Week8 midterm packet

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AAS 27100 Introduction to African American Studies (online)

“Surveying African American Studies” Midterm Packet Instructions

Deadline: Friday, March 6, 2020 by 11:59 PM to Blackboard

Purpose: The central purpose of this assignment is for students to collectively familiarize

themselves with the breath of terms, concepts, histories, methods, and theories that comprise

African American Studies. Through a critical and concise synthesizing of multiple works written

by multiple African American Studies scholars, students will be able to comprehensively define

and conceptualize what African American Studies is and who it serves as an academic discipline.

Additionally, this assignment will familiarize students with prominent African American Studies

scholars whose works mark the origin and continued evolution of African American Studies.

This assignment can then serve as a carefully composed reference guide of African American

Studies’ core concepts and understandings that students can utilize throughout the semester and

in future African American Studies courses.

Objective: Students will compose a series of article reviews that summarize, evaluate, and

reflect on critical works written about African American Studies as a discipline and its essential

theories/methodologies, Afrocentricity and Black Feminism. Students will read core scholarly

sources, contemporary sources, and application sources that I, the instructor, provide and then

summarize, evaluate, and reflect on each. The assignment is broken into five parts.

Tasks:

Part I: African American Studies

 Read both articles about African American Studies that are listed below: o Karenga, Maulana. “Introduction,” Introduction to African American Studies o Harris, Robert L. “The Intellectual and Institutional Development of Africana

Studies”

 Write a two-paragraph review of each article using MLA format. o List the MLA citation of each article at the beginning of each review in bold. o The first paragraph should include a summary of the article and its main

argument, and it should include your critical evaluation.

o The second paragraph should be your reflection.

Part II: Afrocentricity

 Read both articles about Afrocentricity that are listed below: o Stewart, James. “Reaching for Higher Ground: Toward and Understanding of

Black/Africana Studies”

o Asante, Molefi. “Afrocentricity and Education,” Facing South to Africa: Toward an Afrocentric Critical Orientation

 Write a two-paragraph review of each article using MLA format. o List the MLA citation of each article at the beginning of each review in bold. o The first paragraph should include a summary of the article and its main

argument, and it should include your critical evaluation.

o The second paragraph should be your reflection.

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Part III: Black Feminism/Womanism

 Read both articles about Black Feminism/Womanism on the list below: o Aldridge, Delores. “Womanist Issues in Black Studies: Towards Integrating

Africana Womanism into Africana Studies”

o Hudson, Weems, Clenora. “Africana Womanism: An Overview”

 Write a two-paragraph review of each article using MLA format. o List the MLA citation of each article at the beginning of each review in bold. o The first paragraph should include a summary of the article and its main

argument, and it should include your critical evaluation.

o The second paragraph should be your reflection.

Part IV: Contemporary Defining & Evolution of the Field

 Read both of the following articles:

o Aldridge, Delores P. “Women in the Development of Africana Studies” o Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. “African American Studies: Legacies & Challenges:

‘What Would Black Studies Be If We’d Listened to Toni Cade?’”

 Write a two-paragraph review of each article using MLA format. o List the MLA citation of each article at the beginning of each review in bold. o The first paragraph should include a summary of the article and its main

argument, and it should include your critical evaluation.

o The second paragraph should be your reflection.

Part V: Theoretical Applications

 Read both of the following articles:

o Tyree, Tia C. M. and Adrian Krishnasamy “Bringing Afrocentricity to the

Funnies: An Analysis of Afrocentricity Within Aaron McGruder's ‘The

Boondocks’”

o Lindsay-Dennis, LaShawnda. “Black Feminist-Womanist Research Paradigms:

Toward a Culturally Relevant Research Model Focused on African American

Girls”

 Write a two-paragraph review of each article using MLA format. o List the MLA citation of each article at the beginning of each review in bold. o The first paragraph should include a summary of the article and its main

argument, and it should include your critical evaluation.

o The second paragraph should be your reflection.

 Proofread.

o Are there any grammar errors (run-on sentences, incomplete sentences,

misspelled words)?

o Have you incorporated all elements of the assignment instructions?

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 Submit on Friday, February 21, 2020 by 11:59 PM to Blackboard as Word document

(.doc or .docx, only).

How to Summarize, Evaluate, and Reflect:

✓ Read and summarize the article.

▪ What is the thesis/main argument?

▪ What points did the author(s) make to construct the main argument?

▪ What evidence (source material/examples/histories) is used to support/prove the

main argument?

✓ Critically evaluate the argument of the article.

▪ Was the thesis or main argument of the article clear? If so, what made it clear? If

not, how could it have been clearer?

▪ Was the evidence (source material/examples/histories) used helpful in

understanding the main argument and points in the article? How or how not?

▪ What in the article did you agree with? What was successful in relaying the

overall message? Why?

▪ What in this article did you disagree with? What was not successful in relaying

the overall message? Why?

✓ Reflect on how the argument of the article relates to ideas and content discussed in the

assigned course readings.

▪ How is the argument of the article similar or different from the argument(s) made

in the assigned course readings? What readings specifically?

▪ Does the argument of the article expand on ideas and concepts about African

American Studies, Black Feminism, Afrocentricity, and/or peoples of the African

diaspora that have been discussed in the course readings? If so, how? If not, how?

▪ How does the argument of the article enhance or transform your ideas about

African American Studies, people of African descent, and/or your ideas about

how race, gender, class, etc. shape the lived experience of Black people?

Criteria for Success (i.e., How to Get All the Points):

✓ Use the tasks listed above as a checklist for all the elements you need to include.

✓ Provide evidence, reasoning and justifications for your critique of the article. Explain in

detail why you made the statements and interpretations you made. You must work

within in the two-paragraph limit for each review, so no fluff!

✓ If you used a citation machines to generate your MLA citation, check it against the MLA

guidelines provided by Purdue Owl.

✓ Use template on Blackboard. The template includes the correct citations for each source.

It will be your responsibility to change the generic information to your identifying

information and to make sure your paragraphs have a first line indention and not a

hanging indention like your citations.

Points Possible: 250 pts

1st

Paragraph

2nd

Paragraph