Spring 2021 Update 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
Spring 2021 Update [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HIS (0136) 260 - African Diaspora in the Muslim World


Credits: 3.00

Students examine the African diaspora of slavery, migration, pilgrimage within the context of ideas of social hierarchy in the Muslim world from seventh century onwards.  The survey extends from North Africa to West and South Asia and covers topics ranging from ethical debates and economics of slave trade or abolition. 

Course Learning Goals: This course seeks both to increase student knowledge of the African diaspora of slavery, migration and pilgrimage etc within the Arab/Muslim world and at the same time improve student skills in reading, interpreting, and writing about history. More specifically, in this course students will demonstrate in discussion and written assignments:

 

Students would be able to:

a.  compare and contrast the experience of slaves or people of African ancestry in their host    countries based on the accounts that will be examined.

b.  understand factors shaping migration, voluntary and involuntary, to the Near Eastern region and elsewhere.

c.  analyze comparatively specific cases of diasporic memory in music in North Africa and the Near East and the role they play in diasporic identity formation

d.  examine comparatively models of abolition and why slavery was so difficult to eradicate in some places compared to others

e.  explore forms of social injustice and examine occupational and hierarchical roles that are associated with post-slavery societies in which people with identifiable African features have to negotiate their place and their status in their new societies

Improvement in their ability to interpret historical evidence. This means that at the conclusion of this course students will be able to:

Identify primary sources and distinguish between primary and secondary sources and be able to critically read and interpret them

Write papers with clear arguments that are supported by evidence and good analysis

Identify writer’s perspective in presentation of information and who, for whom, where, and when this writing was done

Build a central argument that indicates why the topic they have selected is important and what its constituent parts will be

Craft their paper in a way that shows flow of argument, including paying attention to topic sentences, transitions in between paragraphs, and constructing good introductions and conclusions

Properly cite and footnote references in their paper following the guidelines provided in the Chicago Manual of Style.