AAS 267, African American Literature, is a survey course that will take us from the early days of enslavement to the present. We will read, analyze, and discuss literary texts written by African Americans, paying particular attention to the political, historical and social context that informs these texts.

This course will introduce the student to the art and architecture of Africa from a Western art historical perspective. This course will emphasize the role of art as manifested in the lifestyles, spiritualities, and philosophies of particular African societies, while also broaching aesthetic principles and the study and display of African art. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: demonstrate an understanding of transitions in the national geography of the African continent from the 17th century to the present; demonstrate an understanding of the ethnic diversity and distinct cultural traditions among people of Africa; identify and discuss materials and techniques employed in the creation of a range of African artistic and architectural works; discuss the functions and meanings of a range of African art forms; identify traditional styles and forms strongly associated with particular cultural groups. (Art History 304)

Welcome to Africana Folklore. This course explores the oral, customary and material folklore of Africans and their descendants in the Americas and the Caribbean. We will use readings and films to examine various ways West African folklore was transmitted to and survived in the New World, and how Africans in the Americas created new oral, customary and material traditions. We will compare and contrast fictional and historical folk characters from Africa, the Northern and Southern American hemispheres, with a special focus on the English, Spanish and French-speaking Caribbean. We will examine some of the customs and practices that continue to exist in those regions and how all have contributed to global culture. In addition to required readings, there will also be weekly writing exercises. This course is designed to help prepare you for further academic study in general, and African, African-American and Caribbean studies, specifically. It will introduce you to the various disciplines that inform the study of people of African descent worldwide.

This collection of stories was written by Dakota Sioux author Zitkala-Sa, also known as Gertrude Bonnin. Helen Keller sent a testimonial letter to the author on August 25, 1919: "I thank you for your book on Indian legends. I have read them with exquisite pleasure. Like all folk tales they mirror the child life of the world. There is in them a note of wild, strange music." The text here presented was published in 1921 by Hayworth Publishing in Washington, D.C.

Interdisciplinary survey of people of African descent that draws on the overlapping approaches of history, literature, anthropology, legal studies, media studies, performance, linguistics, and creative writing. This course connects the experiences of African-Americans and of other American minorities, focusing on social, political, and cultural histories, and on linguistic patterns.

This course is designed to provide students with a broad overview of the major theories on the relationship between ethnicity and politics. The first section discusses ethnicity as a dependent variable. This section studies the forces that shape the development of ethnic identities and their motivating power. The second section addresses ethnicity as an independent variable. In other words, it focuses on how ethnicity operates to affect important political and economic outcomes. Graduate students from all subfields and methodological backgrounds are encouraged to take the course regardless of their previous level of acquaintance with ethnic politics.

Subject has three goals: introduces students to the classic works on ethnic politics, familiarizes students with new research and methodological innovations in the study of ethnic politics, and helps students design and execute original research projects related to ethnic politics. Readings drawn from across disciplines, including political science, anthropology, sociology, and economics. Students read across the four subfields within political science. Graduate students specializing in any subfield are encouraged to take this subject, regardless of their previous empirical or theoretical background. Subject designed as a year-long research workshop, but may also be taken in either semester. This course is designed mainly for political science graduate students conducting or considering conducting research on identity politics. While 17.504 Ethnic Politics I is designed as a primarily theoretical course, Ethnic Politics II switches the focus to methods. It aims to familiarize the student with the current conventional approaches as well as major challenges to them. The course discusses definition and measurement issues as well as briefly addressing survey techniques and modeling.

An introduction to the cross-cultural study of ethnic and national identity. We examine the concept of social identity, and consider the ways in which gendered, linguistic, religious, and ethno-racial identity components interact. We explore the history of nationalism, including the emergence of the idea of the nation-state, as well as ethnic conflict, globalization, identity politics, and human rights.

The "Flipping the Script: Challenging Our Perceptions about Race”  Lesson Plan provides a step by step plan on how to conduct this workshop. Also, the Lesson Plan provides a link to an After Event Toolbox that was designed to allow participants to continue the conversation after the workshop is completed. 

"What can we learn about science and technology--and what can we do with that knowledge? Who are "we" in these questions?--whose knowledge and expertise gets made into public policy, new medicines, topics of cultural and political discourse, science education, and so on? How can expertise and lay knowledge about science and technology be reconciled in a democratic society? How can we make sense of the interactions of living and non-living, humans and non-humans, individual and collectivities in the production of scientific knowledge and technologies? The course takes these questions as entry points into an ever-growing body of work to which feminist, anti-racist, and other critical analysts and activists have made significant contributions. The course also takes these questions as an invitation to practice challenging the barriers of expertise, gender, race, class, and place that restrict wider access to and understanding of the production of scientific knowledge and technologies. In that spirit, students participate in an innovative, problem-based learning (PBL) approach that allows them to shape their own directions of inquiry and develop their skills as investigators and prospective teachers. At the same time the PBL cases engage students' critical faculties as they learn about existing analyses of gender, race, and the complexities of science and technology, guided by individualized bibliographies co-constructed with the instructors and by the projects of the other students. Students from all fields and levels of preparation are encouraged to join the course."

The Heroic Slave is written by well-known author, publisher, and civil-rights activist, Frederick Douglass. The novella is Douglass' only published work of fiction, although the story borrows from the 1841 slave revolt aboard the brig Creole.
The work first appeared in 1852 as part of the anthology Autographs for Freedom, published by John P. Jewett and Co., in Boston, for the Rochester Ladies' Anti Slavery Society.This edition includes the full text of The Heroic Slave along with several documents to provide context for readers.

This course explores how identities, whether of individuals or groups, are produced, maintained, and transformed. Students will be introduced to various theoretical perspectives that deal with identity formation, including constructions of "the normal." We will explore the utility of these perspectives for understanding identity components such as gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, language, social class, and bodily difference. By semester's end students will understand better how an individual can be at once cause and consequence of society, a unique agent of social action as well as a social product.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the autobiography of Harriet A. Jacobs, published in 1861 under the pen name Linda Brent. Well-known abolitionist Lydia Maria Child was invited by the publisher to write an introduction. Jacobs describes her life as a slave and how she gained freedom for herself and for her children.

This course provides an overview of Asian American history and its relevance for contemporary issues. It covers the first wave of Asian immigration in the 19th century, the rise of anti-Asian movements, the experiences of Asian Americans during WWII, the emergence of the Asian American movement in the 1960s, and the new wave of post–1965 Asian immigration. The class examines the role these experiences played in the formation of Asian American ethnicity. The course addresses key societal issues such as racial stereotyping, media racism, affirmative action, the glass ceiling, the "model minority" syndrome, and anti-Asian harassment or violence. The course is taught in English.

This course will introduce you to the field of literary theory by identifying and engaging with the key problems and questions that animate theoretical discussion among literary scholars and critics, including issues pertaining to ideology, cultural value, the patriarchal and colonial bases of Western culture, and more. The student will be acquainted with the basic principles and preeminent texts that have defined many of the major critical debates of the 20th and 21st centuries. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to define both literary criticism and literary theory, and explain the emergence of literature as a discipline of study; identify and discuss classical Greek explanations of the purpose of literature; explain and account for the rise of critical theory in the 20th century, and describe the place of theory in contemporary English and cultural studies; provide a brief overview of the major tenets, practitioners, and ideas of the following critical and theoretical movements and/or schools: Russian Formalism, structuralism, post-structuralism, semiotics, Deconstruction, psychoanalysis, feminism, gender theory, Marxism, Reader-Response paradigms, New Historicism, Post-Colonialism, Ethnic and Cultural Studies, Eco-criticism and Eco-theory and trauma theory; identify and discuss some of the viewpoints opposed to the practice of criticism and literary theory; identify and discuss some of the newly emerging trends in literary theory, such as eco-criticism, trauma theory, chaos theory, game theory, and trans-identity criticism; identify, discuss, and define some of the key literary theories of such major literary and cultural critics and theorists as Plato, Aristotle, Karl Marx, Michele Foucault, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, T.S. Eliot, Henry Louis Gates, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Eve Sedgwick, and Frederic Jameson. (English Literature 301)

An introduction to diverse musical traditions of the world. Music from a wide range of geographical areas are studied in terms of structure, performance practice, social use, aesthetics, and cross-cultural contact. Includes hands-on music making, live demonstrations by guest artists, and ethnographic research projects. This course explores the ways that music is both shaped by and gives shape to the cultural settings in which it is performed, through studying selected musical traditions from around the world. Specific case studies will be examined closely through listening, analysis, and hands-on instruction. The syllabus centers around weekly listening assignments and readings from a textbook with CDs, supplemented by hands-on workshops, lecture/demonstrations and concerts by master musicians from around the world.

Frederick Douglass (1818Ð1895) was an abolitionist, orator, writer, and politician. He escaped from slavery in Maryland to became a national leader of the abolitionist movement. This, his first autobiography, details his life until his entrance on the national stage. It remains the most famous slave narrative.

This website features many of the OER conversion projects completed at John Jay College over the past few years. Class conversions using the Blackboard platform are not represented because of the BB firewall. These are not the actual LibGuides, but content from the LibGuides, using the LibGuide platform for access. The entire website is public.

The left navigation panel displays the academic departments with the overview and objective of the department. Also, navigation to the specific departmental classes, with corresponding OER content, are found at the bottom of the academic department pages. You can also directly navigate to the specific converted class, by clicking on the course title under the department tab. When clicking on a specific class (e.g. Science 110), the link takes you to the course description, learning outcomes of the course and a link to the OER content for the specific course. The OER content features creative commons OER Textbooks, vetted open Internet sites, academic journal articles and library owned streaming video, requiring a login to the John Jay Library. Each academic department features a link to "Discussion and Comments". In addition all pages have navigation arrows to previous pages and next pages. On many of the OER content pages, the class calendar by week is featured with links to the reading assignments. In addition to the specific OER content by class, there is a link at the top of the main page to access generic OER by subject and/or topic.

Survey and theoretical foundations in Puerto Rican and Latin@ Studies. Case study on Puerto Rico. Pertinent themes in Puerto Rican and Latin@ history, culture, literature, contemporary society, and politics. Impact of the United States? economic policies on Puerto Rico and the causes of Puerto Rican and LatinX migration to New York City and urban centers. Satisfies Pathways Flexible Core US Experience in Its Diversity requirement.
This is an inter— and trans-disciplinary course which has two main objectives. The first is to critically introduce students to the theoretical foundations in Puerto Rican and Latinx Studies, both broadly defined. While the course places Puerto Rico as the central focus and as a case study of the class, corresponding spaces within the Spanish Caribbean will also be placed into analysis in order to examine the pertinent and current themes in Puerto Rican and Latinx history, culture, literature, and politics. Specific focus will be placed on the impact of the complex relationship of Puerto Rico with the United States since 1898 related but not limited to the economic, cultural, psychological, and political impacts on the Puerto Rican people both on the island and within the Union. In addition, the investigation will explore the multi-faceted causes of Puerto Rican and Latinx migration to New York City and urban spaces in the U.S.

3 hours; 3 credits. Latina feminist tradition of testimonios, autobiographical narratives, short-stories, poems, and oral histories to reveal the complexity of Chicana/Latina identity. The connection between life experience and new knowledge creation. Theorize Latinidades at the intersection of racism, sexism and heterosexism. Re-think feminism, women and gender studies; Latin@, American and cultural studies. Students will create their own digital life stories. This course is the same as Women’s and Gender Studies 3152 and American Studies 3310.

This is an inter and trans-disciplinary course, which has two main objectives. The first is to serve as an introduction into the current realities and challenges of the LatinX community within the criminal justice complex in the United States. The course seeks to critically examine the misconceptions and realities of the LatinX community within the larger discussion of mass incarceration and prison reform in the United States. Close attention will also be paid to the use of criminalization as a form of social control and the proliferation of regulations, ordinances, and legislative acts that give legal form to such methods of discipline and punishment. The course will address dynamics and phenomena of racial profiling; juvenile justice; drug criminalization; and the intersection of immigration law with criminal law. In concluding, the course will shift to understanding and connecting the prison-industrial complex to what the future holds for marginalized communities within the current movement and crisis of global capital.

The course also seeks to improve your skills in critical reading, writing, and thinking. Paper assignments and essay exams will provide opportunities to develop your own interpretations systematically and polish your writing skills.

While there undoubtedly exists an infinite research agenda when it comes to the study mass incarceration and the ongoing challenges of the LatinX community within the criminal justice system of the United States, it is only possible [in 15 weeks] to cover a limited surface/amount of such complicated history and realities of these topics. However, I have provided a list of suggested/recommended readings for additional literature to be consulted.

This is an inter and trans-disciplinary course, which has two main objectives. The first is to serve as an introduction into the current realities and challenges of the LatinX community within the criminal justice complex in the United States. The course seeks to critically examine the misconceptions and realities of the LatinX community within the larger discussion of mass incarceration and prison reform in the United States. Close attention will also be paid to the use of criminalization as a form of social control and the proliferation of regulations, ordinances, and legislative acts that give legal form to such methods of discipline and punishment. The course will address dynamics and phenomena of racial profiling; juvenile justice; drug criminalization; and the intersection of immigration law with criminal law. In concluding, the course will shift to understanding and connecting the prison-industrial complex to what the future holds for marginalized communities within the current movement and crisis of global capital.

The course also seeks to improve your skills in critical reading, writing, and thinking. Paper assignments will provide opportunities to develop your own interpretations systematically and polish your writing skills.

While there undoubtedly exists an infinite research agenda when it comes to the study mass incarceration and the ongoing challenges of the LatinX community within the criminal justice system of the United States, it is only possible [in 15 weeks] to cover a limited surface/amount of such complicated history and realities of these topics. However, provided is a list of suggested/recommended readings for additional literature to be consulted.

This is an inter and trans-disciplinary course which has two main objectives. The first is to critically examine the multi-faceted evolution of the Latinx population as an urbanized segment of United States society. Specifically, the course seeks to provide a cross-cultural understanding of the diversity among Spanish-speaking people within the urban context. Different processes and roles over space and time will be problematized included but not limited to the role of urban institutions in the conflicts between assimilation and cultural preservation; the dynamics of migration, immigration, and settlement; and institutionalized participation in the social processes of United States urban life.

U.S. society today is in the middle of facing heightened social transformation in the early 21st Century. Since the inception of well over 150 years of Spanish presence in the United States, structures of inequality, oppression, and fusion remain in place. However, these structures—and challenges against them—are indeed changing along with the identity of what is “Urban” life and what roles Latinxs play in such formation.

Furthermore, as diverse social forces struggle over the terms of development and direction of change, the current state of affairs of Latinxs in the U.S. is full of rising social conflict, political mobilization, renewed revolutionary movements, further economic restructuring, transnational migration, and cultural redefinition. These are some of the aspects/dynamics that will be investigated throughout the course.

However, it is only possible [in 15 weeks] to cover a limited surface/amount of the complicated and rich history and multiple research agendas on the complex relationship between the making of urban life in the U.S. and the role of Latinxs within such historical formation.

The second goal is to improve your skills in critical reading and writing. You will work on understanding and interpreting the materials throughout the course. Paper assignments and essay exams will provide opportunities to develop your OWN interpretations systematically and polish your writing skills.

Examine critical research issues in Puerto Rican and Latinx studies. Introduce students to a variety of ways of thinking about “knowledge" and to specific ways of knowing and making arguments in Puerto Rican and Latinx studies using key humanistic, social science, and "interdisciplinary methodologies."

How do we study U.S. Latino and Caribbean populations and cultures? Some read literature, watch a film, read a history book… and others conduct interviews, do field work to identify and describe social and cultural practices, or collect oral histories and traditions. Are you interested in learning how to use different sources and methods to learn more about ethnic communities in the United States? What is the contribution of ethnic studies to our knowledge about migrant and underrepresented populations and their cultural manifestations? This class is a basic introduction to cultural and social science research methods with a focus on Caribbean and Latino Studies. Course includes library workshops, and class visits by professors and students who will discuss how they use different methods in their research and teaching.

Furthermore, the course will introduce you to the research process, including how researchers select topics, formulate research questions, design research, and analyze and interpret data. It will explore differences in how these issues present themselves and are addressed in designs that are quantitative, qualitative or both.

Impact of Latin@ demographic, political, and cultural trends. Education, economic disparities, political empowerment, and on-going challenges to Latin@s. Identity, citizenship, cultural production, Latinidad, and Latinization.

This is an advanced inter and trans-disciplinary course which has two main objectives. The first is to demonstrate applied research and methodology, through social-historical analysis, to pressing and relevant phenomena of inquiry in Puerto Rican and LatinX Studies. The course is heavily focused on examining pertinent issues as it exists within Puerto Rican and LatinX communities in the United States and in Puerto Rico. Students will engage critical and contextualized analyses within the multi-faceted realities of LatinX population in the United States. The course also seeks to demonstrate the cross-analytical understanding of the various frameworks that can be employed to conduct social analysis (i.e.,, literary, social-historical, and cultural) although the central lens of the course is its social-historical variant.

This course is primarily a literature seminar. We will use American literature as a lens through which to examine different passing tropes. It will provide an introduction to queer, gender, and critical race theories for science and math majors. We will read such works as Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom, Incognegro, and Focault's A History of Sexuality, to name just a few.

Examines the history of the United States as a "nation of immigrants" within a broader global context. Considers migration from the mid-19th century to the present through case studies of such places as New York's Lower East Side, South Texas, Florida, and San Francisco's Chinatown. Examines the role of memory, media, and popular culture in shaping ideas about migration. Includes optional field trip to New York City.

This course provides an introduction to the issues of immigrants, planning, and race. It identifies the complexities and identities of immigrant populations emerging in the United States context and how different community groups negotiate that complexity. It explores the critical differences and commonalities between immigrant and non-immigrant communities, as well as how the planning profession does and should respond to those differences. Finally, the course explores the intersection of immigrant communities' formation and their interactions with African Americans and the idea of race in the United States.

This course equips students with the clinical skills necessary for pupil personnel service providers to work effectively with multilingual and culturally diverse populations. This experience-based course will develop an awareness of cultural, linguistic, and ethnic factors that influence and shape behavior and development. Personal history, literature, and films will be analyzed in the contexts of acculturation and identity. Current research and theoretical and applied knowledge in this field will be reviewed. Students will integrate theoretical and applied knowledge in written assignments and presentations.

This assignment is inspired by the learnings that arose from the workshop, “Fostering Play in the Classroom - Pedagogies to Build Creativity, Connection and Light to Oppressive Spaces”. Based on group dialogue, feedback, and the desire to build on pedagogies of play in the workshop, this science fiction short story assignment has been created as an additional layer of liberatory, contemplative learning for students that can be used/tweaked to work in a variety of courses. Powerful conversations arose in the workshop surrounding power/oppression, positionality and how this impacts our ability to engage in play, and the importance of holding both/and (i.e. - joy/sadness, pain/pleasure, restriction/liberation). This assignment attempts to deepen these reflections through creativity, storytelling, and removal of limits for dreaming in a world with obstacles. 

This assignment was created by Professor Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol Banoum, Ph.D., who is Chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Lehman College. The blog that follows is by Mariama Khan, and also can be found here.

The course relies on various theories and methods in the social sciences to analyze the challenges of the Black community. Attempts are also made to explore solutions to the problems. The focus and emphasis of the course, however, is to identify issues in the community that facilitate socioeconomic empowerment of Black people. Furthermore, institutions such as the family, marriage, and the church are analyzed throughout the semester.

Intensive study of a range of texts by a single author or by a limited group of authors whose achievements are mutually illuminating. Some attention to narrative theory, and biographical and cultural backgrounds. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication. Topic: Joyce's Ulysses and Its Legacy.

Intensive study of a range of texts by a single author or by a limited group of authors whose achievements are mutually illuminating. Some attention to narrative theory, and biographical and cultural backgrounds. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication. Topic: Joyce's Ulysses and Its Legacy. This seminar looks at two bestselling nineteenth-century American authors whose works made the subject of slavery popular among mainstream readers. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain have subsequently become canonized and reviled, embraced and banned by individuals and groups at both ends of the political and cultural spectrum and everywhere in between.

A study of contemporary North American theater movements and selected individual works that are organized around issues of ethnic and socio-cultural identity. Class lectures and discussions analyze samples of African-American, Chicano, Asian-American, Puerto Rican and Native American theater taking into consideration their historical and political context. Performance exercises help students identify the theatrical context and theatrical forms and techniques used by these theaters.

This playlist and handout include works by (and various quotations and media related to) Toni Cade Bambara.

" In this course we will read essays, novels, memoirs, and graphic texts, and view documentary and experimental films and videos which explore race from the standpoint of the multiracial. Examining the varied work of multiracial authors and filmmakers such as Danzy Senna, Ruth Ozeki, Kip Fulbeck, James McBride and others, we will focus not on how multiracial people are seen or imagined by the dominant culture, but instead on how they represent themselves. How do these authors approach issues of family, community, nation, language and history? What can their work tell us about the complex interconnections between race, gender, class, sexuality, and citizenship? Is there a relationship between their experiences of multiraciality and a willingness to experiment with form and genre? In addressing these and other questions, we will endeavor to think and write more critically and creatively about race as a social category and a lived experience."

Studies the relation between imaginative texts and the culture surrounding them. Emphasizes ways in which imaginative works absorb, reflect, and conflict with reigning attitudes and world views. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication. Topic for Fall: Ethical Interpretation. Topic for Spring: Women Reading, Women Writing.