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Course Info for FYSM - 190 - 01, Fall 2026
Class number: 3401 Title: Black Past, Black Presence Department: First Year Sem & Colloq
Career: Undergraduate Component: Seminar Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: Yes Grading Basis: Graded Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 16 Current enrollment: 15 Available seats: 1
Start date: Tuesday, September 8, 2026 End date: Wednesday, December 23, 2026 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM, SH - S204 Instructor(s): Miller, Channon
Prerequisite(s): Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
Distribution Requirement: Meets FirstYr Seminar Requirement
Course Description:
Blackness is all around us and has a "presence" across regional lines, class stratas, gendered experiences, as well as racial and ethnic worlds. It is visible in the African inspired art work people hang on their walls within their homes, "the dap" as an embodied greeting message, colorful nail arts, the re-ascendance of Nike Air Force 1 sneakers, as well as popular sayings, often reduced to “Gen-Z lingo” or “social media lingo.” In exploring the Black "past” and “presence,” this series illuminates the cultures Black America created through the generations and centuries. It discusses where Black languages, communal traditions, bodily performances, spatial constructions and beyond can be found in the day to day lives and ways of American folks— from the extraordinary to the seemingly mundane. The seminar grapples with the implications of consuming the Black "other," including erasure and exploitation. Utilizing scholarly texts and cultural mediums, we will move against the grain that is the marginalization of the Black roots that lie beneath our very ways of being.