Bard College at Simon's Rock: the Early College
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African American and African Studies Curriculum

This concentration considers the great range of experiences of African Americans historically and in the present.

Students who moderate into this concentration will think critically about the concept of race and the crucial role of language and culture in defining racial difference at distinct historical moments. Students will consider the many ways African Americans have negotiated the issue of race within a predominantly white society, using strategies that range from assimilation to separatism.

Students should take at least one course each on history, contemporary experience, and cultural representation in order to discover how African American experiences today are rooted in the past, and how art, music, or literature reflect and construct a tradition in which personalities, philosophies, events, and social and creative needs are intertwined. Because African American experience is best understood when considered from a variety of perspectives, courses used to fulfill the concentration requirements should be drawn from at least two areas of study (e.g., history and literature or sociology and art history).

Covered walk students

BA Program

Students are required to complete the following requirements:

  • Introduction to African American Studies
  • At least three intermediate or advanced courses on African American Art, Music, or Literature
  • Critical Race Theory (methods course)
  • Two 300-level or above courses

24 credits are required for this concentration.

Introductory Courses

  • Introduction to African American Studies (AFAM 100)
  • Global Art: Africa and the Americas (ARTH 113)
  • African Arts (ARTH 117)

Intermediate Courses

  • Gender in Africa (ANTH 227)
  • African American Art and Thought (ARTH 216)
  • The Harlem Renaissance (LIT 232)
  • Contemporary African Literature (LIT 261)
  • Women Writing Resistance in the Caribbean (LIT 269)
  • Baldwin and Friends (SOCS 230)
  • Women Writing Resistance in Africa (WS 225)

Advanced Courses

  • History and the African American Novel (AFAM 209/309)
  • Critical Race Theory (AFAM 302)
  • Black Radical Thought (AFAM 307)
  • Black Lives Matter (AFAM 308)
  • Jazz: An American Encounter (MUS 218/318)

New Course

Black Radical Thought

This course will explore the radical tradition in African American thought. Black radical thought has come to be associated with a diverse array of scholars, disciplines, and political ideologies. Students will be introduced to historical and contemporary scholars and epistemologies that challenge the racialized structure of inequality observed as constraining the lives of Black Americans. This course will cover various traditions in Black radical thought including Black Nationalism, Black Feminism/Womanism, Black Anarchism, and Black Marxism. We will examine the work of scholars, organizations, and social movements such as Angela Davis, Derrick Bell, bell hooks, the Combahee River Collective, the Black Panthers, the Prison Abolition Movement, Black Lives Matter, and #SayHerName.