Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer: 

Write a 5 page essay using the assigned readings from the first five weeks of the course

that answers one of the following questions: 

1.) Early in this course, we read about some of the various ways that scholars have

theorized about the relationship between people of African descent to one another. The

frameworks they used included Diaspora, Pan-Africanism, creolization, and the Black

Atlantic to name a few. Pick one of the frameworks discussed in the writings of Robin

Kelley and Tiffany Patterson, St. Clair Drake, Brent Hayes Edwards, Michael Hanchard,

or J. Lorand Matory. How does the author(s) define it? List at least two of its

characteristics. What are its strengths? What are its limitations? (Papers that attempt to

compare two or more of these frameworks will receive extra credit. But be sure to

thoroughly define, describe and evaluate at least one!)

2.) Considering the readings from our first two classes (June 23rd and June 28th), write

an essay that explores the origins of Africana Studies. What where the social and

political conditions that led to its emergence? What were the goals, objectives, and

demands of activists who called for the adoption of Black Studies programs during the

1960s? Situate the movement to create Black Studies programs within the tradition of

engaged Black scholarship in the US. Discuss the evolution of Africana Studies and

some of the different forms it has taken (i.e. Black Studies, African American Studies,

Africana Studies, etc.)

3.) What was the economic impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade? How did it alter the

economies of Africa, Europe, and the Americas? Discuss the relationship between

people of African descent throughout the African Diaspora and the emergence of the

industrialized economies in the West during the modern era.