Course Description

Honors uses the pedagogical methods common to all Honors courses: writing-intensive, collaborative, and experiential instruction. As an honors course, there will be focus on analytical writing and an emphasis on a higher degree of student participation and leadership in class discussions and other interactive teaching/learning techniques that are generally unsuitable for larger undergraduate classes. This course examines the theory and knowledge produced by African American authors of fiction and non-fiction texts that describe the critical events, histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, contributions, lived-experiences and social struggles of African Americans with a particular emphasis on agency and group affirmation. Instructors guide students in critically analyzing literary texts through an ethnic studies framework to recognize the intersection of racial identity with other identity markers such as gender, class, sexuality, religion and immigration status. The course invites students to critically review the various ways African American literature challenges, complicates, and re-imagines dominant Western narratives.