AFRICA-FOCUSED COURSES MENU
African
Studies
AFST 225
African Language & Culture
AFST
290 Introduction to African Studies
AFST
298 Study Abroad.
AFST
299 Independent Study.
AFST
300 Senior Thesis.
AFST
390 Debates in African Studies.
AFST
701 African Studies Seminar.
AFST 225 African Language
& Culture.
(Omar) The aim of the course is to
provide an overall perspective on African languages and culture. It will
introduce students to major features of African languages and to sociological
and historical implications. As an introduction to the study of language
and culture in Africa, the following topics will be explored: Typological
and genetic classification of languages, linguistic geography, historical
aspects--both linguistics and socio-cultural--multilinguism and diglossia.
Language policies in education, language use (including politeness and
indirectness), and verbal art forms such as stories, story telling, riddles
and proverbs will be discussed. Native speakers of languages from different
language groups will be invited guests.
AFST 290 Introduction
to African Studies
(Zuberi) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
II: History & Tradition. This historically oriented introduction
to African societies, cultures, and political economies offers perspectives
on different reconstructions of Africa's pre-colonial/colonial past, and
discussions about the post-colonial present, exploring socioeconomic transformations,
continuities, as well as struggles over authority, gender and access to
resources. Focusing mainly on two contrasting geographic regions in West
and Southern Africa, the course introduces students to a variety of oral
and written texts, scholarly analysis, first-person narratives and fiction,
as well as visual representations of Africa's past and present in film
and sculpture. The course, simultaneously offered at Haverford, Bryn Mawr,
Swarthmore and the University of Pennsylvania, provides an entry point
for the study of Africa in various disciplines linked in the African Studies
Consortium.
AFST 298 Study Abroad.
AFST 299 Independent
Study.
AFST 300 Senior Thesis.
AFST 390 Debates in
African Studies.
(Staff) An advanced course which examines
current debates about African societies and debates about the study of
Africa from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, particularly history,
anthropology, literary studies and political science. Topics to be examined
include controversies over Afrocentrism, the place of 'area studies' in
the academy, civil society and democratic practice in contemporary Africa
and the public sphere in colonial Africa. This course is sponsored by the
cooperative Africa consortium between Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, Haverford
and the University of Pennsylvania and will include students from all four
campuses.
AFST 701 African Studies
Seminar.
(Zuberi/Griffin) Interdisciplinary seminar
for discussion of issues of special interest to graduate students and faculty
in African Studies. Topics vary according to the interests and expertise
of instructors.
Ancient
Studies
ANCH 655
Ancient North Africa.
ANCH 655 Ancient North
Africa.
(Staff) An investigation into some of the
main problems in the history of the North African provinces of the Roman
empire. Specific case studies centered on topics such as the Roman military
conquest and colonization, Roman provincial administration, aspects of
the agrarian economy, urban development and municipal administration, the
Roman army and armed resistance, cultural integration, and the process
of 'Christianization,' will be among those considered in the seminar.
Anthropology
AFST 018
African Worlds.
AFST
214 Societies and Cultures of Africa
AFST
417 Topics in African Archaeology.
AFST
442 West African State, Society & Culture.
AFST
514 Anthropology of Africa.
AFST 018 African Worlds.
(Barnes) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
I: Society. Freshman Seminar. An examination of the relationship between
ritual, ideology, and symbolic representations in societies around the
world, with emphasis on Africa, using some of the anthropological classics.
AFST 214 Societies
and Cultures of Africa
(Kopytoff) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
I: Society. An introduction to the peoples and cultures of Sub-Saharan
Africa, including cultural history, vocabularies, traditional social and
political structures, and traditional religion.
AFST 417 Topics in
African Archaeology.
(Staff)
AFST 442 West African
State, Society & Culture.
(Barnes) Cultural and historical studies will
be examined with a view to understanding the relations between authority
systems and practices of everyday life in West Africa over time.
AFST 514 Anthropology
of Africa.
(Kopytoff) African cultural history, as inferred
from archaeology, linguistic relationships and ethnology. Culture areas
of Africa and representative societies; common themes and differences.
Asian & Middle East Studies
AMES 060
Word and Image: The Unity of Art and Writing in Ancient Egypt.
AFST
062 Land of the Pharaohs.
AMES
166/468 The Religion of Ancient Egypt.
AFST
265 Ancient Africa Civilizations.
AMES
266/566 History of Ancient Egypt.
AMES
435 Advanced Arabic Composition.
AMES
461 Middle Egyptian Texts: Literary.
AMES
462 Middle Egyptian Texts: Non-Literary.
AMES
465 Egyptian Artifacts.
AFST
467 Introduction to Egyptian Culture and Archaeology.
AMES
468 Religion of Ancient Egypt.
AFST
469 Archaeology of Nubia.
AFST
547 Egypt & Canaan During the Bronze Age.
AMES
560 Late Egyptian.
AMES
561 Texts: Literary Late Egyptian.
AMES
562 Late Egyptian Texts: Non-Literary.
AMES
569 Problems in Ancient Egyptian History.
AMES 060 Word and Image:
The Unity of Art and Writing in Ancient Egypt.
(Silverman.) NOTE: Freshman Seminar. The course
will introduce the student to the mind of ancient man through the achievements
of the ancient cultures of Egypt and the Near East. Using all the genres
of writing (literature, historical records, autobiographies, religious
texts), art, and architecture as sources of study, the student will receive
an insight into the image of ancient life. Special emphasis will be on
ancient Egypt.
AFST 062 Land of the
Pharaohs.
(Wegner) Fulfills General Requirement:
History & Tradition. This course provides an introduction to the
society, culture and history of ancient Egypt. The objective of the course
is to provide an understanding of the characteristics of the civilization
of ancient Egypt and how that ancient society succeeded as one of the most
successful and long-lived civilizations.
AMES
166/468 The Religion of Ancient Egypt.
(Silverman) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
II: History & Tradition. Weekly lectures (some of which will be
illustrated) and a field trip to the University Museum's Egyptian Section.
The multifaceted approach to the subject matter covers such topics as funerary
literature and religion, cults, magic religious art and architecture, and
the religion of daily life.
AFST 265 Ancient Africa
Civilizations.
(Staff) Covers the civilizations (including
history; social organization; culture; religion; art; and archaeology)
of earliest known African civilizations of Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Libya;
from the Bronze Age (ca. 3000-1000 B.C.) to Roman times (A.D. 400). Includes
the most recent discoveries and focuses on developments unique to each
civilization, but also degree of interconnections and similarities.
AMES
266/566 History of Ancient Egypt.
(Wegner) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
11: History and Tradition. Review and discussion of the principal aspects
of ancient Egyptian history, 3000-500 B.C.
AMES 435 Advanced Arabic
Composition.
(Staff) Development of writing skills within
a variety of subjects. Extensive readings in various prose techniques and
a thorough review of Arabic grammar.
AMES 461 Middle Egyptian
Texts: Literary.
(Silverman).This course will deal with those
texts of the Middle Kingdom.
AMES 462 Middle Egyptian
Texts: Non-Literary.
(Silverman)Fulfills Distribution Req.:
Arts & Letters. The course will emphasize non-literary texts dating
to Middle Kingdom: letters, reports, medical and mathematical papyri, and
dialogues in tombs. The material will in large part be in the hieratic
script, except for the tomb inscriptions.
AMES 465 Egyptian Artifacts.
(Wegner) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
II: History & Tradition. Detailed typological and chronological
discussion of principal kinds of ancient Egyptian artifacts.
AFST 467 Introduction
to Egyptian Culture and Archaeology.
(Wegner) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
II: History & Tradition. Principal aspects of ancient Egyptian
culture (environment, urbanism, religion, technology, etc.) with special
focus on archaeological data; includes study of University Museum artifacts.
AMES 468 Religion of
Ancient Egypt.
(Silverman/Wegner) Fulfills Distribution
Requirement II: History & Tradition. Weekly lectures (some of which
will be illustrated) and a field trip to the University Museum's Egyptian
Section. The multifaceted approach to the subject matter covers such topics
as funerary literature and religion, cults, magic, religious art and architecture,
and the religion of daily life.
AFST 469 Archaeology
of Nubia.
(Wegner) The course will examine the archaeology
of Ancient Nubia from Pre-history through the Bronze and Iron Ages, ca.
5000 BCE to 300 AD. The course will focus on the various Nubian cultures
of the Middle Nile, and social and cultural development, along with a detailed
examination of the major archaeological sites and central issues of Nubian
archaeology.
AFST 547 Egypt &
Canaan During the Bronze Age.
(Oren) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
II: History & Tradition. Selected chapters in the history of cultural
and economic interconnections between Egypt and Asia in the third and second
millennia B.C.E. Course will focus on results of recent archaeological
explorations in Israel, Sinai and Egypt.
AMES 560 Late Egyptian.
(Silverman)Fulfills Distribution Requirement:
Arts & Letters. Introduction to the grammar of Late Egyptian.
AMES 561 Texts: Literary
Late Egyptian.
(Silverman)
Fulfills Distribution Requirement: Society.
This course will concentrate on the literary texts of the New Kingdom.
AMES 562 Late Egyptian
Texts: Non-Literary.
(Silverman)This course will concentrate on
the non-literary texts of the New Kingdom.
AMES 569 Problems in
Ancient Egyptian History.
(Wegner) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
II: History & Tradition. In-depth analysis of specific historical
issues and topics. Reading knowledge in French and German is required.
Comparative
Literature
AFST 203
African Literature
AFST 203 African Literature
Staff. This course focuses on the diverse
body of literature and film which has emerged from Black Africa over the
last half-century- works profoundly engaged with the pressing issues of
their day. We will trace the development of the African novel from oral
traditions, examining the ways in which it has recast African history,
and has responded to the challenges of colonization, independence, and
political upheaval. We will address questions of gender, ethnicity, and
class in innovative, prize-winning works by authors from the continent,
including: Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri, Buchi Emecheta, Ngugi
Wa Thiong.'o All works will be read in English.
Demography/Population
Studies
DEMG 777
Special Topics in African Demography.
DEMG 777 Special Topics
in African Demography.
(Zuberi/Watkins) This course will focus
on different debates in African demography: issues and controversies in
African historical demography, family structure and fertility, and mortality.
English
AFST 283
Anglophone African Literature.
AFST
393 Topics in Literature & Society: South African Literature.
AFST
572 Topics in African Literature: South African Writing Since 1970: Literature,
Apartheid, and Democracy.
AFST 283 Anglophone
African Literature.
(Staff) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
III: Arts & Letters. A survey of the emergence and development
of Anglophone African Literature, the course will devote equal time to
each of the main genres of literature drama, prose fiction, and poetry.
While according some significance to the place in the tradition of writing
by European settlers and texts in English translation, only canonical works
by Anglophone African writers that were originally written in English drawn
from East, South, and West Africa will be treated. All works will be examined
in relation to the cultural, economic, political, and social history of
Africa.
AFST 393 Topics in
Literature & Society: South African Literature.
(Barnard) Fulfills Distribution 3: Arts
& Letters. Note: Non-Honor students need permission from instructor.
AFST 572 Topics in
African Literature: South African Writing Since 1970: Literature, Apartheid,
and Democracy.
(Barnard) This course will introduce students
to South African literature (poetry, drama, novels, short stories, and
films) from around the time of the Soweto riots until the present. The
concerns raised by this body of writing, produced during a period of intense
political struggle, are by no means parochial and the readings should be
compelling to anyone interested in the relationship between literature
and politics. Lecture/discussion classes will address such issues as: the
responsibility of the writer in a situation of political crisis; the representation
of torture and the ethics of narrative; the politics of (social and geographical)
place; shifting conceptions of "nation" and "nationalism"; the intersections
of race and gender; the problems of confession, truth, and reconciliation;
the appropriateness of the term "postcolonial" in the South African context;
and the prospects for a post-apartheid literature and culture.
Folklore
AFST 292
African Religious Culture in Nigeria and in the African Diaspora.
AFST
455 African Folklore.
AFST
560 The African Diaspora: Representations and its Discontents.
AFST 292 African Religious
Culture in Nigeria and in the African Diaspora.
(Otero) This survey course focuses on African
Religous culture in Nigeria and in the African Diaspora. Students will
be introduced to the ritual and philosophical foundations
of Yoruba religion and culture. This course emphasizes the incorporative
nature and heterogeneity of problematize essentialisms and stereotypes
about these religious systems by paying close attention to the ethnographic
details, historical contexts, philosophical underpinnings, and political
developments of each religion in their region. Traditions we will
be exploring are: Ifa Divination in Nigeria
and Benin; Santeria and Regla de Ocha
in Cuba and the United States; Vodoun in Haiti; Shango in Trinidad;
Candomble and Umbanda in Brazil; and the American
Yoruba Movement in theUnited States. Course readings will provide a theoretical
and informative basis for dealing with
the concepts of syncretism, creolization, and
AFST 455 African Folklore.
(Ben-Amos) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
II: History & Tradition. A survey of the folklore of sub-Saharan
African peoples; their myths, epics, tales, proverbs, riddles, and songs,
examined both for their use and function in particular cultural contexts
and for their literary quality.
AFST 560 The African
Diaspora: Representations and its Discontents.
(Staff) This course takes up the vernacular
cultures of a region where (in contrast to American cities) multicultural
and multilingual people have learned to get on peaceably with each other
and borrow from one another's traditions. Africans, Malagasy, and Indians
were brought to the Southwest Indian Ocean by slavery and indenture. The
course defines creolization as the key process of culture contact. Other
key concepts for debate include authenticity, purity, imperialism, structuralism,
folkloric restatement, and ideology. The final issue is representation:
how can the voices of oppressed people be heard through the din of colonialism
and multinational corporatism?
History
AFST 075
Africa to 1800.
AFST
076 Africa Since 1800.
HIST
106 Freshman Seminar.
HIST
206 African Intellectual History.
AFST
381 Topics in African History.
HIST
507 Modern African History.
HIST
511 African Cultural History.
AFST
630 African History: Core Issues of Social Process.
AFST 075 Africa to
1800.
(Cassanelli) Fulfills General Requirement:
History & Tradition. Survey of major themes and issues in African
history before 1800. Topics include: early civilizations, African kingdoms
and empires, population movements, the spread of Islam, the slave trade
era. Also, emphasis on how historians use archaeology, linguistics, and
oral traditions to reconstruct Africa's early history.
AFST 076 Africa Since
1800.
(Cassanelli) Fulfills General Requirement:
History & Tradition. This course will survey major themes, events,
and personalities in African history from the early nineteenth century
through the 1960's. Topics include abolition of the slave trade, European
imperialism, impact of colonial rule, African resistance, religious and
cultural movements, rise of nationalism and pan-Africanism, issues of ethnicity
and "tribalism" in modern Africa.
HIST 106 Freshman Seminar.
(Cassanelli) Topics vary from year to year.
HIST 206 African Intellectual
History.
(Cassanelli) Fulfills Distribution Requirement:
History & Tradition. Topics vary from year to year.
AFST 381 Topics in
African History.
(Staff)
HIST 507 Modern African
History.
(Cassanelli) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
II: History & Tradition. Selected topics in African history from
the colonial occupation to independence. Emphasis on varieties of economic,
religious, and cultural nationalism. Some knowledge of African history
desirable.
HIST 511 African Cultural
History.
(Feierman) This seminar will investigate the
cultural history of Africa, with a special emphasis on concepts and methods.
Topics include the history of religion before and during the colonial period,
the social context of knowledge transmitted orally or through literate
means, the circulation of ideas, images, and practices, the changing nature
and significance of popular culture, and the cultural significance of popular
social movements. Examples will be drawn from the whole of sub-Saharan
Africa.
AFST 630 African History:
Core Issues of Social Process.
(Feierman) This graduate seminar explores
the literature of African history while trying to find ways to understand
history which happens on unfamiliar social and cultural terrain. A tentative
list of topics includes the following: Oral tradition; knowledge and identity;
ecology and ethnicity; forms of local authority and state power; ritual,
conquest, and the transformation of political authority; political economy,
gender and personal dependency; the ecological history of disease; popular
associations and the state; the local bases of nationalism.
History
of Art
AFST 220/610
African Art.
ARTH
223 Egyptian Art.
AFST
220/610 African Art.
(Staff) A survey of the visual arts and material
cultural traditions of Africa. The symbolism and complexity of traditional
African art and material culture will be explored through the analysis
of myth, ritual and cosmology.
ARTH 223 Egyptian Art.
(Pittman) Survey of the art of Ancient
Egypt from the Predynastic Period through the New Kingdom. Emphasis on
major monuments of architecture, sculpture, relief and painting; questions
of stylistic change and historical context.
History
& Sociology of Science
AFST 204
African Medicine.
AFST 204 African Medicine.
(Feierman) Fulfills General Requirement:
History. This course explores the history of health, of healing, and
of survival-knowledge in African societies in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. These were shaped by colonial conquest, urbanization, migration,
the introduction of biomedicine, changes in farming, and changes in the
organization of households. Special attention is paid to the history of
disease ecology, and to ways in which people coordinated multiple healing
traditions.
Linguistics
LING 202
/502 Introduction to Field Linguistics.
LING
652 Current Trends in Syntactic Theory-Bantu Languages.
LING
202 /502 Introduction to Field Linguistics.
(Liberman) Prerequisite: LING 520,
LING 530 or permission of instructor. Instruction and practice in primary
linguistic research, combining study of reference materials and work with
native-speaker informants.
LING 652 Current Trends
in Syntactic Theory-Bantu
Languages.
(Staff) A survey of current research. Special
attention is given to controversies over the proper formulation of conditions
on the form and function of rules of grammar.
Music
AFST 210
African Music and Dance.
AFST
403 The Music and Performance of Africa.
AFST 210 African Music
and Dance.
(Botwe-Asamoah) An introductory course that
explores the unity of diversity manifested by language, music and dance
in the life of African people. Dance and music as a dimension of life,
the role of dance in the community, and the concept of music and dance
as play will be explored. Fundamentals of African music and dance: theory,
technique, selected body movements, performance organization, vocal and
instrumental resources (theory), African vocal styles and characteristics
of African rhythm through regulative beat will be taught.
AFST 403 The Music
and Performance of Africa.
(Staff) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
3: Arts & Letters. This course is designed for students with little
or no musical training, though such background would be helpful. This course
is an overview of African music and performance, and will address the large
geocultural areas of the continent (northern Islamic Africa, West Africa,
Central Africa, East Africa, and the South). African aesthetics of performance,
from group participation to the integration of dance and rhythm will be
emphasized. Special attention will be paid to contemporary popular music,
especially its roots in older genres and its important role in questions
of postcolonial identity.
Philosophy
PHIL 438
African Philosophical Thought.
PHIL 438 African Philosophical
Thought.
(Staff) This course will be divided into two
sections. Section 1, on methodological matters, will take up the question
of philosophy in African culture in the traditional setting. Section II
will be a critical examination of African conceptions of God, person, community,
human destiny, cause, chance and purpose, human nature and ethics, morality
and religion, the basis of political activity.
Political
Science
AFST 165/465
Contemporary African Politics.
AFST
165/465 Contemporary African Politics.
(Callaghy) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
I: Society. A survey of politics in Africa focusing on the complex
relationships between state, society, the economy, and external actors.
Subjects covered include pre-colonial political institutions, colonial
rule, the independence struggle, authoritarian and democratic statecraft,
military rule, ethnicity, and class, with special attention to the politics
of Africa's interrelated debt, economy, and development crises.
Romance
Languages
AFST 231
Francophone African Cinema.
FREN
390 Litterature Francophone.
FREN
393 Africa & The African Diaspora.
FREN
593 Studies-Francophone Literature.
AFST
693 French African Studies.
AFST 231 Francophone
African Cinema.
(Moudileno) Class discussion will be in French.
FREN 390 Litterature
Francophone.
(Moudileno) NOTE: see instructor for Africa
content; varies between 25 and 100% depending on topic. Fulfills Distribution
Requirement III: Arts & Letters. A brief introduction about the
stages of French colonialism and its continuing political and cultural
consequences, read through various major works - novels, plays, poems in
French by authors from Quebec, the Caribbean, Africa (including the Maghreb),
etc. Of interest to majors in International Relations, Anthropology, and
African Studies as well as majors in French.
FREN 393 Africa &
The African Diaspora.
(Moudileno) Fulfills Distribution Requirement
III: Arts & Letters. This course takes the form of an introductory
seminar designed to provide undergraduate students an overview of significant
themes and issues focusing on the historical, political, and cultural relationships
between Africans and their descendants abroad. It will encompass: a review
of different historical periods and geographical locations, from Ancient
Egypt to modern American, Caribbean and African states; a critical evaluation
of social movements and theories that have developed in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries among scholars of different origins in their attempt
to reconstruct Africa as a center and the Diaspora as a specific cultural
space; and, an exploration of representations of Africa and the Diaspora
in canonical literary works and other forms of fiction like the visual
arts.
FREN 593 Studies-Francophone
Literature.
(Moudileno) An introduction to major literary
movements and authors from five areas of Francophone: the Maghreb, West
Africa, Central Africa, the Caribbean and Quebec.
AFST 693 French African
Studies.
(Moudileno) Topics will vary. Seminar will
focus on one area, author, or problematic
in Francophone studies. Examples of area-focused seminar: The African contemporary
novel or Francophone Caribbean writers. Example of single-author seminar:
The poetry and drama of Aime Cesaire. Examples of thematic approach: writing
and national identity; postcolonial conditions; autobiography.
Sociology
AFST 230
Law in Africa.
AFST 230 Law in Africa.
(Fetni) Fulfills Distribution I: Society.
This course will deal with law and society in Africa. After surveying
the various legal systems in Africa, the focus will be on how and to what
extent the countries of Africa "re-Africanized" their legal systems by
reconciling their indigenous law with Western law and other legal traditions
to create unified legal systems that are used as instruments of social
change and development. Toward this end, the experiences of various African
countries covering the various legal traditions will be included. Specific
focus will be on laws covering both economic and social relations. This
emphasis includes laws of contracts and civil wrongs, land law, law of
succession, marriage and divorce and Africa's laws of International Relations,
among other laws. Throughout this course a comparative analysis with non-African
countries will be stressed.
Women's
Studies
AFST 305
Interpreting African Women's Lives.
AFST
355 Women and Ritual in Africa.
AFST 305 Interpreting
African Women's Lives.
(Blakely) This course critically examines
the process of constructing and interpreting personal experience/life history
narratives told by African women. Urban and rural women's narrative texts
are considered as they inform our understanding of the nature of personal
experience narrative, the role of collaborating researchers in life history
production, and the significance of enabling African women to "speak for
themselves."
AFST 355 Women and
Ritual in Africa.
(Blakely) Fulfills Distribution Requirement:
History & Tradition. Students examine a wide range of ritual phenomena
involving African women including spirit possession, semisecret association
activities, healing processes, birth rituals, initiation, funerary events,
and other rites of passage.
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