Teaching

Current Courses

California State University Dominguez Hills

Africana Studies 333 (Black Movements of the Sixties)

Description: Black Movements of the Sixties is a 3-unit course that examines the Civil Rights, Black Power and the Black Arts Movements in the United States and around the world. Prior to the 1960’s the status of African Americans in this country was clearly defined by its public policy of “separate but equal”, segregated public schools, facilities, and transportation which ensured their second-class citizenship. “Black Movements of the Sixties” explores the dismantling of the overt practice of segregation by exploring the roles of the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement, as well as the literature, art and music which contributed to their vitality.

Selected Required Readings

  • Bloom, Joshua, “Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party”
  • Bracey Jr., John, Sanchez, Sonia, and Smethurst, James, “SOSCalling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader
  • Joseph, Penial, “The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era”

Spring 2020  Africana Studies 490 (Seminar in Africana Studies: Black Lives Matter)

Description: This is 3 unit capstone course designed for majors and minors in Africana Studies.  This course provides a culminating research experience for upper-level students using an inter-disciplinary, in-depth approach to the study of a specific topic based in Africana Studies theoretical frameworks and methodologies.  Students will produce a significant research project based on the issues and themes presented in this course.

For Spring 2020, this course will focus on the history, policy demands, controversies and artistic production of the Black Lives Matter movement which began in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and became popular with the street protests in response to the police involved deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York, and Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

Selected Required Readings

  • Kali Gross, “African American Women, Mass Incarceration and the Politics of Protection”, Journal of American History, vol. 102, no. 1, (2015).
  • Hassett-Walker, Connie. (June 4, 2019). “The Racist Roots of American Policing: From Slave Patrols to Traffic Stops” on The Conversation
  • Jeffries, Hasan Kwame, (September 15, 2016). “Black Lives Matter: A Legacy of Black Power Protest” on Black Perspectives
  • Roberts, Frank Leon, (July 13, 2018) “How Black Lives Matter Changed the Way Americans Fight for Freedom” on the ACLU Speak Freely
  • Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta, “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation” (Chicago, Haymarket Books, 2016)
  • Wingfield, Adia, “Gendering #BlackLivesMatter: A Feminist Perspective” (Pacific Standard, 2014).

Fall 2018 Africana Studies 495 (Special Topics: Africana Womanhood and Gender)

Description: This upper division seminar course is designed to help students understand the economic, political and social position of Africana women in the global diaspora by analyzing the legal apparatuses, historical context and present-day realities of racism, sexism, class oppression and homophobia that impacts Africana women’s daily lives.  We examine the history and legacy of colonialism and slavery, Jim Crow, sexism within the Black community, racism in the Women’s Liberation movement and Black women’s role as heads of households and as community activists.  This semester, we will focus primarily on the experiences of African American women in the United States paying special attention to the politics of respectability, systemic violence.

Selected Required Readings

  • Danielle L. McGuire, At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance.  New York: Vintage Books, 2011.
  • Dayo Gore and Jeane Theoharris (eds.), Want to Start a Revolution: Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle. New York: NYU Press, 2009.
  • Brittney Cooper, Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpowers. New York: St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan, 2018.

Previously Taught Courses

Introduction to Africana Studies

Introduction to Hip Hop

Introduction to Comparative Global Ethnic Societies

Women in American History

African American History to 1877

African American History Since 1877

Black Women in America

Race and Racism in American Life and Thought

Introduction to Ethnic Studies

Introduction to Women’s Studies

Difference and Intersectionality

Women in Leadership

Ethnic Sexism in U.S. Popular Culture

Feminist Research Methods and Writing

Introduction to Gender Studies in the Humanities

Feminist Activism and Internship

Senior Capstone in Women and Gender Studies