Courses and Program Requirements

This course examines Black American cinema between 1919 and the present and how film can help society better understand black history, black culture, and the black experience in America. The course also explores what each film teaches Blacks about Blacks and what film teaches Whites and other groups about Blacks.

Course connects the transatlantic slave trade, contemporary migrations, their legacies, and speaks to the broader issues of the African diaspora in relation to previous and ongoing struggles of black people for rebirth, progress, justice, and racial uplift. Examines African Diasporic women’s definition of feminism while suggesting no universal black feminism.

This course examines different aspects of Latin American indigenous cultures from a variety of theoretical perspectives in anthropology. Emphasis is on the Maya, and different theoretical perspectives provide different interpretations of data.

This course is a general introduction to the contemporary peoples and cultures of Africa. Students will examine the social structure, economy, political systems, and religions of African cultures in the context of the radical economic and social transformations affecting the area.

This course examines the physical variation observable within and between human populations. It emphasizes a functional approach whereby variation is examined in relation to biological adaptation. It explores the biological mechanisms responsible for change and evaluates the potential of biological components in human behavior.

This course explores the variegated ways that race, and, by implication, identity and difference, is figured and represented in a range of cultural productions, including art, film and visual culture.

Presents theory and application of communication skills for a culturally diverse world. Develops verbal and nonverbal abilities in social and professional intercultural contexts.

This course examines various styles of formal and informal communication, and builds awareness and understanding of diversity. It will address diversity issues in social characteristics such as age, gender, race, and sexual orientation. It will address how society communicates about issues related to diversity.

Analysis and evaluation of major American speeches and their influence on the history and culture of the United States from 1630 to the present.
Prerequisite: COMM 2338.

Explores the persuasive strategies used by protest and political movements to promote social and political change. Focuses upon the application of critical perspectives in understanding the stages, leadership styles, and rhetorical appeals characteristics of movements in American society. 
Prerequisite: COMM 2338.

This course examines the relationship between race/ethnicity and the criminal justice system. Theories of race/ethnicity and crime, the criminal justice system, and social systems including media, politics and economics are examined to form a comprehensive understanding of the social construction of race as it pertains to a racially disproportionate system.

Course utilizes historical, sociocultural, and political lenses to provide an overview of public schooling as a complex system within a multicultural society. Key concepts include: educational philosophy, legal and policy issues, curriculum and instruction, equity, school-community connections, and teachers as change agents. Must be declared in a degree program that leads to teacher certification.
Prerequisite: Minimum 2.75 Overall GPA.

World Dance and Cultures exposes students to the varied and rich traditions of dance in a wide range of historical and cultural contexts. Through lectures, group discussions, video analysis, live performance, movement exploration, and writing projects, students develop a broad appreciation of dance that encompasses a variety of dance practices.

The course is a general, multi-disciplinary and comparative survey of U.S diversity issues. It highlights the traditional minorities, such as African, Latino/a American, Native, and Asian Americas, as well as European American ethnic groups. It also explores issues related to religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, and physical ability/disability.

This course provides an understanding of relationship between U.S and other nations in terms of economics, politics, and culture. Students will examine how colonialism shaped developed and underdeveloped nations, investigate grassroots activism in response to globalization and will examine how policies formulation by one country has consequences for other countries.

The short story throughout the world since Poe and Gogol.

African-American poetry, drama, and fiction.

A study of the novels and pertinent criticism from the beginnings in America.

Selections from ancient and modern literature in western and/or non-western cultures. Repeatable once, in special situations, when topic varies.

The study of a single author, e.g. Saul Bellow, Charles Dickens, Flannery O’Connor, or Virginia Woolf, from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Selected works in autobiography and biography.

A regional treatment dealing with the physical features and cultural activities of the people in North Africa and the Middle East.

Political geography concerns the interrelationship between political activities and spatial distributions. Topics include the concept of the state, international spheres of influence and confrontation, boundaries, contemporary world issues and problems, and geographic aspects of electoral politics.

A geographical analysis of ethnic groups in the United States with emphasis on their settlement patterns, spatial interactions, and current problems.

This course is a survey of the social, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual history of people of African descent in the United States from the end of the Reconstruction period to the present. African American History since 1877 examines segregation, disenfranchisement, civil rights, migrations, industrialization, world wars, the Harlem Renaissance, and the conditions of African Americans in the Great Depression, Cold War, and post-Cold War eras. This course enables students to understand African American history as an integral part of US history.

The history of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 through the election of 1876.

A survey of African-American history, 1619 to the present. Emphases include African and European backgrounds, hemispheric slavery, slavery in early America, the antislavery movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction, post-Reconstruction culture and society, and Civil Rights movement.

This course examines how the complex musical landscape of the American South, including blues, gospel, jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, Cajun, zydeco, rockabilly, and others, reflects the interaction of larger social, historical, ethnic, racial, political, and economic forces in that region from the eighteenth century to the present.

This course will trace the participation of Black women in every stage of Black protest in America from slavery and Reconstruction to Civil Rights and the Black Panthers. Through autobiographies, memoirs, film, literature, and monographs we will explore particular forms of Black female resistance, the unique concerns of Black female organizations, and the contradictions and successes Black women face within African-American freedom struggles.

This course examines the history of immigration to the United States beginning with the colonial era and extending through present day. It will consider the causes of immigration; the social, cultural and economic experiences of various immigrant groups; the development of immigrant group identities; and American responses to immigration.

This course examines the evolution of the blues and other forms of African-American music throughout American history, with an emphasis on how blues music reflects the rich and complex traditions of the African-American community and helped give birth to rock & roll.

An Atlantic and continental perspective of the institutionalization of the slave trade, the adaptation of the plantation system and the evolution of slave laws, the various models of emancipation in the Americas, followed by the modified forms of indigenous and foreign slave labor adopted in the Americas.

People of African ancestry have played a role in Texas history since Estebanico accompanied Cabeza de Vaca in exploring the region in the 1530s. As slaves, soldiers, and cowboys, Afro-Texans have participated in the state’s development while being at the center of controversies regarding rights, racemixing and economic opportunity.

This course is a reading-, writing-, and listening-intensive interdisciplinary survey of African-American popular music in America and its relationship to American culture, society, politics and the other arts.

This course in the history of American social and protest movements from the end of Reconstruction through Occupy focuses in particular on the movements of the 1960s - the Civil Rights Movement, the New Left, the Women's and Homosexual Liberation Movements, and the Counterculture - and their enduring legacies in contemporary society.

Students will read, discuss, and write about the poetry of Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar along with other texts to analyze the artists' political engagement, power to effect change, command of language, and struggle with identity formation.

Novels by contemporary African writers from West Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa will be read and discussed. The class will also study the effects of colonialism on traditional African cultures. Students will consider problems of language in the African novel.

This course explores the complex ways in which blackness has been figured and represented in postwar American as well as some of the strategies that have been used to respond, intervene, and subvert these frequently monolithic representations.

In this discussion course, we will read books, watch movies, and read essays to examine how Black Americans have negotiated their Blackness in White America. 

The course introduces students to marketing approaches used to understand and market products/services to U.S. ethnic and/or subgroups of consumers. The course includes consumer behavior and research techniques as well as implications to the marketing mix.
Prerequisite: MKT 3350 with a grade of "D" or better.

Analysis of the images of women and minorities in the media and their status as media professionals. Includes study of the alternative media.

Jazz originated in America and has been of great importance in the development of the 20th Century music. Topics will include the structure and history of jazz, the contributions of jazz to contemporary music, and the chronological development of jazz experienced through recordings and live performances.

This course explores the role of the blues in American popular music, tracing the history of the genre from its origins to its influence on rock and other related styles, surveying important recording labels and related figures.

In this course students will examine philosophy and philosophical practice as it emerges from the historical experiences of African Americans and the African Diaspora. Participants in the course will evaluate how the African-American philosophical tradition alters conventional philosophical accounts of subjectivity, knowledge, time, language, history, embodiment, memory, and justice.
Prerequisite: PHIL 1305 or PHIL 1320 either with a grade of "D" or better.

This course examines the government and politics of African political systems in light of the traditional political cultures, the colonial and post-colonial experience and the diversity of regime experimentation with special attention to the struggle for genuine democracy.
Corequisite: PS 3300 or PS 3301 either with a grade of "D" or better.

This course examines the political, cultural, and historical facets of the African American experience. The course will include a study of appropriate constitutional law cases, representation, identity, urban politics, protest movements, and ideology. Particular attention will be given to how these themes develop in Texas and the Southwest.
Corequisite: PS 3300 or PS 3301 or POSI 3300 or POSI 3301 any with a grade of "D" or better.

This undergraduate seminar is an examination of the origins, development, divisions, law, and politics of Islam.
Corequisite: PS 3300 or PS 3301 either with a grade of "D" or better.

This course examines historical and spatial patterns of conflict (including war, terrorism, and economic coercion) from the perspectives of Realist, Idealist, and Marxian schools of thought. It will also examine strategies for conflict prevention and resolution such as deterrence, arms-control, collective security, and “building democracy.”
Corequisite: PS 3300 or PS 3301 either with a grade of "D" or better.

Explanations about how the environment, genetics and culture shape human differences, and how these differences are linked to world progress and understanding are addressed.
Prerequisite: PSY 1300 with a grade of "C" or better.

This course will explore psychological theories and factors that underlie prejudice, discrimination, and hate. Although the course will focus primarily on these issues as they have developed and influence realities in the United States, global issues will also be explored.
Prerequisite: PSY 1300 with a grade of "C" or better.

In this course, Hip-Hop culture is introduced within the context of human development over the life course with an emphasis on positive individual and community well-being. Cultural dynamics are viewed alongside art's role in the social and political history of the United States including issues of equity and justice.

This undergraduate course focuses on knowledge and skills necessary for effective, ethical, and just practice, exploring interpersonal and institutional dynamics of racism, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, classism and other forms of oppression and their effects on providing social services to diverse populations.

This course focuses upon sociological perspectives in understanding race, ethnicity, and the relations between minority and majority groups with special reference to the American scene.

This course explores the literature, history, and performance challenges of the many voices and perspectives that make up American Theatre. In addition to exposure to brief historical overviews, students will read key literary texts and perform monologues and scenes.