African Studies Center

University of Pennsylvania
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Fall 2013 Course List
Course Name Course # Section Cross– Listings Type Instructor Fulfills Meeting Time CU's Notes
Hearing Africa: Old & NewIn this seminar you will learn the history and culture of gospel music as an African American and contemporary African musical form. You will come to know gospel music as a written, recorded, and living musical tradition, thorugh close listening, reading and writing about, the music; and you will participate in a class research project with Philadelphia based gospel musicians. This is an academically based community service seminar. AFST 016 401 AFRC 016 MUSC 016 Sem Muller TR 10:30am-12pm 1 Freshman Seminar
Africa Since 1800Survey of major themes, events, and personalities in African history from the early nineteenth century through the 1960s. Topics include abolition of the slave trade, European imperialism, impact of colonial rule, African resistance, religious and cultural movements, rise of naturalism and pan–Africanism, issues of ethnicity and "tribalism" in modern Africa. AFST 076 401 AFRC 076 HIST 076 LEC Cassanelli C Hist & Trad Sector MW 12-1pm 0 Registration required for LEC, REC
  AFST 076 402 AFRC 076 HIST 076 REC Staff Hist & Trad Sector F 11am-12pm 1 Registration required for LEC, REC
  AFST 076 403 AFRC 076 HIST 076 REC Staff Hist & Trad Sector F 11am-12pm 1 Registration required for LEC, REC
  AFST 076 404 AFRC 076 HIST 076 REC Staff Hist & Trad Sector F 12-1pm 1 Registration required for LEC, REC
  AFST 076 405 AFRC 076 HIST 076 REC Staff Hist & Trad Sector F 1-2pm 1 Registration required for LEC, REC
  AFST 076 406 AFRC 076 HIST 076 REC Staff Hist & Trad Sector F 1-2pm 1 Registration required for LEC, REC
  AFST 076 407 AFRC 076 HIST 076 REC Staff Hist & Trad Sector R 4:30-5:30pm 1 Registration required for LEC, REC
  AFST 076 408 AFRC 076 HIST 076 REC Cassanelli Hist & Trad Sector R 12-1pm 1 Registration required for LEC, REC
Introduction to AfricaDuring the semester we will focus on people and communties of sub-Saharan Africa and on the ways people represent, reflect on, and react to various aspects and issues in their lives and the institutions which dominate their communities. We will focus particularly on the history, contemporary expression, and inter-relationships among politics, religion, and aesthetic practice. Members of Penn's African Studies community will share their expertise with the class and introduce the University's Africa resources. Texts consist of weekly readings, films, and recordings; and class members will be expected to attend several lectures outside of class. AFST 190 401 AFRC 190 ANTH 190 LEC Hasty Society Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis		 TR 12-1:30pm 1
Contemp Issues Afr SocietyThis course engages with the debate on whether Africa's problems are a result of past and present exploitation by the Western World or a result of poor leadership and decisions made by post-independence African leaders.It starts with a historical overview of the legacies slavery and colonialism and moves into discussing issues in contemporary Africa. We shall investigate several key issues currently occuring in African countries such as the challenges of grwoth and corresponding reduction in poverty and inequality, political governance, ehtnic conflicts and the rise of radical Islam, urbanization and its attendant problems, helath issues with a specific focus on aids and hunger, the rise of Pentacostal Christianity and it transnational nature, the links betwen migration, remittances, and development, and the experiences of the African diaspora in the United States, etc. We shall conclude by discussing how African countries can move forward in an increasingly globalized world of which Africa is a large part. Films and other media shall be incorporated into class lectures. AFST 230 402 AFRC 230 SOCI 230 Sem Imaogene T 1:30-4:30pm 1
Africa Folk, Pop Cult, & DiasporaThis course explores African expressive culture in both West and Central Africa and the Americas, considering continuities in visual and verbal art, religion and ritual, and material culture from Africa to the New World. The topic is interdisciplinary, drawing on research by folklorists, cultural anthropologists, archaeoloists, and art historians. This study informs our understanding of both particular hisotrical connections, related to specific peoples and genres; and fundamental aesthetic values that have shaped and continue to influence the entire Afro-Atlantic region AFST 233 601 ARTH 209 Sem Blakely T 4:30-7:30pm 1 LPS Course
Sustainable Dev in GhanaThis course is mandatory for students participating in the International Development Summer Institute (IDSI). IDSI is a service learning and training program for undergraduates that provides students with the opportunity to have an applied learning and cultural experience in Ghana. The program consists of 5 weeks of pre-program preparation at Penn and a 4-week long training program on the campus of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana. AFST 296 401 Sem Cassanelli TBA 1 Department permission needed. More Info
Law, Cultural Meaning, & PowerSome have argued that we are living in an age in which the political is increasingly being displaced inot the realm of the legal, yet ethnographic fieldwork has shown that we have entered a period in which people are increasingly using political strategies to make legal claims. The ""rule of law"" has developed tremendous moral force in international politics and legal language is becoming a key resource in daily life. The relationship between law and politics is becoming all the more critical in the contemporary period. By asking how relationships between legal, cultural and political realms are structured, we will study changing approaches to law in anthropological work. This course will examine how law provides tools for both social struggle and social control and will explore classical and contemporary texts in legal and political anthropology in order to detail the cultural dimensions of law and law's changing relationship to the discipline. AFST 306 402 AFST 606 AFRC 307 ANTH 306 ANTH 606 SEM Clarke T 3-6pm 1
Anthro of AfricaIn an attempt to explore key features of the development of the anthropological tradition, this course will examine scholarship related to the development of the anthropology of Africa. Central to the readings are themes related to Africa and the making of a science, Africa and the colonial project, postcoloniality and the contemporary imagination, pan-Africanism and the African diaspora, ethnic identities and religius formations, modernity and the anthropology of witchcraft, neoliberalism and the postcolonial state. The goal of this course is to explore the founding tenets of anthropological inquiries and methods and to ponder how these developments contributed to anthropological understandings of Africa in hte scholarly imagination. By asking why particular questions emerged and how those inquiries were presented, we will explore the social and political contexts in which particular studies emerged and assess the coherence and value of those analyses. Key to the analysis will be an attempt for students to evaluate sources and construct arguments, taking into account different ideological and/or theoretical approaches. AFST 514 401 ANTH 597 AFRC 597 Sem Clarke M 6-9pm 1
Mandela: History, Biography, FilmThis interdisciplinary seminar will investigate the life of Nelson Rolihlalha Mandela and the way in which this life hs been represented. We will study Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, relevant historical contexts, and several films, both documentaries and feature films (like Invictus and Endgame). The course will also investigate the politics or apartheid, the history of the ANC and other rsistance movements, the experiences of political prisoners, the transition democracy, and, in order to assess Mandela's legacy, the state of the ""new"" South Africa, now 20 years old. Each week's seminar will be topic-driven, to include recent scholarly debates around Mandela and tradition, Mandela and the modern colonial city, Mandela and law, Mandela and the Truth and Reconcilation Commission, and the politics of gender, family, and sexuality (including the AIDS epidemic). This course will be of interest not only to students with an interest in Mandela as a great man, but in the nautre of colonial oppression, liberation struggles, human rights, and genres of historical representation (autobiography, biography, documentaries and biopics, for instance) and contemporary cultures of celebrity. AFST 524 640 CINE 502 SEM Barnard MLA Proseminar W 5:30-8:10pm 1 LPS course
International Social Work: Practicing in the Global SouthThis course will introduce students to societal problems in the developing world; familiarize them wth global professions in social work, education, public health, etc.; and prepare them for overseas/cross-cultural practice. Through the course students will identify numerous strategies and skills social workers and other professionals have used to to collaboratively build interventions within the social welfare, education, health care and sustainable community development arenas. This interdisciplinary course will expose students to alternative views of development as they relate to individual, interpersonal, family, community, societal and international change.Students will learn about the history of specific global problems and iniatives aimed at resolution. Students will explore a specific development issue within a country and community, i.e. human trafficking, disaster relief, water & sanitation, women's empowerment, microfinance, etc... AFST 798 402 SWRK 798 Lec Shown W 4-6:30pm 1
Ind. Study: Language AFST 990 0 Ind Staff TBA 1 Department permission needed
Independent Study AFST 999 0 IND Staff TBA 1 Department permission needed
Languages
Course Name Course # Section Cross– Listings Type Instructor Fulfills Meeting Time CU's Notes
Afrikaans
Elementary Afrikaans I AFST 490 686 Lec Staff TBA 1 Department permission needed
Intermediate Afrikaans I AFST 492 686 Lec Staff TBA 1 Department permission needed
Advanced Afrikaans I AFST 494 686 Lec Staff TBA 1 Department permission needed
Amharic
Elementary Amharic I AFST 240 680 AFRC 240 AFRC 540 AFST 540 NELC 481 Lec Hailu MW 5:30-7:30pm 1
Intermediate Amharic I AFST 242 680 AFRC 242 AFRC 543 AFST 543 NELC 483 Lec Hailu TR 7:30-9pm 1 Prior language experience required
Advanced Amharic I AFST 247 680 AFRC 247 AFRC 548 AFST 547 Lec Zemichael Cross Cultural Analysis TR 2-4pm 1 Prior language experience required
Amharic Language & Culture I AFST 249 680 Lec Hailu Cross Cultural Analysis MW 7:30-9:30pm 1 4th year language instruction
Chichewa
Elementary Chichewa I AFST 490 688 Lec Staff TBA 1 Department permission needed
Intermediate Chichewa I AFST 492 688 Lec Staff TBA 1 Department permission needed
Advanced Chichewa I AFST 494 688 Lec Staff Cross Cultural Analysis TBA 1 Department permission needed
Igbo
Elementary Igbo I AFST 490 681 Lec Nwadiora TR 5-7pm 1 Department permission needed
Intermediate Igbo I AFST 492 681 Lec Nwadiora MW 5-7 PM 1 Department permission needed
Advanced Igbo I AFST 494 681 Lec Nwadiora Cross Cultural Analysis TR 7-9pm 1 Department permission needed
Malagasy
Elementary Malagasy I AFST 490 680 Lec Winterton TR 7-9pm 1 Department permission needed
MANINKA
Elementary Maninka I AFST 490 687 LEC Staff TBA 1 Department permission needed
Intermediate Maninka I AFST 492 687 LEC Staff TBA 1 Department permission needed
Advanced Maninka I AFST 494 687 LEC Staff TBA 1 Department permission needed
Sudanese Arabic
Sudanese Arabic I AFST 5489 680 ARAB 548 Lec Ali-Dinar TR 12-2pm 1
Swahili
Elementary Swahili I AFST 180 680 AFST 180 AFRC 180 Lec Mshomba TR 12-2pm 1
Intermediate Swahili I AFST 280 680 AFST 580 AFRC 280 Lec Mshomba TR 10:30am-12pm, F 3-4pm 1 Prior language experience required
Advanced Swahili I AFST 284 680 AFST 584 AFRC 284 Lec Mshomba Cross Cultural Analysis TR 9-10:30am, F 4-5 1 Prior language experience required
Swahili Language & Culture I AFST 484 680 Lec Mshomba Cross Cultural Analysis TBA 1 4th Year Language Instruction
TIGRINYA
Elementary Tigrinya I AFST 490 683 Lec Zemichael TR 6-8pm 1 Department permission needed
Intermediate Tigrinya I AFST 492 683 Lec Zemichael TR 4-6pm 1 Department permission needed
Advanced Tigrinya I AFST 494 683 Lec Zemichael Cross Cultural Analysis TBA 1 Department permission needed
TWI
Elementary Twi I AFST 160 680 AFST 562 AFRC 162 Lec Donkoh TR 4:30-6:30pm 1
Intermediate Twi I AFST 262 680 AFST 566 Lec Donkoh TR 6:30-8:30pm 1 Prior language experience required
Advanced Twi I AFST 362 680 AFST 568 Lec Donkoh Cross Cultural Analysis TR 2:30-4:30 1 Prior language experience required
Wolof
Elementary Wolof I AFST 490 682 Lec Mbacke MW 5-7pm 1 Permission needed from department
Intermediate Wolof I AFST 492 682 Lec Mbacke TR 2-4pm 1 Permission needed from department
Advanced Wolof I AFST 494 682 Lec Mbacke Cross Cultural Analysis TBA 1 Permission needed from department
Yoruba
Elementary Yoruba I AFST 170 680 AFRC 170 AFST 517 Lec Awoyale MW 5-7pm 1
Intermediate Yoruba I AFST 270 680 AFRC 270 Lec Awoyale TR 7-9pm 1 Prior language experience required
Advanced Yoruba I AFST 370 680 AFST 587 Lec Awoyale Cross Cultural Analysis TBA 1 Prior language experience required
Yoruba Language & Culture AFST 486 680 Lec Awoyale Cross Cultural Analysis TBA 1 4th Year Language Instruction
Zulu
Elementary Zulu I AFST 150 680 AFRC 151 AFST 552 Lec Mbeje MW 3-5pm 1
Intermediate Zulu I AFST 250 680 AFST 552 Lec Mbeje TR 3-5pm 1 Prior language experience required
Advanced Zulu I AFST 350 680 AFST 554 Lec Mbeje Cross Cultural Analysis MW 12-2pm 1 Prior language experience required

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