Course Detail

African American Studies 201

University of Mississippi
[See UM Catalog for Description]

3 credit hours

Instructor Information:
Owen James Hyman, Ph.D.

Instructor name:
Owen James Hyman, Ph.D.

Instructor Email: 
ojhyman@olemiss.edu 

Instructor Information:
I'm a historian of race, science, and the environment in the American South. I'm from southeast Louisiana, just across the Pearl River from Picayune, Mississippi. I'm pretty much an adopted Mississippian at this point. After graduating from Mississippi State University, I spent some time teaching African-American studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara and Utah State University before joining the faculty here at the University of Mississippi in 2019. I’m happy to be back in the South.

Contact Information:

For course content questions, please email your instructor at the email address provided in the Instructor Information box above. NOTE: Whenever sending an email, please be sure to indicate your course title and number in the subject line. You can expect a response within 72 hours, although it may be longer on weekends. Many instructors reply within 24 hours.

For Blackboard or test administration issues, please contact the iStudy support staff by reaching out via email, phone, or fax. NOTE: Whenever sending an email, please be sure to indicate your course title and number in the subject line. You can expect a response within 24 hours on weekdays.

iStudy Phone: (662) 915-7313 or toll-free (877) 915-7313
iStudy Fax: (662) 915-8826

iStudy E-mail: istudy@olemiss.edu

Course Description

This course offers a broad-based, interdisciplinary introduction to African American politics, activism, and scholarship in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Through lectures, readings, music, and videos, students will learn about the black thinkers and movements who have challenged slavery, white supremacy, structural racism, and gender discrimination in America across the last 250 years. Moreover, this class pays particular attention to the place of Mississippi within these movements, both as a way of sharpening students' understanding of social dynamics within the state and as a way of promoting further informed activism.

Textbook Information:

Textbook information will be provided upon enrollment in your iStudy course.

Course Objectives:

Objectives include (but are not limited to):

  1. Oral and written communication. 
  2. Critical thinking, reading, and writing.
  3. Ethical reasoning and ethical responsibility. 

Course Outline:

This course consists of 30 instructional modules (or lessons).

You MUST complete the syllabus quiz as soon as you have access to your Blackboard course. This is mandatory to verify your attendance.

*  NOTE: you must pass the Syllabus and Orientation Quiz for the course materials to appear on the Lessons page.
Lesson Reading Assignments Due for Grades Suggested Pacing Guide 
(if you want to complete the course in a traditional semester)
Start Here *You MUST complete the syllabus quiz as soon as you have access to your Blackboard course. This is mandatory to verify your attendance.* NOTE: you must pass the Syllabus and Orientation Quiz for the course materials to appear on the Lessons page. Syllabus Quiz Week 1
0 Course Introduction/Resources Week 1
1 Defining African American Studies  Introduce Yourself Discussion Board Week 1
2 Slavery and Abolition  Reading Response Week 2
3 Black Women’s Politics after the Civil War Journal Response Week 3
4 Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and African American politics after the Civil War  Journal Response Week 4
5 The Blues as a political and environmental critique  Exam 1  Week 5 
6 Marcus Garvey, Black Women, and Black Nationalism  Reading Response Week 6
7 New Religious Movements and Black Liberation Theology  Reading Response Week 7
MIDPOINT OF COURSE You are encouraged to reach the midpoint of your course by the date specified in your information. All lesson assignments or exams needed to reach the midpoint of the course The exact date the semester students are encouraged to reach the midpoint is specified in their registration information.
8 Civil Rights North and South   Journal Response Week 8
9 African American Studies enters the academy Week 9
10 Black Nationalism and Black Power  Reading Response, Exam 2  Week 10
11 Black Feminist Politics and Intersectionality Reading Response Week 11
12 White Privilege and Anti-Black Politics   Week 12
13 Critical University Studies Reading Response Week 13
14 The Movement for Black Lives   Viewing Response Week 14
Exam 3 Be sure all work has been submitted prior to taking this exam. Exam 3 
To be submitted
to finalize credit		 Week 16

Grading Information:

GRADING SCALE
90 - 100% = A
80 - 89% = B
70 - 79% = C
60 - 69% = D
Below 59% = F

GRADING INFORMATION: 
Each lesson submitted will be read and given a numerical grade. If you make below a 60 on 5 lessons you will fail the course.
As for your Midterm and Final exam, you will be graded using a letter scale of A, B, C, D, F.

The grading format is as follows:
Reading Responses (8) 140
Journals (3) 60
Exams (3)  300
Total Points 500

FAILURE TO TAKE THE FINAL EXAM WILL RESULT IN FAILURE OF THE COURSE.
You must submit the lessons required to take the course exam(s). Lessons required but not submitted will receive a grade of zero. For the final exam, all coursework must be submitted!

Testing Information:

All exams will be proctored via Respondus Monitor. See Lesson 0 for instructions on how to take a proctored exam via Respondus.
Course exams instructions:

  • To qualify to take any course exam, all assignments that come before the exam must be submitted.
  • Assignments required but not submitted will receive a grade of zero.
  • Before you take the final exam, all assignments and previous exams must be submitted. 
  • All assignments or exams not submitted before you take the final exam WILL RECEIVE A GRADE OF ZERO.