Critical Race & Ethnic Studies: Histories of AfAm Religions

Explores the history of African American religious experiences over the past four centuries, introducing some of the core beliefs, practices, individuals, institutions, communities, relationships, and experiences that have defined Black religious life in the United States. Introduces students to the varieties of African American religious experiences from the seventeenth-century Black Atlantic world to the present. Cross-listed with: REL 1357.

Open to degree and PACE students; Cross listed with REL 1357; Total combined enrollment: 108

This course will attend to the history of African American religious experiences over the past 4 centuries, introducing some of the core beliefs, practices, individuals, institutions, communities, relationships, and experiences that have defined Black religious life in the United States. This course will introduce students to the varieties of African American religious experiences from the seventeenth-century Black Atlantic world to the present. Though much of our time will be devoted to African American Protestant Christianities, we will also be introduced to African diasporic traditions such as Vodou and Santería as well as African American Islam and humanism. We will ask questions like: what does Africa have to do with African American religions? Why would African American enslaved peoples convert to Christianity and how did they transform it? What is the relationship between religious and racial identity? And how did/does religion differently facilitate and impede movements for social justice in the United States?

In order to learn how to place African American religious experiences in historical and cultural contexts, this course will introduce students to key primary (historical) texts and contemporary scholarship in the field of religious studies. Class sessions will include lectures to help give students an historical overview and in-depth understanding of our materials, and small group work to give students the opportunity to talk through insights. Students are expected to have read and annotated texts before class, and come prepared to discuss materials with professor and colleagues.

Students will be evaluated through exams, in-class work, homework assignments, and participation.