Courses

What is race? What is ethnicity? What are the legacies of racially and ethnically based discrimination in America? Matters related to race, ethnicity, and racism have been debated since the formation of the United States. However, while most people have some familiarity with these concepts, there is surprisingly little agreement on how to define these terms and their relative importance in American society. The course is designed for students that have not yet taken a similar course. The course goes beyond the social commentary and public opinion that we often find in newspapers and on social media and focuses instead on social scientific theory and systematic observations. After completing the course, students will have an introductory understanding of the conceptual nuances and complexities of race, ethnicity, and racism in the United States. The reading for the course is mostly from a textbook but also includes selected readings. 

May 18-June 14, 2026

Instructor: Alexander Shashko 

This course is about the world that hip-hop made and the world that made hip-hop. It tells the story of hip-hop’s origins in Jamaica and the Bronx, its evolution across North America, and its emergence as a global phenomenon. It explores the various themes, ideas and debates that emerged both within the world of hip-hop culture, and the broader historical events that contributed to hip-hop’s evolution from the 1970s to the present. Musical styles covered in this course include New York hip-hop, California gangsta rap, Southern hip-hop, the Detroit and Chicago scenes, and contemporary rhythm & blues. 

June 8-July 5, 2026

Instructor: Alexander Shashko 

This course is the story of how Black music became one of the world’s dominant cultural forces, and how it shaped the musical, social and political landscape of the United States from the end of World War II until the present. It considers how Black music articulates survival, redemption, and reinvention, how those themes reflect the African-American experience in postwar 20th and 21st-century America, and how those themes can be heard in the music we hear today. Musical styles covered in the course include the blues, gospel, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, disco, and hip-hop. 

May 18-June 14, 2026

Instructor: Anthony Black

In this introduction to African American drama we will read work by playwrights who have long been committed to revealing issues of racism, inequality, police brutality and other social justice issues that have plagued this country for more than 400 years. Our analysis and discussion of the plays will take into account how some playwrights work within established dramatic traditions such as realism while others, especially those who came of age artistically during the first two decades of the twenty-first century, are seeking new modes of expression that depart radically from the realism of earlier periods to represent issues that are specific to today’s youth culture. 

Instructor: Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall

This Essence Learning Community course will introduce students to the origins of African American studies as an academic discipline. We will investigate how African American studies became a field in the academy by exploring the contributions of community leaders, organizers, scholars, and artists in shaping our understanding of the African American experience throughout history. Additionally, we’ll examine the current ongoing fight for Black liberation, justice, and humanity. 

Instructor: Alexander Shashko

This course is about the world that hip-hop made and the world that made hip-hop. It tells the story of hip-hop’s origins in Jamaica and the Bronx, its evolution across North America, and its emergence as a global phenomenon. It explores the various themes, ideas and debates that emerged both within the world of hip-hop culture, and the broader historical events that contributed to hip-hop’s evolution from the 1970s to the present. Musical styles covered in this course include New York hip-hop, California gangsta rap, Southern hip-hop, the Detroit and Chicago scenes, and contemporary rhythm & blues. 

Instructor: Alexander Shashko

This course is the story of how Black music became one of the world’s dominant cultural forces, and how it shaped the musical, social and political landscape of the United States from the end of World War II until the present. It considers how Black music articulates survival, redemption, and reinvention, how those themes reflect the African-American experience in postwar 20th and 21st-century America, and how those themes can be heard in the music we hear today. Musical styles covered in the course include the blues, gospel, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, disco, and hip-hop. 

Instructor: Anthony Black

In this survey course, we will investigate the history of African-American Art from the Colonial Era to contemporary art historical periods. We will analyze various art forms ranging from painting, sculpture, photography, folk art, print, and new media. Our goal is to understand how African-American art acted, and continues to act, as both a form of self-expression as well an act of resistance against various forms of marginalization. Because of the profound intermixing of cultures (African, European, Anglo-American among others) indicative of African diaspora communities, we will also study non-African-American art to illuminate the many layers of influence that characterize African-American art. 

Instructor: Dr. Sabrina Thomas

The Buffalo Soldiers, Jack Johnson, Joe Lewis, Muhammad Ali, General Colin Powell, Colin Kaepernick, Jackie Robinson, Lt. General Benjamin Davis, Paul Robeson, General Charles Q. Brown, etc… This course explores the connection between sports, war, and Black masculinity. It will examine and interpret the role of sports and war in America through the lens of Black male athletes and soldiers who used sports and war to prove their manhood and achieve racial equality by upending assumptions of Black male inferiority via athletic competition and heroism on the battlefield  This is a course in American social and cultural history that examines gender, race, and class, American foreign policy and American militarism, and the history of sports in America. 

Instructor: Anthony Black

“Afrofuturism is a term coined by Mark Dery in the essay “Black to the Future” in 1994. However, it was born in the minds of thousands of enslaved Africans passing the horrific Middle Passage while saying prayers for their lives and that of their descendants. These people dreamt of a society completely without both physical and social bondage of oppression. These were the first Afrofuturists, and they brought to life what we know as the definition today. Afrofuturism is all about evaluating the past, present and future and imagining a world that encourages better conditions for Black people through literature, music, technology, and arts. In Afrofuturism, the world has a structure that doesn’t violently oppress Black communities” (Terril “Rell” Fields, “Blerds”). 

This course will consider the Afrofuturist aesthetic through works of literature, film, music, and visual art. Our goal is to investigate African American cultural themes, symbols, and creative patterns in various Afrofuturist works. In the process, we will identify Afrofuturist critiques of racism, colonialism, and America’s racial history. Additionally, we will explore Afrofuturist themes concerning gender, sexuality, feminism, and others. We begin with theoretical essays written by foundational Afrofuturist figures. We will also read fiction, and explore Afrofuturist aesthetics in the music of Sun Ra, George Clinton/Parliament Funkadelic, Janelle Monáe, and others. The films will include Sorry to Bother You and The Black Panther. 

Instructor: Dr. Ethelene Whitmire

In this course, we will examine the biographies of African Americans through analyzing printed texts and documentaries.  

Instructor: Dr. Ethelene Whitmire

This course examines the experiences of African Americans who traveled or lived abroad through the examination of primary texts, autobiographies, film, etc. Specific questions we will consider include: Why did African Americans go abroad? What were their experiences while abroad? How were African Americans changed by these experiences? 

Instructor: Alexander Shashko

This course will examine how African Americans organized and advocated for their democratic rights in twentieth-century America. We will reflect upon the social, economic, and cultural conditions that both galvanized and limited that advocacy, ranging from the end of Reconstruction to the early years of the twenty-first century. 

Instructor: Dr. Max Felker-Kantor

Across the twentieth century, African American life transformed from a predominantly rural to a profoundly urban one. But how did this transformation occur? How and why did African American life become associated with the American city? How did African Americans contribute to building urban America as we know it today? This course will explore these questions and center the important role African Americans have played in building the American city. From the foundations of Black life in nineteenth century cities to the Great Migration and the transformation of urban centers in the twentieth to the so-called “urban crisis” of the 1970s, African Americans have had a significant impact on American cities as well as being profoundly shaped by the urban experience. Paying close attention to themes of race and place, this course will examine the contributions of African Americans to the social life, culture, economies, and politics of American cities. 

Instructor: Dr. Brittney Edmonds

This course examines how the decade of the 1960s created revolutionary changes in American society and the impact of these changes on visual art, literature, theater, and other forms of creative expression. We will begin with an overview of the Black Power Movement and key texts that defined this movement. As the cultural expression of Black Power, the Black Arts Movement embraced the ideology of Black nationalism and promoted the arts as tools for liberation and social transformation. Throughout this class, we will consider ways in which visual artists, writers, and performers worked to define a new “Black aesthetic” that rejected the notion of “art for art’s sake” and embraced the idea of “art for people’s sake” that challenged systemic racism while centering and celebrating Blackness. We will also consider the legacy of the Black Arts Movement for subsequent generations of artists engaged in multiple forms of artistic production throughout the African diaspora. 

Instructor: Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara

This course is a social history of women and legal slavery in colonial North America and the United States, 1619-1865, we will explore three major themes: the origins and development of the institution of race-based slavery, the varied experiences of enslavement and enslavers, and finally the social, political, and economic effects of race-based slaveholding in the American Republic. Special attention will be paid to enslaved Black women and slaveholding white women. We will wrestle with the following questions: How and why was race-based slavery established in the colonies that would become the United States of America? How and why did gender conventions affect both enslavement and slaveholding? How did enslaved people and enslavers experience slavery and mastery differently over time and space? And, finally, what are the structural legacies of race-based slavery? 

Instructor: Dr. Sabrina Thomas

Despite its widespread image as a white, racially homogenous country, Germany is home to a vibrant and growing Black community with a long and complicated history. Students in this course will explore the history of Black Germany beginning with the 19^th century colonial encounters between Germany and the African diaspora and the emergence of a German born Black population. It will also consider the infatuation many African Americans had with Germany and that Germans had with Black American leaders through the end of the Second World War. The course will consider questions of nationality, citizenship, race, and identity, such as “What does it means to be German?” and “What does it mean to be Black?” from transnational and transracial perspectives. This course is designed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students. 

Instructor: Dr. Max Felker-Kantor

Who the police protect and who do they serve? This course will center that question in an exploration of the functions of police and policing in American history. In this course, we will trace the history of policing from its origins in the nineteenth century through various eras of reform and professionalization to the debates over policing in the present. It will center the intersection of policing with categories of race, ethnicity, gender, and class across time and place. By looking at the relationship between race and policing over time, this course will provide insight and context for understanding how and why policing remains a source of tension and debate in the present. 

Instructor: Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall

This course will study methods, epistemologies, and theories that center Blackness in qualitative educational research. We will analyze data through lenses that challenge limiting, harmful, and anti-Black assumptions of Black people and move toward analytic techniques committed to uplifting Black joy, resistance, and liberatory Black futurities. We will focus on ethnographically inspired methods of participant observation and interviews. Instructor Permission required: email jlstovall@wisc.edu for more details.  

Instructor: Dr. Brittney Edmonds

This course will rigorously introduce students to works of literary satire in the African American tradition. Students will follow the development of African American humor, from its roots in oral traditions in Africa to its convoluted imbrications in blackface minstrelsy to its breakthrough insurgency in 1960s stand-up to its pop cultural manifestations in the stereotypes and stock characters of crossover blockbusters to the category-defining hijinks of new millennium satire. We will read texts, watch films, and listen to stand-up to fully consider the tremendous output of this rich tradition.