Spring 2026 Black Studies Courses
Click below to learn more about the upcoming course offerings!
BLST 10100- African Heritage and the Afro American Experience - College Now
Monday & Wednesday,
9:00 AM EST- 10:45PM EST
IN-PERSON- College Now (CN) Section
Description
| Introduction to Black "roots" from ancient Africa to contemporary America as an orientation to the nature of Black Studies emphasizing its relationships to world history, Europe, Asia, the Americas, slavery, Reconstruction, colonization, racism, and their politico-economic and cultural impact upon African descendants worldwide. |
BLST 10100- African Heritage and the Afro American Experience - Honors
Monday & Wednesday,
2:00 PM EST- 3:15PM EST
IN-PERSON- Honors Section
Instructor: Bryan Guichardo
Description
| Introduction to Black "roots" from ancient Africa to contemporary America as an orientation to the nature of Black Studies emphasizing its relationships to world history, Europe, Asia, the Americas, slavery, Reconstruction, colonization, racism, and their politico-economic and cultural impact upon African descendants worldwide. |
BLST 10100- African Heritage and the Afro American Experience
Monday & Wednesday,
3:30 PM EST- 4:15PM EST
IN-PERSON
Instructor: Todd Roulette
Description
| Introduction to Black "roots" from ancient Africa to contemporary America as an orientation to the nature of Black Studies emphasizing its relationships to world history, Europe, Asia, the Americas, slavery, Reconstruction, colonization, racism, and their politico-economic and cultural impact upon African descendants worldwide. |
BLST 10100- African Heritage and the Afro American Experience
Monday & Wednesday,
12:30 PM EST- 1:45 PM EST
Remote
Instructor: Tanzeem Ajmiri
Description
| Introduction to Black "roots" from ancient Africa to contemporary America as an orientation to the nature of Black Studies emphasizing its relationships to world history, Europe, Asia, the Americas, slavery, Reconstruction, colonization, racism, and their politico-economic and cultural impact upon African descendants worldwide. |
BLST 10100- African Heritage and the Afro American Experience
Tuesday & Thursday,
11:00 AM EST- 12:15 PM EST
Remote
Instructor: Tanzeem Ajmiri
Description
| Introduction to Black "roots" from ancient Africa to contemporary America as an orientation to the nature of Black Studies emphasizing its relationships to world history, Europe, Asia, the Americas, slavery, Reconstruction, colonization, racism, and their politico-economic and cultural impact upon African descendants worldwide. |
BLST 10200- African Heritage and the Caribbean, Brazilian Experience
Tuesday & Thursday,
11:00 AM EST- 12:15PM EST
IN-PERSON
Instructor: Emmanuel Lachaud, Ph.D.
Course Description
| Analysis of historical conditions which shaped the lives of African peoples in the Caribbean and Brazil emphasizing cultural continuities, human organization and similarities in global Black experience among Africans on the continent and in the Western hemisphere, vis-a-vis European politico-economic control and cultural impact. |
BLST 10200- African Heritage and the Caribbean, Brazilian Experience - SEEK
Monday & Wednesday,
3:30 PM EST- 4:45PM EST
IN-PERSON- SEEK Section
Instructor: Carlos Encina Oleart
Description
| Analysis of historical conditions which shaped the lives of African peoples in the Caribbean and Brazil emphasizing cultural continuities, human organization and similarities in global Black experience among Africans on the continent and in the Western hemisphere, vis-a-vis European politico-economic control and cultural impact. |
BLST 10200- African Heritage and the Caribbean, Brazilian Experience
Tuesday & Thursday,
5:00 PM EST- 6:15PM EST
IN-PERSON
Instructor: Emmanuel Lachaud, Ph.D.
Description
| Analysis of historical conditions which shaped the lives of African peoples in the Caribbean and Brazil emphasizing cultural continuities, human organization and similarities in global Black experience among Africans on the continent and in the Western hemisphere, vis-a-vis European politico-economic control and cultural impact. |
BLST 10200- African Heritage and the Caribbean, Brazilian Experience
Tuesday & Thursday,
9:30 AM EST- 10:45 AM EST
HYBRID
Instructor: Sheriden Booker, Ph.D.
Description
| Analysis of historical conditions which shaped the lives of African peoples in the Caribbean and Brazil emphasizing cultural continuities, human organization and similarities in global Black experience among Africans on the continent and in the Western hemisphere, vis-a-vis European politico-economic control and cultural impact. |
BLST 22005- Writing with James Baldwin
Tuesday & Thursday,
11:00 AM EST- 12:15PM EST
IN-PERSON
Emily Raboteau, M.F.A
Description:
“You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world...” said Harlem-born writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin. In this creative writing workshop, we will explore the art of narrative storytelling inspired by Baldwin’s powerful, personal and political voice. This class offers both an introduction to his work as well as an invitation to write with him, through his writings. Through close reading of a range of Baldwin’s essays and fiction (including Go Tell it On the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, The Fire Next Time, “Sonny’s Blues,” and more) students will discuss themes of identity, social justice, self-acceptance, and human connection. Guided writing exercises will encourage students to develop their own authentic narratives using some of the literary motives and techniques characteristic of Baldwin’s project. This workshop offers a supportive space to hone your style and draw inspiration from Baldwin’s enduring legacy. Join us to discover your voice and write with purpose and passion. This is a zero textbook cost (ZTC) course. All assigned readings will be provided.
BLST 31149: Afro Latino Musics and Culture
Tuesday & Thursday,
9:30 AM EST- 10:45 AM EST
IN-PERSON
Instructor: Meryleen Mena, Ph.D.
Description
| Afro-Latino Musics and Cultures |
BLST 31190: Afro-Caribbean History
Tuesday & Thursday,
3:30 PM EST- 4:45PM EST
IN-PERSON
Instructor: Emmanuel Lachaud, Ph.D
Description
| AFRO-CARIBBEAN HISTORY |
BLST 31191: Children's Literature
BLST 31191: Children's Literature
HYBRID- Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3:30 PM- 4:45 PM EST
Instructor: Jervette R. Ward, Ph.D.
Course Description
| This course provides an opportunity to critically engage and analyze Children's Literature via theoretical and historical lenses while decentering the white default of the genre. It focuses on Black and multicultural Children's Literature. This course is not about teaching Children's Literature to children; rather, this course is about engaging with the genre as scholars while also reconsidering the works that shaped and influenced our own development. |
BLST 31193: Black Games Studies
BLST 31193: Black Games Studies
Remote, Mondays & Wednesdays, 5:00 PM- 6:15 PM EST
Remote Online Synchronous
Instructor: Luca Messara
Description:
This class explores the intersection of Black studies and game studies by studying Blackness in tabletop role-playing games (Steal Away Jordan, Harlem Unbound), erasure poetry (Zong!), video games (Dot's Home, South of Midnight, Papers, Please), and other forms of play. Participants will learn to apply theory from these fields by Aaron Trammell, Saidiya Hartman, Fred Moten, and others to interpret Blackness in the content and mechanics of games. In a series of short assignments, participants will practice writing critical analyses of games, creating a multimedia game review, and experimenting with glitching/modding games. In a final assignment, participants will be given the option to significantly expand one of these short assignments with an eye toward publication, or they can independently develop a game aligned with the themes of the course (this class will not teach game design). No prior experience with games required; participants of all backgrounds are welcome. NOTE: access to a computer will be necessary for this course, and a few of the games in this class are only compatible with Windows. Participants without access to Windows will be asked to watch playthroughs of select games
BLST 31199: Climate Humanities & Social Justice
BLST 31199: Climate Humanities & Social Justice
Remote, Mondays & Wednesdays, 2:00 PM- 3:15 PM EST
IN PERSON
Instructor: Breanna Byrd, PhD
Description:
Author and scholar Amitav Ghosh wrote, "the climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination." In this multidisciplinary class, we will consider the way culture has both contributed to the climate crisis and created a radical space for imagining sustainable and just futures. Students will read novels and scholarly articles, watch films, and look at visual art that grapples with the cultural, historical, and material roots of the climate crisis, as well as investigate how close attention to language and visual representations can orient us to new ways of knowing and being. Special attention will be paid to colonial consequences of climate, environmental justice histories and movements, ecofeminist and feminist works, climate migrations, anthropocentrism, and decolonial practices. Along the way we will encounter diverse perspectives in the form of our readings and also visits by scholars and activists working at the intersections of these questions around New York City. The course will culminate in a project focused on practicing our own climate agencyeither through creative expression or through direct community engagement.
BLST 31974: Witches, Brujas, Voudou: Exhuming the Voices & Histories of Africa
Mondays & Wednesdays,
3:30PM - 4:45PM
Hybrid
Instructor: Sheriden Booker, Ph.D.
Description
| In 2016, Puerto Rican rapper and Santer¿a priestess Princess Nokia (Destiny Frasqueri) released the song ?Brujas? capturing the spirit of a generation looking to exalt and reclaim the historically maligned spiritual legacies of African and indigenous women. Drawing on anthropology of religion texts as well as historical case--ranging from Tituba, the enslaved Native American women targeted in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692; the little known ?Vodou Trials? of 1850?s New Orleans where Voudou priestesses publicly protested and fought the NOLA Police Department; the witch-hunts and yellow press in early 1900?s post-independence Cuba; to the 1993 U.S. Supreme Court Case Church of the Lukumi Babaluaye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah, Florida; M¿e Stella de Oxossi?s induction into the Bahian Academy of Letters; and Beyonc¿'s Lemonade?this course will look at the ways African-based spiritual systems have been preserved, recreated, criminalized and re-legitimized within the context of enslavement, postcolonial nation building, contemporary race relations, and pop culture movements. We will explore how these processes have particularly impacted notions of feminine agency and gender roles within marginalized religious communities. Students will gain an introduction to various African-based religious systems including but not limited to Santeria (Lukumi), Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Candombl¿, and Jamaican Obeah, and to the extent time allows, allied indigenous religions such as Curanderismo. (BLST 10200: African Heritage in the Caribbean & Brazil not required for enrollment, but is a suggested prerequisite to this course.) |
Fall 2025 Black Studies Courses
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Spring 2025 Black Studies Courses
Click the images below to learn more about the upcoming course offerings!
Last Updated: 11/20/2025 14:14