Examines the origins, evolution, and outcomes of the African American freedom struggle, focusing on the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.

• Wednesday 2:15 PM - 5:00 PM 
• University Hall 386B 
• Dr. V.N. Trinh 
• AFAMAST 7086-01

Critical analysis of the development of African-American and African Studies as a discipline and the theoretical approaches to its subject matter.

• Thursday 11:15 AM - 2:00 PM
• University Hall 386B 
• Dr. Michael Fisher Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor
• Not open to students with credit for 753
• AFAMAST 7753-01

This course is a multi-disciplinary and critical examination of the origins, dimensions, and legacies of the African Diaspora. 

Topics will vary each term. 

• Mondays, 8:15 - 11:00 AM
• Prerequisite: Graduate Student standing, or permission of instructor. 
• Repeatable
• Dr. Ashley Lauren Smith-Purviance University Hall 38 for to a maximum of 12 credit hours

This advanced-level course for undergraduate and graduate students explores the relationship between race and public policy in the US by drawing on insights from Black Studies. 

It examines how racism shapes practices of power that exacerbate inequality and are expressed in public policy, giving attention to two specific issues: Affirmative Action and housing. 

• Prerequisites: Junior, Senior, or Graduate Student standing, or permission of instructor. 
• Not open to students with credit for CompStd 5240 or PubAfrs
• Dr. Michael R. Fisher, Jr.
• Tues & Thurs 12:45 - 2:05 PM 
• Mendenhall Laboratory 185
• Cross-listed in Comparative Studies and Public Affairs

This course centers the origins, evolution, tensions, and preliminary outcomes of post-Ferguson era activism in the U.S. and abroad. 

Engaging post-Ferguson era public statements made by activists, popular films, music, street art, and emerging histories, "Black Liberation Today" unsettles the icon of Black Lives Matter by revealing a deeper ecology of activism and political trajectories. 

Students will explore the synergies/dissonances which continue to emerge amongst these various organizations as a way to consider the meaning of Black liberation in our current political climate.

• Tues 2:15pm – 5:00 pm
   
• University Hall 386 
   
• Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the 21st Century
  • Barbara Ransby, foreword by Rashad Robinson and Alicia Garza
     
• When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
  • Patrisse Khan-Cullers and Asha Bandele, foreword by Angela Davis
     
• Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart
  • Alicia Garza, foreword by Rashad Robinson
     
• Graduate Seminar with Dr. Charles Athanasopoulos ("Dr. A")
  • Black Liberation Today

This course explores the historical evolution of the L.A. Rebellion Film Movement and examines some of its principal political and artistic influences. 

A community of Black filmmakers—from Africa and the African diaspora—who attended UCLA School of Film, Television, and Theatre between the late 1960s and the 1980s, many who belonged to this collective empathized with the Black working class and sought to resist the Hollywood studio system. 

In this class, we will explore the corpus of films directed by members of this collective and their contributions to Black film studies.

In exploring their chief influences, we will place the L.A. Rebellion in dialogue with with anti-colonial struggles throughout the world, the Black radical tradition, the Black Arts Movement, Third Cinema, texts in the field of Black studies, and many other developments. 

Moreover, we will explore the L.A. Rebellion's pedagogies of liberation in confronting the inherently fascist trajectories of the U.S. empire, its media industries, and educational institutions. Lastly, this course will include a discussion of other film movements during the era and beyond to contextualize the emergence and legacy of the L.A. Rebellion.

• Dr. Kam Copeland
• Mondays, 5:15 pm - 8:00 pm
• Spring 2026 

An examination of the core influences of race, gender, and class on people of African descent.

• Spring 2026
• Dr. Maxamed Abu-maye
• Mondays: 2:15PM - 5:00PM