AFS

Subject

AFS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Source

www.rhodes.edu

Credits: Across the centuries, Black women have played a foundational role in the struggle for Black Freedom. In an effort to analyze this role, this course will explore the varied efforts employed by Black women to build greater freedom for themselves and the communities in which they live and work. The class will span the period from era of slavery to the present moment and will center the various manifestations of activism crafted by Black Women. We will explore the multiple ways Black women challenged inequality and injustice in the arenas of race, class, gender and sexual identity. Centering mainly historical scholarship on black women activists as an entryway, students will learn about Black women’s activism on a range of issues, spanning various eras and ideological perspectives, including slave revolts, abolition, the anti-lynching movement, the civil rights and black power eras, and contemporary Movement for Blacks Lives. Using primary and secondary sources, films, oral interviews, social media and other resources, students will grapple with the living legacy of Black women’s activism.

Subject

AFS

Credits (min)

4

Credits (max)

4

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Credits: This course examines the presence and impact of Black Superheroes in American culture and society, focusing on fictional characters as well as historical figures that have been celebrated through literature, film, television, and music. Discussions are organized largely around the relationship between Black Superheroes and movements for social justice, including the fight to abolish slavery, the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th Century, and the contemporary Movement for Black Lives.

Subject

AFS

Credits (min)

4

Credits (max)

4

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Term:

Subject

AFS

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Term:

Subject

AFS

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Credits: This course explores literary and cultural expressions produced within and about the movement for African American Civil Rights, focusing on the Jim Crow period through the rise of Black Power. Taking a multi-genre approach, texts will include fiction, poetry, music, autobiography, public speeches, and essays. We will examine the manner by which the intellectual, cultural, and political elements of the movement are captured and expressed through literature. Moreover, we will consider literary expression as central to furthering the aims of the Civil Rights movement, preserving and promoting its legacy in the contemporary moment, and framing 21st Century movements toward social justice.

Subject

AFS

Credits (min)

4

Credits (max)

4

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Credits: This course will examine the literary and cultural production of African Americans in the 21st Century, considering ways that contemporary African American writers have-through form and content-honored and advanced the expressive traditions that preceded them. Taking a multi-genre approach, we will also consider the manner by which fiction, poetry, film, essays, and music have presented and reflected upon the contemporary reality of African Americans. Potential themes and events considered within the literature include: the ongoing impact of history, the aftermath of 9/11, responses to Hurricane Katrina, Blackness in the age of Obama, post-Blackness/post-Raciality, African diasporan identity and immigration, identity formation and social media, popular culture, intersectionality, #BlackLivesMatter, and social justice movements of the 21st Century.

Subject

AFS

Credits (min)

4

Credits (max)

4

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

While the immediate focus of this course will be directed toward the politics and poetics of Spoken Word and Hip Hop, we will engage the contemporary moment as part of an African American cultural legacy that is built upon a bedrock of oral tradition. We will consider the significance of orality in crafting and cultivating the forms, styles, and content of African American cultural expression. Our exploration of African American poetry, written and oral, will be balanced with oral expressions that range from music to public speeches. Ultimately, this course positions the spoken word as central to understanding the complex issues of identity, culture, and politics that shape the African American presence in American society.

Subject

AFS

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Black music has always soundtracked, reflected, and reshaped the history of the United States. This course will examine that relationship, centering on music’s central role in the experiences of African Americans from the era of enslavement through modern struggles for freedom and justice. We’ll think about key artists, styles, movements, and innovations, from West African sounds to hip-hop and beyond. We’ll also think about key historical contexts from across eras as we examine what Black music can teach us about larger questions of culture, politics, economics, and identity. And we’ll use a variety of sources, including lots of music, to think about how understanding Black music can reshape our larger ways of thinking and working historically.

Subject

AFS

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Credits: This course explores how law enforcement in the United States was designed to unjustly surveil, suppress, and oppress Black bodies. We will interrogate the mythical origins of policing, explore the role of violence in state-sanctioned law enforcement, and study the variegated ways that police officers violate the humanity of particular groups of people.

Subject

AFS

Credits (min)

4

Credits (max)

4

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Credits: Sociology of the South is an area of study that centers the people, places, and cultures of the American South while examining how the region is unique and has become a noteworthy unit of analysis in any attempt(s) to understand Americans and Americanness. As such, this course can be taught ten times with each one including new material and previously undiscussed topics. This semester, Sociology of the South will, primarily, center Blackness in the American South and examine themes including, but not limited to, Black sociology, race and race relations, gender, orientation, class, and popular culture.

Subject

AFS

Credits (min)

4

Credits (max)

4

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Subject

AFS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Source

www.rhodes.edu

Credits: This course will explore the evolution of African American freedom struggles over the course of the twentieth century. It will survey the critical organizations, institutions, and figures of the Black freedom struggle and will examine the ideological diversity of a dynamic, often contentious struggle that encompassed ever-shifting combinations of uplift politics, black nationalism, liberalism, conservatism, and leftism. It will explore critical Black lives over the course of the semester, including Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Pauli Murray, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Angela Davis, the founders of Black Lives Matter, contemporary prison abolitionists, and others. The course will also introduce students to foundational debates and issues through the interdisciplinary lens of Africana Studies. Additionally, it will push students to ponder how the political, socioeconomic, and cultural endeavors of African Americans have and continue to alter conventional understandings of "freedom," "justice," "democracy," and "equity" within and beyond the United States.

Subject

AFS

Credits (min)

4

Credits (max)

4

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Credits: Over the course of the semester, we will explore the literary output of one of the 20th Century’s most prolific writers, James A. Baldwin. Students will have the opportunity to deeply engage and critically reflect on Baldwin’s fiction and essays. Moreover, Baldwin’s writing will serve as the foundation for our exploration of themes of race, class, gender, and sexuality that continue to make his work as relevant in the contemporary moment as when they were first published.

Subject

AFS

Credits (min)

4

Credits (max)

4

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Credits: In 1993 Toni Morrison became the first Black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. In this course we will read several novels from her long career including The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jazz, Paradise and A Mercy. We will also read important essays and non-fiction by Morrison including her Nobel Prize acceptance speech in order to assess her role in the formation of Black studies, Black Feminism, as well as her contributions to the genre of the novel.

Subject

AFS

Credits (min)

4

Credits (max)

4

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Credits: This course explores the intellectual history and contributions of Black Feminisms and Womanism. Students will study and engage a genealogy of thinkers and writers crafting Black feminist and womanist thought. From foundational texts to contemporary works, this course will engage writings about race, class, gender, sex, and sexuality.

Subject

AFS

Credits (min)

4

Credits (max)

4

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Subject

AFS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Source

www.rhodes.edu

Credits: On an individual basis and in conjunction with the Career Services Office, students can receive internship credit for work in various professional settings that are related to the interdisciplinary field of Africana Studies. Internships must be approved by the Africana Studies chair and the supervising faculty member before the start of the internship. Student interns must commit to meet regularly with the supervising faculty, submit short assignments reflecting on their experiences, and deliver a public presentation about their internship experience. Students who enroll in an internship for fewer than 4 credits may repeat their internship experience, for up to four total credits.

Subject

AFS

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

4

Type

course

Edition

2026

Source

catalog.rhodes.edu

Prerequisite

Approval of Chair

32 Credits (typically 8 courses) in Africana Studies Courses or AFS-Approved

Subject

AFS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Source

www.rhodes.edu