This course will be co-taught by Dr. Chanelle Rose (Associate Professor of History and Coordinator of the Africana Studies Program) and Dr. Andrea Hawkman (Associate Professor of Social Studies Education and former high school social studies teacher in the College of Education) asynchronously online between July 1, 2024, and August 23, 2024, with one in-person session at the Amistad Conference (July 29th-August 1st). 

 

Participants may receive up to 24 continuing education credits for completing this course. The workshop costs $200 per participant. Limited space is available. 

 

Please fill out this Google Form interest form to indicate your interest in taking the course. Contact Dr. Chanelle Rose at RoseC@rowan.edu or Dr. Valarie Lee at Leev@rowan.edu with questions. 

 

This course is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) “American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future,” a special initiative that leverages the humanities to strengthen our democracy, advance equity for all, and address our changing climate. 

 

 

Course Description:

 

This professional development course offers an interdisciplinary approach to examining African-American history through several humanities disciplines, including History, English, Sociology, and Philosophy. Teachers will explore the rich and diverse culture of African Americans from pre-colonial West Africa to the present through 8-week modules. The themes for each module range from Africa and the Black Diaspora to Power and Resistance, Black Joy, and Deconstructing Critical Race Theory. Each module will provide a broad but rigorous overview of the U.S. Black experience, with a particular focus on New Jersey’s African-American communities. Major themes and historical figures will include Trans-Saharan trade and West African empires, U.S. Slavery and Emancipation, The Harlem Renaissance and Great Migration, Civil Rights/Black Power movements, the post-World War II urban crisis, Hip Hop culture, Black conservatism, and the Black Lives Matter movement. In-service teachers will examine the political experience of African Americans, and a range of prominent thinkers like Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, and Alain Locke along with a survey of writings by authors like Phillis Wheatley, Zora Neal Hurston, Audre Lorde, Thomas Sowell, Glen Loury, and Alicia Garza. They will study a range of genres, including music, art, fiction, poetry, autobiography, and nonfiction, from the earliest published work by African Americans through to the present day. Finally, they will complete a capstone project that demonstrates their understanding of the comprehensive knowledge acquired during the course.