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Columbia M.A. Program in |
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Institute for Research in African American Studies Columbia University |
Fact Sheet Fall 1999 |
The Columbia M.A. program in African American Studies is designed to provide the student with a thorough grounding in the literature and research areas within African American studies, and it will enable students to produce critical analysis and research projects about the complex and historically specific experiences of Africans in the Americas. Students will also be expected to demonstrate how those experiences have contributed to, and been shaped by, political, cultural, and economic forces both nationally and globally.
African and African American studies at Columbia have a venerable history dating to 1905 when Franz Boas first taught a course on African Ethnology. Currently, Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences offers an impressive array of courses that fall under the rubric of African American studies, and Columbia's faculty includes some of the nation's leading scholars in the field. Until now, there has not been a vehicle that structures these academic and intellectual resources into a graduate degree program. By focusing on the many resources at Columbia in African American studies, the stand-alone M.A. program offers graduate training for students who want to advance and enhance their understanding of African American studies.
Contemporary African American studies is often conceptualized as either an interdisciplinary area (or ethnic) study, or a discipline unto itself. Columbia's M.A. program will embrace the many streams of research areas in African American studies as part of the discursive practices that form the field. Thus, the core seminars instructed under the aegis of the Institute will explore the emergence of African American studies and its varied traditions, and they will also provide students with the critical tools and historical/theoretical frameworks necessary to identify how and why the field of African American studies shares (contributes and borrows) method and theory with other fields.
African American studies today is tethered to academic units in colleges and universities. Extending earlier activist/scholar traditions, proponents of Black studies secured its institutional base during the student and Black power movements of the 1960s. These scholars wove theory, practice, and university administration together in a way they hoped would better people's everyday lives. One of the tenets of African American studies is the production of scholarship and public programs that effects change and impacts lives. The Institute articulates these very tenets and Columbia's M.A. program builds on the unique synergy evolving between the Institute's colloquia, debates, and events and the Harlem community.
Graduate students matriculated in the M.A. program are expected to participate in the ongoing lecture series and contribute to the proceedings of the annual conferences sponsored by the Institute. This promotes a focused exchange between our graduate students and our undergraduate majors, as well as the intellectuals, community leaders, and social service analysts who make up the membership of the Institute. Each student in the program will be expected to engage his or her own subject position, impact of scholarship, and responsibility as a scholar.
| * Lee D. Baker, Chair Associate Professor, Anthropology |
* Marcellus Blount Professor, English and Comparative Literature |
| * George C. Bond Professor, Institute of African Studies |
* Gina Dent Assistant Professor, English and Comparative Literature |
| Eric Foner Professor, History |
* Lynette Jackon Assistant Professor, History, Barnard College |
| * Manning Marable Professor, History & Director of the Institute |
Anthony Marx Associate Professor, Political Science |
| * Mingon Moore Assistant Professor, Sociology |
Robert O'Meally Professor, English and Comparative Literature |
| Phillip J. Thompson Associate Professor, Political Science |
* Sudhir Venkatesh Assistant Professor, Sociology |
* Core Faculty
Who Should Apply?
We envision a very diverse pool of applicants and subsequent cohorts, but we believe that certain professionals or students will be particularly well served by our program.
Social and Health Services
For social and health service professionals who deliver services to African American populations, the degree of Master of Arts in African American Studies will enhance their understanding of the complex social, cultural, and historical experiences of these communities, which will lead to a more effective delivery of services.
Education
For education professionals who teach or administer at the secondary or community college level, the degree of Master of Arts in African American Studies will enhance their understanding of race relations between students. It will also enable these professionals to develop curricular programs and courses that address specific ethnic/racial groups who have been integral to the American experience and contribute significantly to that amorphous entity called American culture.
Production and Design
For professionals engaged in producing cultural representations (encompassing everything from museum curators to advertising executives), the degree of Master of Arts in African American Studies will enhance their understanding of the shared and unique social indices, historical experiences, and the patterns and processes of culture of the African peoples in the Americas.
Graduate Students
For students who plan to complete a Ph.D., the M.A. program can serve one of two ways. It can provide them with a solid foundation from which they can apply to a Ph.D. program--a stepping stone. Or, the program can provide the student with training in an area of expertise in African American studies that will serve as a basis for teaching and further research once they complete the Ph.D.
Admission Requirements and Curriculum
Admission standards and selection procedures are identical to those followed by the Graduate School for all its M.A. programs (but different from those followed by the Liberal Studies M.A. programs). Applications can be picked up at 107 Low Library, downloaded at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsas/download.html, or sent via regular mail if requested over the phone from (212) 854-4737. Beginning December 1999, you will also be able to apply on-line.
30 points of graduate credit and an M.A. thesis.
Students must maintain at least a B average in all courses.
Students must complete 8 seminars. The following two are required:
Of the six remaining seminars, one must be a methods course that is pre-approved by the director of the program. Students also must take at least two seminars (in addition to the core) from the program's participating faculty, and at least two seminars in other academic units. The thesis must have two readers, one must be a member of the program's participating faculty.
The Institute's Director of Graduate Studies must approve
all courses the student selects to satisfy requirements. This program
is designed to fit the needs of the different streams of M.A. students. Before
registering for any courses, the student must decide if he or she either wants
to take courses with a unified focus, or take courses to foster a more general
background. These choices and an overview of the program will be addressed
during a mandatory one-day orientation for new and returning students.
Proposed Curriculum for the Degree of Master of Arts in African American Studies
Fall Semester:
Anthropology G6158. Race, Racism and Democracy.
(3 pts) L. Baker
Seminar by core faculty in African American Studies (3 pts)
A Methods course (3 pts)
African American Studies Gxx. Writing and Research Workshop (4 pts)
Spring Semester:
African American Studies G4xx. Critical Approaches to Black Studies.
(4 pts) M. Marable
Seminar by core faculty in African American Studies (3 pts)
Seminar in a cognate field (3 pts)
Sample of Courses in Participating Departments
Please note that this is a sample; not all courses are offered each year. For a list of courses being offered, please refer to the Directory of Classes at the Student Information Services Web site.
Anthropology G4711. Historical archaeology of North America. 3 pts. N. Rothschild. The development of historical archaeology from the 1940s to the present; covering method and theory; colonial and post-colonial periods; urban, plantation, industrial, and domestic archaeology; and various regions of North America.
Anthropology G6352. Museology. 3 pts. N. Rothschild. Consideration of museums as reflectors of social priorities that store important objects and display them in ways that present significant cultural messages. Discussion of history, natural history, and art museums. Students visit several New York museums and learn how a museum functions and work in the William Duncan Strong Museum of Anthropology, designing and preparing an exhibition.
Anthropology W4114. The anthropology of religious belief and practice. 3 pts. Instructor to be announced. "Religion" approached as a dimension of "culture" in terms of classic and contemporary anthropological theory and ethnographic evidence. Values, cosmologies, belief systems, rituals and religious practitioners compared and contrasted; the interplay of religion and societal change.
Anthropology S4209. Caribbean societies and culture. 3 pts. N. Savishinsky. The historical, political, economic and social forces that underlie the creation and maintenance of present-day Caribbean societies and culture.
Anthropology S4520. Race and the 21st century: a biological and cultural perspective. 3 pts. J. Shapiro. The quantitative and qualitative aspects of human biological variation from the perspective of physical anthropology. Analysis of the interplay between historical and cultural factors in the development and expression of racial ideas.
Anthropology W4628. Gender and power. 3 pts. S. Ortner. Prerequisite: One sociocultural anthropology course or permission of the instructor. Major issues and debates in contemporary feminist anthropology. Lectures on theory; readings on recent ethnographic studies in various parts of the world including the U.S.
Anthropology G6117. History of anthropology as public discourse. 3 pts. L. Baker. The historic role of U.S. anthropology and science more generally in public and foreign poilcy, popular culture, and the law. Limited enrollment 15.
Anthropology G6120. Africa and the politics of culture. 4 pts. L. Sharp. Exploration of how identity is experienced, imposed, imagined, and contested in Africa. The deconstruction of ethnicity gender, class and nation provide a foundation; subsequent investigations will problematize the politics of culture, addressing conquest and civil war; schooling; labor and migration; ecological imperialism; and embodied religious expression.
Anthropology G6158. Race, racism and democracy. 3 pts. L. Baker. Explores history and culture of the U.S., Australia, and South Africa. Exposes the paradox that emerges when societies maintain racial inequality but articulate principles of equality, democratic freedom, and justice for all. Explores the historical context of various efforts to reconcile ideals of equality with the nagging, persistent, and seemingly perpetual forms of racial oppression. Focus on the Australian Aboriginal, African American, and South African experiences during the 20th century and other racial and ethnic groups. Limited enrollment 15.
Anthropology G8376. The ritual process. 3 pts. E. Combs-Schilling. The role of rituals in the construction of history and culture. Emphasizes recent studies on ritual and colonial assault and popular resistance. Examples drawn from South African tribesmen, Madagascan peasants, Moroccan monarchy, Bolivian tin miners.
Anthropology G8435. Women and children in Africa: the politics and poetics of gender. 3 pts. E. Schildkraut. Draws upon literature in a wide range of social science and humanities disciplines, including anthropology, history, political science, economics, folklore, literature, and art history. Consideration of some of the substantive issues that affect the lives of women and children in Africa.
Anthropology G8504. Contemporary America: race, class, gender and ethnicity. 3 pts. Instructor to be announced. Focuses on qualitative, ethnographic studies of social stratification and division in the U.S. The uses and abuses of concepts of race, class culture, the culture of poverty, the underclass, gender differences, and ethnic affiliation in the literature on contemporary North America.
Anthropology G8505. Contemporary America: institutions and communities. 3 pts. Instructor to be announced. Examines the forms of identity that create a sense of belonging and sustain the formation of national and subcultural identities in American society. Qualitative studies of communities formed by the workplace, by residence, by age, by religion, and voluntary association.
Anthropology G8525. Seminar in anthropology of contemporary American society. 3 pts. Instructor to be announced. Introduction to qualitative studies of American society. Topics include family organization, class cultures, bureaucracy, ethnicity, community studies, subcultures, aging, medical culture, welfare state policy, and mass communication.
Art History W4076. Arts of Sub-Saharan Africa. 3 pts. Z.S. Strother. Survey of the arts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Art History G8056. Arts of Kongo and the Diaspora. 3 pts. Z.S. Strother. The Kingdom of Kongo and its contributions to the visual arts of the southern U.S., Haiti, Cuba, and Brazil. The literature on cultural change, as syncretism, creolization, diaspora, and hybridity.
Art History G8067. The literature of African art. 4 pts. Z.S. Strother. Prerequisite: some coursework in African art desirable, but not required. Seminar seeks to excavate the field of African art history, emphasis on the legacy of anthropology and the challenges posed by feminism, African voices, public exhibition, and canon formation.
W4321x Economic development 3 pts. K. Leonard.
W4438x Economics of race in the U.S. 3 pts. B. O'Flaherty.
Economics G6451-G6452. Economics of labor, I and II. 3 pts. Instructor to be announced. Prerequisite: at least one term of price theory. Either term may be taken separately. G6451: The allocation of time among persons and within households. The theory of labor supply and of labor mobility. G6452: Human capital, economics of education and occupation; wage structure and income distribution; demand, cycles, and growth in competitive and unionized labor markets.
Economics G4311. Economic history of the United States. 3 pts. Instructor to be announced. Economic development of the United States, with special attention to the forces and factors responsible for economic growth: innovation, capital formation, transportation, banking, international trade and capital movements, immigration, and the labor supply. The interactions of public policy and private decision making.
Economics G6229. The urban economy. 3 pts. Instructor to be announced. Prerequisite: Economics G6211 or the instructor's permission. Location theory, land use, housing discrimination, and transportation, including the effects of government policy.
English W4591. South African literature and society. 3 pts. A. McClintock, R. Nixon.
English G6606. Modern American texts. 3 pts. M. Blount, R. O'Meally.
English W4606. Literature of the American South. 3 pts. Instructor to be announced.
English W4621y African-American texts: the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. 3 pts. R. O'Meally
English W4622. African-American texts. 3 pts. M. Blount, R. O'Meally.
English W4624. African-American poetry. 3 pts. M. Blount.
English W4641. African-American women writers. 3 pts. G. Dent.
English G6633. African-American texts. 3 pts. M. Blount, R. O'Meally.
History W4472. The history of North Africa and the Sahara to 1500. 3 pts. R. W. Bulliet. The relationship between the people and governments of the Mediterranean coastal regions and the populations of the interior from the earliest times until the beginning of modern European penetration.
History G4905. History of modern South Africa. 3 pts. M. Wright. The rise of the industrial state in South Africa, with emphasis on the 20th century.
History W4907. History of East Africa (1850 to present). 3 pts. M. Wright. Concentrates upon the 20th century; colonialism, nationalism and the initial years of independence in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Mozambique.
History G4909. Ecology, gender, and history in Africa since 1890. 3 pts. M. Wright.
History W4928. West African history. 3 pts. M. Mbodj.
History G9094. Seminar in African-American history. 4 pts. D. Scott. Prerequisite: Instructor's permission. Research in African-American history from the colonial period to the late 20th century.
History W4712. History of the City of New York. 3 pts. K. Jackson. The social, cultural, economic, political, and demographic development of America's metropolis from colonial days to the present. Slides and walking tours supplement the readings (novels and historical works).
Music G4423. Music in West Africa. 3 pts. Instructor to be announced. A survey of the music of Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Dahomey, Cameroon, and Nigeria, with an emphasis on social and ritual contexts. The diffusion of African musical elements in the Americas, particularly Brazil, the Caribbean, and the United States
Music G4424. Music in an urban setting. 3 pts. Instructor to be announced. The interaction between music and the cultural forces generated by an urban environment.
Music G6411. Proseminar in ethnomusicology. 3 pts. Instructor to be announced. Introduction to ethnomusicology; the history of the discipline and the evolution of theories and methods.
Philosophy W4710. Human rights and social justice. 3 or 6 pts. T. Pogge. First, a more theoretical discussion of how the idea of human rights developed and of various plausible philosophical explications of what a human right could be. Second, a more practical discussion of what particular human rights might plausibly be asserted in domestic or international contexts.
Philosophy G4720. Global justice. 3 pts. T. Pogge. The course discusses the current international institutional scheme from a moral point of view. Readings include some seminal works on international law and morality as well as some more recent literature on how moral problems arising on the global plane relate to ordinary interpersonal morality.
Political Science W4226. American politics and social welfare policy. 3 pts. J. Russell. Selected social programs in the manpower, social security, health, welfare, and education areas. The formal and informal forces contributing to their passage and subsequent revision.
Political Science W4290. Themes in 20th-century American politics and society. 3 pts. I. Katznelson. Focus on the making and character of new age and post-New Deal policy ideas, state structures and political coalitions, with a particular focus on issues of labor and labor relations.
Political Science W4405. Politics of South Africa. 3 pts. A. Marx. Discussion of the political and economic dynamics of the South African state, society and conflict since 1948, with particular emphasis on the leading opposition movements and prospects for majority rule.
Political Science W4496. Contemporary African politics. 3 pts. Instructor TBA. The transition from colonialism to independence, ethnic and class relations, the state, strategies for development, international influences, and case studies of selected countries.
Political Science G8496. Race, nation and state. 3 pts. A. Marx. Why did Jim Crow in the United States and apartheid in South Africa develop, as contrasted with the image of "racial democracy" in Brazil? Exploration of previous explanations focusing on history, culture, and economics. Discussion of the interaction between these factors, social constructions of race, and the process of nation-state consolidation, interweaving theory and empirical comparison.
Religion W4550. Religion and region in North America. 4 pts. R. Balmer. Examination of some regional variations of religious life in North America, with an emphasis on the interaction of religious communities with their surrounding cultures.
Sociology G4047. Urban sociology and social policy. 3 pts. H. Gans. A combined sociological and policy-oriented analysis of the American city. The major problems of the city, and of its poor and racial minorities. Urban policy, national economic and social policy, the reduction of inequality and the welfare state. Urban problems as national problems.
Sociology G4260. Race and ethnic relations in the U.S. 3 pts. K. Neckerman. Major theories of race and ethnic relations, drawing primarliy from sociology but also from anthropology, social psychology, and economics. Theories and case studies of a variety of racial and ethnic groups in North America; identity, ethnic enclaves and immigrant enterprise, race and class formation, the nature of prejudice, and ethnic political mobilization.
Sociology G4330. Education and inequality. 3 pts. K. Neckerman. Examination of literature on education and inequality. 1) Main theoretical discussions of topic, exploring how U.S. educational system structures inequality at different levels of schooling, and 2) influence of race/ethnicity and class on how students perceive and value schooling, and how they fit into the classroom.
Sociology G4335. Law and inequality. 3 pts. F. Polletta. Uses and limitations of the law in combating social, political and economic inequality. Law and modernity in classical social theory; litigation as social movement strategy; race and political representation; the equal/different treatment debate; affirmative action; legal understandings among ordinary Americans; critiques of legal liberalism.
Sociology G4370. Wealth, poverty, intergenerational transfers and life chances. 3 pts. S. Spilerman. The nature of opportunity in society, with some consideration of determinants of attainment in the labor market, but primary focus on non-labor market determinants of advantage and economic well-being. Theories in regard to the creation and perpetuation of family wealth, temporal trends in wealth inequality; racial differences in wealth holdings; and issues of poverty and poverty policy.
Last updated January, 2000.