Christian denominations in the US. Students will discuss this issue and examine some of the moral and social challenges faced by African Americans through the lens of Catholic social justice.

• Cross-lists with CATH 320
• Offered Irregularly

This class surveys literatures produced outside of the US and the UK and which historically have not been a part of the traditional English-language literary canon. While it is a survey, the course may be organized around particular controlling themes like war, borders, immigrants and immigration, the city, etc.

• Cross Lists with ENGL 322, WDLI 324, WSGS 322.
• Offered Irregularly

This course will examine how meaningful and fair treatment of people, despite their different backgrounds, race, or culture, can help to protect them and their environment from environmental hazards. We live in a globalized world where people are more interconnected than before and are engaged in different enterprises across the globe. There is, therefore, a need for environmental justice in order to protect natural resources, human health, and promote sustainability. The importance of environmental justice, what is being done, and how it is linked to sustainability will also be discussed.

• Cross Lists with ENVI 323
• Bridges Requirement: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Offered Fall Only

This course introduces models of transcultural health care. Issues to the health care professional's role in the delivery of culturally competent based health care are explored. Emphasis is placed on the assessment and analysis of culturally congruent care as related to clinical practice issues in the United States and Globally and more specifically in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. Interplay between models of transcultural care and other models of clinical application of culturally appropriate interventions are examined.

• Cross Lists with UPNS 324
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness
• Offered Irregularly 
• Must be enrolled in the School of Nursing 

In this course, we will explore African and African Diasporic writings and films that address questions of identity in contemporary post-colonial, de-colonial, and global contexts. Our approach to understanding identity construction in these contexts will be fundamentally interdisciplinary. We will read texts on identity and film across the disciplines of psychology, philosophy, African studies, postcolonial and de-colonial theory, anthropology, cultural studies, literature, and film theory. We will also screen and engage films on their own aesthetic terms - that is, as art forms that offer media-specific possibilities for producing identities.

• Cross Lists with PSYC 335, WDLI 335
• Bridges Requirement: Cultural Fluency and Responsiveness 
• Offered Spring Only

Students will engage in this inter-professional, interdisciplinary community engagement immersion experience in Tanzania, East Africa, as participant observers. Students will address community-identified needs providing service and educational modules as requested at a variety of health clinics, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, schools, and universities. In addition, students will learn from health care professionals in Tanzania through formal presentations about issues related to global health, disability, and social justice. 

• University Core Service Learning
• Offered Spring Only

In this course we will explore scholarship on women and gender in Africa in a historical context. As a social construction, gender is negotiated and renegotiated throughout time and space. From the colonial era to today, women's experiences have not only been shaped by their environments, but they have been responsible for shaping their political, economic and social environments. Examining gendered histories is important because it explores gendered understandings of rights and responsibilities in society, as well examines how gender, including femininity and masculinity, is not static. As internal and external forces necessitate, i.e. imperialism, gender roles within families and in communities change. Themes such as power, gerontocracies, law, motherhood, manhood, feminism and others will be covered in this course.

• Cross Lists with HIST 375, WSGS 375
• Offered Irregularly 

The history of independent Africa is a turbulent one, filled with wars, political upheavals, social disasters and unrest, economic calamities and a smattering of great successes. This course covers a variety of topics in the history of Africa from the independence movements of the post Second World War era to the present. Topics include, but are not limited to the following: the gaining of African independence, Africa during the Cold War, various military, political and social conflicts that plague modern Africa, the role of the United Nations and the African Union in creating political and economic stability in present-day Africa, the successes of various African nations at creating stable and economically viable states, and finally what the future holds for Africa. These topics will be examined through a variety of perspectives such as ethnicity, political, religious, economic and social factors. 

• Offered Irregularly

History of Children and Childhood will survey how notions of ‘children' and ‘childhood' expanded alongside the formalization of social science scholarship that focused on children. The study of children as historical subjects is necessary to fully understand the complexities of social, cultural, economic, and political histories worldwide. This class will examine the social construction of ‘childhood' in various global contexts from the 1920s to today. During the 1920s, health specialists, child advocates, human rights activists, educators, and historians made evident their interest in children's health programs, access to education, and child labor conditions. In examining the outcomes of those inquiries this course will survey how notions of childhood expanded alongside the growth of scholarship on children.

• Cross Lists with HIST 420, HIST 520, WSGS 420, WSGS 520
• Offered Irregularly 

At the height of its power, the vast British Empire covered one-fifth of the earth's land mass-quite literally, an empire on which the sun never set. Studying British imperialism, then, is studying the history of the modern world. This course will examine the heyday of the empire, roughly from the end of the American Revolution (1782) to the era of Decolonization (1950s-1970s). Our approach will be both chronological and thematic, and will deal with diverse components of the empire including Britain, sub-Saharan Africa, India, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and the settler colonies of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa.

• Cross lists with HIST 428W, HIST 528
• University Core Writing Intens
• Offered Irregularly

This internship is an approved unpaid work experience, related to the topic of African Studies. Students are responsible for identifying internship opportunities and will work at the internship site under the direction of a site supervisor.

Students must receive approval from the director of the Center for African Studies.

• Offered Fall and Spring
• 1-3 Credits 

This course considers moral theory, critical thinking as the basis for ethical reasoning, the relationship between healthcare professionals and patients, abortion and maternal-fetal conflicts, genetic engineering, reproductive technologies and cloning, human and animal experimentation, organ transplantation, euthanasia and end of life decisions, HIV and AIDS, and challenges in healthcare policy and reform. The course also looks at how our public policies affect and should affect our struggle for equitable practices in healthcare. Case studies, memoirs, and documentaries supplement the introductory text.

• Cross Lists with SOCI 441
• Offered Fall Only

Lack of potable water is perhaps the most critical factor degrading the quality of life for billions of people and bodes well to become the major natural resource constraint on development worldwide. Relying on the four "lenses" of biology and ecology, sufficiency availability, and quality, Water, Environment and Development takes a global perspective, with special reference to Africa, to examine the environmental, technical, economic, and social factors that affect the quality and quantity of water supply.

• Cross Lists with ENVI 456, ENVI 556
• Bridges Requirement: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Offered Irregularly

These courses cover new and noteworthy topics of interest. Field Work, Other, Studio.

• Offered Fall and Spring 

Offers the opportunity for students to conduct an in-depth study of a particular topic or area in African Studies.

Requires permission of the Center's Director

• Offered Fall and Spring 
• 1-3 Credits 

Offers the opportunity for students to conduct an in-depth study of a particular topic or area in African Studies.

Requires permission of the Center's Director 

• University Core Writing Intensive
• Offered Fall and Spring 
• 1-3 Credits 

History of Children and Childhood will survey how notions of ‘children' and ‘childhood' expanded alongside the formalization of social science scholarship that focused on children. The study of children as historical subjects is necessary to fully understand the complexities of social, cultural, economic, and political histories worldwide. This class will examine the social construction of ‘childhood' in various global contexts from the 1920s to today. During the 1920s, health specialists, child advocates, human rights activists, educators, and historians made evident their interest in children's health programs, access to education, and child labor conditions. In examining the outcomes of those inquiries this course will survey how notions of childhood expanded alongside the growth of scholarship on children.

• Cross Lists with HIST 420, HIST 520, WSGS 420, WSGS 520
• Offered Irregularly

At the height of its power, the vast British Empire covered one-fifth of the earth's land mass-quite literally, an empire on which the sun never set. Studying British imperialism, then, is studying the history of the modern world. This course will examine the heyday of the empire, roughly from the end of the American Revolution (1782) to the era of Decolonization (1950s-1970s). Our approach will be both chronological and thematic, and will deal with diverse components of the empire including Britain, sub-Saharan Africa, India, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and the settler colonies of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa.

• Cross lists with HIST 428W, HIST 528
• Offered Irregularly

• Cross lists with ARHY 207
• Offered Irregularly