Amilcar Shabazz Teaching
 
El Mina
 

History is a weapon. Studied and interpreted wisely, it can help defend, inspire, protect, and unify. If history is ignored, forgotten, or misconstrued, it can be part of the miseducation of a people that will have a them going to the back door even without being told.  Of all our studies history is so very important not only because it is a vital means to the cognition of and solution to many of the problems that beset us, but because it is the heart and soul of our liberation itself.

From "Lecture at El Mina,"
Ghana, 2004.

SSHIP

 

 

Amilcar Shabazz, Professor
W. E. B. Du Bois Department
of Afro-American Studies

330 New Africa House
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-9289 USA
Phone: 413.545.2751
Fax: 413.545.0628

UmassSeal

 

Teaching Experience

My teaching philosophy owes much to a change in my life that occurred in 1985 at Pratt Institute in New York City. As Project Coordinator for the Pratt chapter of the New York Public Interest Research Group it was my privilege to develop student leaders and to teach them the skills needed to work on issues ranging from higher education funding to environmental protection, from social justice to consumer rights. In the process of helping them transform their reality I had an epiphany that led me to transform mine: I decided to become a university teacher. So today I work at UMass as a professor, but I also often give lectures at schools and community events. Click the link entitled “Service,” to see some of the many places where I have shared my expertise. Also, see the link below for a lecture I gave on the craft of teaching:
“Language Matters: Teaching New Worlds/New Words/New Ways” (requires Quicktime)
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/49512/pid/3266

Undergraduate-level

Fall 2012 Schedule: Sep 4, 2012-Dec 7, 2012

FFYS 197AFA1-01 (61433)  https://blogs.umass.edu/ffys197afa1-shabazz/syllabus/
Capitalism, Race, and the World (Seminar)
Tuesdays 1:00 - 1:50PM, New Africa House room 128

London Tatum, Senior Thesis, AFROAM 496Y-01 (70521)

AFROAM 494DI-01 (61001)  https://blogs.umass.edu/afroam494di-shabazz/syllabus/
Du Bois Senior Seminar

Mondays 9:30AM - 12:00PM, New Africa House room 302

Spring and  Summer 2012

Faculty mentor for Commonwealth Honors College student London Tatum's ten-week summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program in Community Engaged Research entitled "Using African Heritage-Informed Education (AHIE) to Enhance Literacy Development in Underserved Students in Springfield, MA" in collaboration with the Pan-African Historical Museum (PAHMUSA)

AFROAM 597A -01 "Afro-Caribbean Studies"  https://blogs.umass.edu/afroam597a-shabazz/about/

AFROAM 264 "Foundations of Black Education in the U.S."   https://blogs.umass.edu/afroam264-shabazz/about/

Fall 2011
AfroAm 236: "History of the Civil Rights Movement"  https://blogs.umass.edu/afroam236-shabazz/about/

STPEC 491H: "Senior Seminar: Heritage of the Oppressed"  https://blogs.umass.edu/stpec491h-shabazz/about/

Spring 2009
AfroAm 133-1 African-American History from the Civil War to 1954 Brown Ruling (Lecture, >100 students)
Senior thesis in Afro-American Studies; independent research and directed readings classes; internships
Fall 2008
AfroAm 101: Introduction to Black Studies
(Lecture)

Senior theses directed at UMass Amherst:

AfroAm 196-496H/Y: Senior thesis in Afro-American Studies; independent research and directed readings classes; etc.

Sonia M. Gloss, “Long-Distance Truck Drivers in East Africa: Gender, Vulnerability, and Prevention.” Senior Thesis, Afro-American Studies major. Fall 2009.

Michelle E. Christian, “Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois: Consumerism and Autonomy.” Senior Thesis, Afro-American Studies major, Spring 2009.

Graduate-level
Co-teacher in AfroAm 701: Major Works I and AfroAm 702: Major Works II, each Fall & Spring term respectively.

Spring 2011
AfroAm 791C: Radical Perspectives in the Afro-American Experience
Spring 2009
AfroAm 692E: W. E. B. Du Bois & Booker T. Washington Re-examined: A Seminar
(Prof. William Strickland, co-instructor)
Spring 2008
AfroAm 692B: The Black Power Movement
(Prof. Ernest Allen, lead instructor)

Ph.D. dissertation committees (at UMass Amherst unless otherwise noted)

Julie de Chantal, History; “If There Are Men Here who are Afraid to Die, There Are Women who are not Afraid”: Transformation of the Civil Rights Leadership in Boston, 1920-1930." Prospectus stage. Committee member. Director: Laura Lovett

Kabria Baumgartner, Afro-American Studies; "Intellect, Liberty, Life: Women's Activism and the Politics of Black Education in Antebellum America." Successfully defended dissertation on August 5, 2011. Committee member. Director: Manisha Sinha

Will Guzmán, History (University of Texas at El Paso); "Border Physician: The Life of Lawrence A. Nixon." Successfully defended dissertation on September 29, 2010. Committee member. Director: Maceo Dailey

Thomas Edge, Afro-American Studies; “‘The Social Responsibility of the Administrator’: Mordecai W. Johnson and the Dilemma of Black Leadership, 1890-1976.” Successfully defended dissertation on April 11, 2008. Committee member. Director: John Bracey
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Previous Teaching Experience (before UMass)

Here is a listing of courses I have taught in my two deades of college level teaching:

Intro. to African American Studies  Intro. to American Culture: Arts & Values
Introduction to American Studies  Senior Seminar in American Studies
Theory & Methods of Cultural Analysis Business in American Culture & Society
The Black Church in America Black Masculinity & the American Dream
Education of Blacks in the South Bob Marley 101: Intro. to Reggae Music
Ethnic Minorities in U.S. History The African American Experience 
Drugs in American Culture American History to 1877 & Since 1877
The Struggle for Equality in the U.S. Historical Research Methods & Theory
Inside Invisible Houston [Texas] Poverty, USA: An Honors/Action Course

        In addition to the above I have directed several student research projects:

  • Senior thesis in History: Thomas E. Rodgers, “Marengo County & Jim Crow,” 2003
  • McNair Scholar thesis (with James Hall): Abi Smith, “Tuscaloosa Lynching,” 2003
  • Senior honors thesis in History: Linda Robbins, “Robert Moton and the CIC,” 1998

International & Overseas Education

        I have taken students on Study Abroad opportunities:

Cultural Study in Jamaica
Interim 2000, 2002

        I have also worked with various international exchange students:

  • Directed pre-senior year research projects with University of Wales-Aberystwyth exchange students Clare Traynor (2005), Stuart Chorlton (2001) and Bruce Paynter (1999).
  • Also, students from other countries majoring in African American Studies:
    2003: Charisma Whitehead, Anja Rambach, Melanie Hagel
    2002: Andreas Goeppel, Michiko Ito, Eva Kaszmaryk, Yasuko Shibata

Before coming to UMass I have taught the following to graduate student audiences:

Education before & after Brown; Fall 2003, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1997
The Black Church in America; Summer 2003, 2000, Fall 1998
The African American Experience; Spring 2005, 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998
Postmodern America, An American Studies Period Seminar; Fall 2002
The Other in the American Experience: A Topics Seminar; Spring 2001
The 1960s, An American Studies Period Seminar; Spring 1998

Ph.D. dissertations examined (University of Alabama)
Daryl Harris, Interdisciplinary Studies; “Mardi Gras Indian Costumes as Transcultural Communal Icon,” 2006. Co-director with Harold Weber. Dr. Harris is now an assistant professor in the department of theatre and dance and a faculty associate of the Institute for Freedom Studies at Northern Kentucky University.

Paul Mahaffey, English; “‘Dark-Eyed Coras’: Redefining Bi-Racial Women in the 19th and 20th Century American Novel,” 2004.

Melissa McElroy Smith, Mass Communication; “States’ Rights, Intellectual Snobs, and Religious Redemption: Three Decades of George C. Wallace and the Media,” 2003.

Yvette Stuart, Mass Media Policy and Law; “The Road from Monopoly to Duopoly: A History of the Broadcast Laws and Policies of the Bahamas, 1930-1995,” 2003.

Brian O’Loughlin, Mass Media Policy and Law; “The government as "meaning manager”: The role of social construction in broadcast indecency regulation,” 2002.

Veronica Lee Womack, Political Science; “African-American congressional representatives: Disadvantaged journeymen or equivalent path takers,” 2002.

J. Catherine Johnson Randall, History; “A kudzuing of colleges: The proliferation and balkanization of higher education in Alabama,” 2001.

Past graduate committees (Oklahoma State University)
Shane Gilley, Ph.D., English and Screen Studies   “The Hip Hop Video”
Chris Messer, Ph.D., Sociology   “The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921”
Debbie Olson, Ph.D., English and Screen Studies  “Children in African Cinema”

M.A. and M.F.A. theses examined (University of Alabama except where otherwise noted)
Harry Thomas, M.F.A. Creative Writing; “Bonecrusher: Short stories,” 2005.

LaTasha Smith, M.A. Telecommunication & Film; “Denzel Washington and Representing the Black Man,” 2005.

Rondee Jeanette Gaines, Telecommunication and Film; “Race, Power, and Representation: Broadcast News Portrayal of the Republic of New Africa,” 2003.

Alicia Holmes, M.F.A. Creative Writing; “Rolls down like waters,” 2002. Univ. of Alabama.

Enslen E. Lamberth, Communication Studies; “The color of tradition: Rhetoric & ideology of newspaper coverage of the University of Alabama’s segregated Greek system, 2000-01,” 2002.

Carol McDavid, Anthropology (University of Houston), “The Levi Jordan Plantation: From Archaeological Interpretation to Public Interpretation,” 1996.

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