CUNY City College Courses Taught

 

 Fall 2022

WS 31715 : Black Art in the Age of AIDS

Course Description

 This course will examine African American history, literature, art, theater, performance, film and fashion. This interdisciplinary approach will examine, in particular, black gay men and the distinct creative and political identity they have created about race and sexuality. After the discovery of AIDS in 1981, gay men faced a great deal of prejudice, discrimination and isolation. One way they countered the exclusion, silence and hate, was through artistic mediums. Their creative responses to the dual prejudices of racism and homophobia will be discussed and analyzed with visits from men who created during the 80’s and 90’s and by viewing performances on relevant and informative video clips. 

 

Spring 2023

WS33256 : Black Women Creating and Inventing Home  

Course Description 

This course is focused on the political and legal position of Black Women in the United States at the end of the Civil War, their legal status and life during Antebellum South, and their lived experience during the Reconstruction. The social, emotional, and traditional aspects of the regions in which black women found themselves after the Civil War will be examined and highlights its impact on black women's choices in creating a home, migrating, and monetizing their labor and skills.

​Course material will explore the first-hand primary sources of how four black women lived, created, and legally negotiated their new lives as freed women in Washington D.C., Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. By reviewing historians' analysis of black women's position in the U.S. economy, cultural landscape, legal standing, popular image, and custom of various regions students will be given information to consider the various experiences and legal realities of enslaved and freed black women before Emancipation and during the Reconstruction Era.