AAS 168-001 (also ENG 168): Jazz & Democracy: This course is a hybrid cultural studies seminar and creative composition course that explores jazz theory as a philosophical artistic practice rooted in American democracy. It investigates jazz aesthetics as a literary, visual, and musical art form, and it examines theories of jazz composition as philosophical statements in direct conversation with the principles of U.S. democracy. The course also explores the philosophical and aesthetic connections of jazz literature to surrealist and existentialist artistic movements in modern and postmodern cultural contexts. Artists to be discussed include James Baldwin, Harryette Mullen, and others. The theoretical aspects of this course will demonstrate how jazz has been a source of inspiration for a variety of twentieth-century literatures and theoretical practices. The readings include selections of fiction, poetry, drama, and essays with emphasis on jazz literary modes, creative trends, and political connotations specific to African American literature and culture. DaMaris Hill, MW 4:00-5:15pm

AAS 200-001: Introduction to African American Studies: explores the historical, social, economic, cultural and political realities of black people in the African Diaspora with an emphasis on the United States. This class explores how macro structures such as slavery, imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, and globalization shaped and continue to circumscribe the lives of Black people across various geographic regions. In addition the class discusses the multiple strategies/efforts Black people employ, both past and present, to ensure the survival of the self and the community.Chamara Kwakye, TR 12:30-1:45pm.

AAS 235 (also SOC 235): Inequalities in Society: This course seeks to promote an understanding of inequalities in American society by considering them in the context of the social origins development and persistence of inequalities in the United States and other societies. Bases of inequality that may be considered include race/ethnicity, class/status, gender/sexuality, age, political, and regional differences as these relate to politics, social justice, community engagement, and/or public policy. Sections: AAS 235-001: TBD, MWF 12:00-12:50 I AAS 235-002: Allison Adair, TR 6:00-8:00pm

AAS 264 (also ENG 260): Introduction to Black Writers: This course seeks to introduce students to the history of African American and African Diaspora literature through novels, plays, poetry, and short fiction. The material focuses different understandings of black experiences, life, and motivations in relation to history, culture, and the literary legacy. By examining how the literature reflects contemporaneous issues concerning black life, we will study how black literary themes presented throughout the last 200 years have a ripple effect all the way to our world today. We work with the “heavy hitters” of African, Caribbean, and African American literary world to understand traditional constructs of the tradition of black literature. By examining these texts, we’ll develop an understanding of critical and public reception when they were published, how they influence and are influenced by other black writers, and why they now are considered canonical texts. Major assignments include three essays, a class presentation, and a final exam. Sections: AAS 264-001: Matthew Godbey TR 12:30-1:45pm/AAS 264-002: Matthew Godbey, TR 2:00-3:15pm

AAS 328-001 (also GEO 328): Geography of the Middle East and North Africa: A comprehensive regional overview, emphasizing cultural adaptation to desert environments. The interrelationships among religions, cultures, and the physical environment will be examined, along with the region’s position and influence in the global system. Christine Smith, MWF 9:00-9:50am

AAS 400-001: Special Topics in AAAS: Race, Gender, and the Classics: Cleopatra in Black & White: Jackie Murray, TR 2:00-3:15pm

AAS 400-002 (also GWS 595): Issues in GWS: Wicked Souls & Bodies: Evil Spirits, Sexuality, Gender, and Violence in Tales for the African Diaspora in the Americas: This course will examine folktales and folktale-like stories as sites of both abjection and healing. Students will study stories that illustrate how individuals protect their identity and bodily integrity. They will discover how storytellers from the Americas have responded to the effect of colonization and colonialism through oral and literary works that underscore the cultural and psychological characteristics as well as the resilience of their communities. Students will examine the carnal violence and brutality associated with sex and gender in folktales and fairytales from the Americas. In so doing, this course will put European and African folklore in conversation with the New World’s oral and literary traditions. For instance, in French Caribbean lore, the nocturnal violation of female bodies by male evil spirits (incubi) resembles the supernatural assault tradition called cauchemar or witch-riding in southwest Louisiana. The Caribbean vampire is often an old woman (a soucougnant or soucouyant) who, at night, sucks people's blood seeking vital energy and, in so doing, recalling the West African witch. Moreover, the consequences of sexual violence do not spare men either. In French Caribbean folklore, the diablesse (She-devil) often eats men’s hearts while succubi (or other devil spawns) petrify them to death. The dialogues between the various spaces are intriguing to say the least. Jacqueline Couti, W 4:00-6:30pm.

AAS 401-001: Independent Reading/Research in AAAS: For African-American & Africana Studies minors. The student pursues a course of reading and research under the guidance of a faculty/staff member, completes a major research project, and takes an examination. A written contract defining the area of study is negotiated between student and instructor at the beginning of the course. DaMaris Hill, MWF 2:00-2:50pm

AAS 432-001 (same as SOC 432): Race and Ethnic Relations: Analysis of relationships between racial and ethnic groups and the behavioral products thereof: sources and consequences of prejudice and discrimination; situation and prospects of minorities; strategies of change and tension reduction. Ana Liberato, TR 12:30-1:45pm AAS 635-001 (same as SOC 635): Seminar in Social Inequalities: Global Racism: This interdisciplinary seminar studies racism globally and historically. We will analyze anti-Semitism and the Nazi’s final solution, anti-black U.S. racism, the denial or racism and the persistence of paternalist racism and colorism in Latin America, and the transformations of racism in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. We will also review critical race theory debates. We will focus on Aníbal Quijano’s coloniality of power, Omni and Winant’s racial formation theory, the debate between Eduardo Bonilla Silva and Mara Loveman, and Pierre Bourdieu and Loïc Wacquant debate with Michael Hanchard. Carlos De La Torre, R 4:00-6:30pm

AAS 656-001 (same as ENG 656): The Black Intellectual: “Traditions and the canons that confirm them are made not born, constructed not spawned…the African American literary canon is an exclusive club whose roster is determined by the tastes of a handful of intellectuals.” -Ann duCille, The Coupling Convention (1995). This course surveys key texts of African American literature and culture from 1900 to 2015. We will explore the modernist and postmodernist works of black fiction writers, essayists, filmmakers, visual artists and poets, and consider the strategies and rhetorical resonances that contribute to the formation of the Black Intellectual. Literary texts will include foundational essays on black intellectualism by Gertrude Bustill Mossell, Anna Julia Cooper, and W. E. B. Du Bois; award-winning fiction from Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin; poems by Pulitzer Prize winner Gwendolyn Brooks; texts from the Nobel Peace Prize winner Toni Morrison; and celebrated works by MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipients Octavia Butler and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Alongside literary texts, students will examine a range of our nation’s most praised cultural productions. These include Jacob Lawrence’s panoramic paintings in The Migration Series, Kara Walker’s celebrated sculptures in A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby and Steven McQueen’s Academy Award-winning film 12 Years a Slave. For each text, students will consider gender, sexuality, migration, freedom and equality; interrogate ideological aims; and address placement within a sociohistorical and political era. Students will learn how black intellectuals offer corrective historical interventions that reveal the complexity of black humanity. We will examine the New Negro Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the tensions between U.S.-born and Caribbean black people, the Black Arts Movement, the feminist movement, LGBTQ issues, and what some consider a post-racial moment in the age of Obama. To frame class discussions, we will engage a wide selection of recent, critical scholarship. Course requirements include thoughtful and engaged participation and a final seminar paper of 25 pages. Each seminar member is responsible for choosing a primary text and leading the discussion of that text in one class meeting. Required Texts: W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903); Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928); Richard Wright, Uncle Tom’s Children (1938); Gwendolyn Brooks, Annie Allen (1949); Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha (1953); Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952); James Baldwin, Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953); Paule Marshall, Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959); Gayl Jones, Corregidora (1975); Octavia Butler, Kindred (1979); Sonia Sanchez, et al., eds. S.O.S—Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Mvt Reader (2014); Toni Morrison, Home (2013); Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (2015) Viewings and Screenings: Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series (1940); Kara Walker, A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby (2014); Steven McQueen, 12 Years a Slave (2013). Nazera Sadiq Wright, M 2:00-4:30pm

ENG 265: African American Literature I: In this course, the first of a two-part sequence offered on African American literary history and cultural studies, we will examine the works of foundational writers, thinkers and activists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We will read a range of genres, from poetry, novels, autobiographies, manifestos and speeches, to articles from early black newspapers, magazines, and conduct manuals. For each text, students will assess the venue of publication, consider thematic scope, and interrogate political and ideological aims. Among the topics that we will discuss are Black Nationalism, citizenship, gender, race, feminism, masculinity, and the emergence of the New Negro. We will explore important critical and theoretical essays that evaluate the concerns of the literary texts, and we will examine major themes, traditions, conventions, and tropes in early African American literature. Course requirements include engaged and thoughtful class participation, a presentation, a midterm paper (5 pages) and a final paper (8-10 pages). Required Texts: Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773); David Walker, David Walker’s Appeal (1829); Harriet Wilson, Our Nig (1859); Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861); Charles Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition (1901); W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903); Nella Larsen, Quicksand, (1928); Steven McQueen, 12 Years a Slave (2013) (Film). Nazera Sadiq Wright, MWF 11:00-11:50am.

Check out the AAAS website for course changes and updated course descriptions: http://aaas.as.uky.edu/aas-course-offerings