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2024-2025 Academic Year

Fall 2024

FYSM 100 First-Year Seminar
The First-Year Seminar (FYS) introduces students to Dickinson as a "community of inquiry" by developing habits of mind essential to liberal learning. Through the study of a compelling issue or broad topic chosen by their faculty member, students will: - Critically analyze information and ideas - Examine issues from multiple perspectives - Discuss, debate and defend ideas, including one's own views, with clarity and reason - Develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information, and - Create clear academic writing The small group seminar format of this course promotes discussion and interaction among students and their professor. In addition, the professor serves as students' initial academic advisor. This course does not duplicate in content any other course in the curriculum and may not be used to fulfill any other graduation requirement.

WGSS 301 African American Women Writers
Cross-listed with AFST 320-01. This course examines a range of the literary productions written by African American women. Specifically, we will span the African-American literary tradition in order to discover the historical, political, and social forces that facilitated the evolution of Black women's voices as well as their roles inside and outside the Black community. Additionally, we will discuss such issues as self-definition, womanhood, sexuality, activism, race, class, and community.

AFST 320 African American Women Writers
Cross-listed with WGSS 301-01. This course examines a range of the literary productions written by African American women. Specifically, we will span the African-American literary tradition in order to discover the historical, political, and social forces that facilitated the evolution of Black women's voices as well as their roles inside and outside the Black community. Additionally, we will discuss such issues as self-definition, womanhood, sexuality, activism, race, class, and community.

Spring 2025

AFST 320 (Dis)Figuring the Black Body
This course will examine the disparate socio-political values and meanings assigned to the black body, historically and contemporarily. Throughout the term, students will engage with a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives and source materials that specifically engage with discourses of black bodily difference (gender, age, able-bodiedness, and weight), usefulness (labor, medical experimentation, and athleticism), and beauty (hair and fashion). Ultimately, we will come to understand the ways in which black bodies have served not only as sites of cultural memory and trauma, but also as signifiers of black cultural pride and resiliency.

AFST 400 Writing in Africana Studies
This course will build on experiences in the methods course. Students in this course continue research toward and writing of a senior thesis. The emphasis is on writing skills and course material; assignments link those skills to work in Africana Studies. Seniors in the major will work independently with the director of Africana Studies and a second faculty reader (representing a discipline closer to the senior's interest) to produce a lengthy paper or special project which focuses on an issue relevant to the student's concentration. Under the direction of the director of Africana Studies, students will meet collectively two or three times during the semester with the directors (and, if possible, other Africana Studies core and contributing faculty) to share bibliographies, research data, early drafts, and the like. This group will also meet at the end of the semester to discuss and evaluate final papers and projects. Prerequisites: 100 and 200; four 200/300-level AFST approved courses (2 Africa, 2 Diaspora); three 300-level (in area of concentration).

AFST 500 Independent Study