19 Jan 2025 To do list

 

Module 3 Overview: African American Studies

To-Do Date: Jan 19 at 11:59pmTo-Do Date: Jan 19 at 11:59pm

Introduction

This week we explore African American Studies:

• What it is
• How we got here
• Systemic Racism
• Cultural and Political Representation

Learning Outcomes/Goals

• Analyze and articulate concepts used in the field of Africana / African American / Black Studies, including Panafricanism, Black Power, Black Nationalism, discrimination, double consciousness, and controlling images;
• Apply theory and knowledge produced by Black communities to describe critical events, histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, contributions, lived experiences, and social struggles, with a particular emphasis on agency and group affirmation;
• Critically analyze the intersection of race and racism as they relate to class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, in Black communities;
• Explain and assess how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced, enacted, and studied by Black communities are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics;
• Describe anti-racist practices to build a just and equitable society.

Required ReadingLinks to an external site.

• Chapter 3: Africana /African American/ Black Studies. Introduction to Ethnic Studies Textbook. Libretext. 2023.Links to an external site.
• Levels of Racism (1-page PDF)
• Strategic Question Stems (1-page PDF): use these to help you with critical reading/writing

Lectures & Instructional Videos

• W03-1 Tuesday Lecture
• W03-2 Thursday Lecture

Supplemental Materials (not required)

If you would like to go beyond the chapter to learn from various authors and their various perspectives on African American Studies, explore the Supplemental Materials. For example, a reading by Ibram X Kendi examines the extraordinary life of Angela Davis and what her life means for Black history in the U.S. 

• Ibram X. Kendi on Angela Davis, pp. 381-409
• Podcast: The Juneteenth Mixtape (Be Antiracist Podcast)
• W.E.B. DuBois, Ch. 1 "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," The Souls of Black Folk, Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1903
• Video - TED Talk: Nicole Johnson - The (re)birth of the Double Consciousness (2014, 12 min.)
• Current Events: Systemic Racism in Healthcare (11/20/25)
• Current Events: Viola Ford Fletcher, one of the last survivors of Tulsa race massacre, dies aged 111 (11/2025)

This Week's Assignments

• Read - please read this module's readings and go through the pages in the module.
• View - the lecture videos
• Reading Quiz #1: available Tuesday, due Friday, closes Sunday
• Answer - Please respond to two Discussion Forum 3 prompts by Friday
  
• Comment - Respond to two classmates' forum posts, due Sunday