African American Studies: History in Context | Teacher Seminars Online

African American Studies: History in Context

Lead Scholar: Keisha N. Blain (Brown University)
Live Session Dates: Week of August 3
Registration Deadline: Monday, July 27

 

Image: A photograph of Marcus Garvey by an unidentified photographer, August 5, 1924 (George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress)

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A black-and-white photograph of Marcus Garvey, a Black man wearing a dark suit, light-colored vest, white shirt, and dark tie, sitting in a wooden chair next to a desk filled with papers, holding a handkerchief in his right hand and a gavel in his left.

  • 15 PD Credits

Seminar Description

This seminar examines some of the major themes in African American and African diasporic experiences over a period of several hundred years. Drawing insights from history and other fields throughout the humanities and social sciences, the seminar critically explores and analyzes the links and disjunctures in the cultural, political, and intellectual practices and experiences of people of African descent in the United States and within the broader context of the African diaspora. Beginning with a critical overview of the history, theoretical orientations, and multiple methodological strategies of the discipline, the seminar centers on systems, movements, and ideas that have transcended national, continental, and oceanic boundaries, including 

  • slavery, colonialism, and imperialism
  • identity construction and formation
  • literary, cultural, and aesthetic theories and practices
  • politics and culture
  • resistance and revolt

This seminar will align with the scope and sequence of the AP African American Studies course and draw on resources from the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s AP African American Studies Guide.

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Seminar Schedule

Monday, August 3: 11:00 am ET to 3:00 pm ET

  • Scholar Lecture
  • Scholar Q&A
  • Pedagogy Session

Tuesday, August 4: 11:00 am ET to 2:00 pm ET

  • Scholar Lecture
  • Scholar Q&A

Wednesday, August 5: 11:00 am ET to 2:00 pm ET

  • Scholar Lecture
  • Scholar Q&A

Thursday, August 6: 11:00 am ET to 3:00 pm ET

  • Scholar Lecture
  • Scholar Q&A
  • Pedagogy Session

Friday, August 7: 11:00 am ET to 12:00 pm ET

  • Final Open Discussion

Course Leaders

Photograph of Prof. Keisha Blain, a Black professor, smiling while wearing a white jacket over a textured green shirt, black glasses, and gold earrings.

Keisha N. Blain, Lead Scholar

Keisha N. Blain, a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow and Class of 2022 Carnegie Fellow, is a professor of Africana studies and history at Brown University and an affiliated faculty member in American studies and in the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies. She is the author and editor of eight books, including Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom (2018), winner of the 2018 First Book Award from the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and the 2019 Darlene Clark Hine Award from the Organization of American Historians; Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America (2021), finalist for the 2022 NAACP Image Award and the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award; and (with Ibram X. Kendi) Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019 (2021), which debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Her latest book, Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights (2025), was longlisted for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence.