American Studies, School of Modern Languages and Cultures HKU

African Americans are central to the American experience. This course will explore African American history and culture. We will focus on the work of individual black artists, authors, activists, musicians, and politicians. Each contribution will be studied in its historical context. We will look at a wide range of media and genres of creative expression, such as poetry, literary fiction, memoir, visual art, music, speeches, film, and historiography. As the course will move chronologically from the early days of slavery to the presidency of Barack Obama, students will obtain a solid sense of African American history and how it relates to US history. The focus will be on the contribution of African Americans to American thought, society, and arts. This course will introduce students to seminal achievements by African Americans, such as Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, Sojourner Truth, Duke Ellington, Spike Lee, Michael Jackson, Prince, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Miles Davis, Muhammad Ali, John Coltrane, and Barack Obama.

Elective Course
AMER2055	From Slavery to the White House: African American History and Culture	6 credits

African Americans are central to the American experience. This course will explore African American history and culture. We will focus on the work of individual black artists, authors, activists, musicians, and politicians. Each contribution will be studied in its historical context. We will look at a wide range of media and genres of creative expression, such as poetry, literary fiction, memoir, visual art, music, speeches, film, and historiography. As the course will move chronologically from the early days of slavery to the presidency of Barack Obama, students will obtain a solid sense of African American history and how it relates to US history. The focus will be on the contribution of African Americans to American thought, society, and arts. This course will introduce students to seminal achievements by African Americans, such as Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, Sojourner Truth, Duke Ellington, Spike Lee, Michael Jackson, Prince, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Miles Davis, Muhammad Ali, John Coltrane, and Barack Obama.

Prerequisite: Nil
Assessment: 100% coursework.
(Offered in 2017/2018, 2nd semester)