AFR 224 - Race and Campus Histories

This course introduces students to the major themes, issues, and questions related to slavery and emancipation at institutions of higher education, with emphasis on Davidson University and the University of Alabama. The guiding questions: How do institutions of higher education attempt to reconcile their slave pasts and legacies for the present stakeholders? How might the current scholarship provide a pathway forward for encouraging truth and reconciliation?

Over the course of the semester, we will read selections from Craig Wilder’s foundational work as well as newer works by Leslie Harris, Al Brophy, Lolita Buckner Inniss, and other scholars for understanding the institution of slavery and its legacy at colleges and universities.

Students will explore this unique and often underappreciated topic of campus history, lives of the enslaved, and consequences for the postwar African American and University communities through reading foundational scholarly texts as well as newer works, participating in discussions and trips to university archives, completing short writing assignments grounded in primary and secondary sources, and a final project exploring how should universities reckon with this history and tell fuller and inclusive narratives to current and future stakeholders.

Satisfies History major and minor credit
Fulfills the Historical Thought requirement