Project Description: African American Women's History

HIST 334, African-American Women's History is a course that intersects with both Black Studies and Women's Studies. African-American Women's History explores the diversity of African-American women's lives and the development of women, work, and culture from the colonial era through the late twentieth century. Using primary and secondary sources students examine the social, political, religious, and economic factors that produced change and transformation in the lives of African-American women. This course has a number of goals, including providing a broad introduction to the interdisciplinary field of African-American and Women's Studies. Through history, religion, film, art, music, and cultural criticism students discuss and explore the construction of African-American women's identities.

One of the main goals of this course is to introduce students to the rich history of African-Americans with an emphasis upon the lives of women. As men and women traveled from the bonds of slavery, indentured servitude to eventual freedom, the experiences of African-Americans differed greatly according to their gender. This course provides a greater understanding of cultural diversity among people within the Americas and the United States by looking at issues of race, class, and gender over time and space.

The course contributes to the diversification of the History Department's curriculum because of its focus upon African-American women. No other such course exists in the department or any other department or program at the University. By examining the role of gender in the development of African- American life and culture from the beginnings of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade up through the latter part of the twentieth century, students are able to explore the ways in which gender impacted upon the social and cultural development of Africans in America.

At the same time the course offers the Black Studies Program an additional course that focuses upon the role of gender throughout the African Diaspora. Although HIST334 focuses upon mainland North America a significant amount of time is spent exploring the lives of Africans in West Africa and the Caribbean.

Redesigning this course to include an emphasis upon art or "Representations of Race and Gender" will fit neatly into current methodology and teaching pedagogy as primary sources and other materials are used as evidence. Students will examine the role of art in the African-American experience, with specific attention given to the ways in which African-American women are represented and the ways in which they represent themselves through the Paul R. Jones Collection.

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Back to Call for Proposals

Downloadable template for proposals (MS Word format)

For more information, contact bams-coursegrants@udel.edu.

Deadline for submission: Monday, April 17, 2006