AF AMER 1Introduction to Black Studies
African American Studies · 5 units · Undergraduate lower division (0-99)
Introduction of methods, theories, conceptual frameworks, and key debates in black studies. Interrogation of how race structures notions of identity and meaning of blackness in relation to class, gender, and sexuality; essential role of African people in development of capitalism, liberalism, and democracy; what various disciplinary lenses and epistemologies (history, literature, sociology, geography, cultural studies, political theory, philosophy, etc.) reveal about experiences of black people in modern world. Key thinkers and ideas from across humanities and social sciences are highlighted.
P/NP or letter grading.
When it runs
- Fall 2025
- Summer 2026
- Fall 2026
Scheduled, not typical — from UCLA’s Schedule of Classes, which publishes Fall 2025 through Spring 2027 and nothing before it.
Requisites
UCLA lists no requisites for this course.
Requires
Everything that has to come before this course, not just the courses named in the requisite above.
Nothing — this is an entry point.
Unlocks
What this course is a requisite for, and what those courses lead to in turn.
AF AMER 1
- GEOG 143Contemporary Black Geographies
1 course lists this as a requisite. The whole downstream is here — 1 course over 1 level. Every course here opens its own tree.