Search Results
Your search for courses · during 2023-24 · taught by dwilliams · returned 6 results
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AFST 100 Blackness and Whiteness Outside the United States 6 credits
Racial categories such as “black” and “white” are social constructions that change across national boundaries. In the U.S. “black” and “white” have historically been defined by ancestry, and have been mutually exclusive. But how are these categories defined elsewhere? In this course, we consider how blackness and whiteness are defined and constructed in non-U.S. contexts. We examine a range of topics that will help us to understand not only racial categories, but also the meanings and narratives that accompany them and the way that these play into racial inequalities. Course topics include skin color stratification, colorblindness, ethnicity and nationhood, migration and citizenship, media representations, segregation, and transnationalism and globalization.
Held for new first year students
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AFST 100.01 Fall 2023
- Faculty:Daniel Williams 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- M, WLeighton 202 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLeighton 202 2:20pm-3:20pm
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AFST 330 Black Europe 6 credits
This course examines the history and experiences of people of African descent and black cultures in Europe. Beginning with early contacts between Africa and Europe, we examine the migration and settlement of African people and culture, and the politics and meaning of their identities and presence in Europe. Adopting a comparative perspective, we consider how blackness has been constructed in various countries through popular culture, nationalism, immigration policy, and other social institutions. We further consider how religious, gender, and immigrant identities inform notions of blackness. We conclude by examining contemporary Black European social movements.
- Winter 2024
- International Studies Social Inquiry Writing Requirement
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AFST 330.00 Winter 2024
- Faculty:Daniel Williams 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- T, THLeighton 402 10:10am-11:55am
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AFST 400 Integrative Exercise 1-6 credits
The comprehensive exercise is a substantial (approximately 34-40 page) research paper on a topic within African, African American, and/or African Diaspora studies. The student should have completed a 300-level AFST course, or a 300-level course that counts toward the AFST major. The comps process begins with a Comps Topic Development Worksheet during spring term of the junior year, a comps topic intention form followed by a proposal in fall term of the senior year, and ends with a final written thesis and oral presentation early in spring term.
- Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024
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SOAN 111 Introduction to Sociology 6 credits
Sociology is an intellectual discipline, spanning the gap between the sciences and humanities while often (though not always) involving itself in public policy debates, social reform, and political activism. Sociologists study a startling variety of topics using qualitative and quantitative methods. Still, amidst all this diversity, sociology is centered on a set of core historical theorists (Marx/Weber/Durkheim) and research topics (race/class/gender inequality). We will explore these theoretical and empirical foundations by reading and discussing influential texts and select topics in the study of social inequality while relating them to our own experiences and understanding of the social world.
Sophomore Priority.
- Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Social Inquiry Writing Requirement
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SOAN 111.00 Fall 2023
- Faculty:Daniel Williams 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLeighton 304 11:10am-12:20pm
- FLeighton 304 12:00pm-1:00pm
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Sophomore Priority
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SOAN 214 Neighborhoods and Cities: Inequalities and Identities 6 credits
Inequalities and identities are well understood yet too often disconnected from the context of space and place. In this class, we discuss the ways that neighborhoods and cities are sites of inequality as well as identity. Neighborhoods are linked to the amount of wealth we hold; the schools we attend; the goods, services, and resources we have access to; and who our neighbors are. Neighborhoods are also spaces where identities and community are created, claimed, and contested. They can also be sites of conflict as they change through gentrification or other processes that often reflect inequalities of power, resources, and status. In this course, special attention will be paid to how race, gender and sexuality, and immigration shape inequalities and identity in neighborhoods and cities. This course will also include an academic civic engagement component, collaborating with local communities in Minnesota.
- Winter 2024
- Intercultural Domestic Studies Quantitative Reasoning Encounter Social Inquiry Writing Requirement
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The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above.
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SOAN 214.00 Winter 2024
- Faculty:Daniel Williams 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- T, THLeighton 426 3:10pm-4:55pm
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SOAN 400 Integrative Exercise 1-6 credits
Senior sociology/anthropology majors fulfill the integrative exercise by writing a senior thesis on a topic approved by the department. Students must enroll in six credits to write the thesis, spread as the student likes over Fall, Winter, and Spring terms. The process begins with the submission of a topic statement in the preceding spring term and concludes with a public presentation in spring of the senior year. Please consult the Sociology and Anthropology website for a full description.
- Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024