Courses Taught by Dr. Jones

COURSES

The following is a list of courses currently offered by Dr. Ricky L. Jones

PAS 200
Introduction to Pan-African Studies
Nature of the Course: This course is structured to introduce the student to Pan African / Black Studies as an academic discipline. It examines the development of the political, historical, and philosophical engagement of the field primarily from an African-centered perspective. This approach scrutinizes the contributions to what we now know of as Black Studies ranging from pre-Socratic thinkers to modern intellectuals in the West. This course differs from often encountered Black Politics or Black History courses in that they primarily deal with the history of African American participation in political and social systems within the American context. Thus, most of these courses usually begin with the study of American chattel slavery and lend a great attention to the Civil Rights and / or Black Power movements of the Sixties. While social movements are encountered in this course and slavery is certainly examined, the course’s scope begins historically with the African continent and is, therefore, much broader than the African American experience. By employing a broad, holistic scope we shall seek to not only evaluate American acts and movements, but theories and philosophies which have driven the African-descended experience before and during the Diaspora.
Course Objectives:
1. To expose the student to literature which allows him/her to engage the unfolding of the African and African-descended drama outside as well as within the American historical context.
2. To build a basic intellectual foundation which will allow the student to pursue further study in Pan-African Studies with a solid academic background in the discipline.
3. To explore alternate epistemological views concerning the development of Pan-African Studies.
4. To enable the student to incorporate knowledge from a number of academic disciplines in an effort to construct a comprehensive understanding of how this diverse knowledge relates to the universal Black experience.

PAS 205
Race, Color and Consciousness
Nature of the Course: The African-descended experience undoubtedly has manifested itself in different forms around the globe. It also carries certain commonalities when the historic struggle for personhood and humanity by African people when they encounter non-colored core groups in various western societies. This second part of the Introduction to Pan-African Studies series focuses on the experiences of Diasporic Africans in North America, South America, and the Caribbean who have existed in societies which are socially, politically, and economically controlled by such groups. The course is especially designed to expose students to a comparative view of race relations and reasoning in a number of societies in an effort to more fully examine the American approach to race.
Course Objectives:
1. To expose the student to different approaches to race relations from both the black and white perspectives.
2. To engage problems of prejudice and discrimination through the use of comparative study (in this case, especially using Brazil and the United States) in an effort to arrive at more cogent explanations as to why the phenomena exists.
3. To explore various terrains of interactions in which African Americans are involved. These range from intra-racial discrimination and prejudice, racial-ethnic relations, and black concepts of Self.

PAS 324
Politics, Political Violence, and Black Resistance
Nature of the Course: Is there a difference between ordinary violence and political violence? Beyond this query, even if there is a difference between ordinary and political violence, does all violence necessarily have a political dimension? In an effort to provide answers to these questions in the African American case, this course moves forward under the supposition that violence (be it considered ordinary or political) is largely inaccessible to intellectual explanation unless one can locate some basis for it in social and political reality. As long as we insist on interpreting Black violence in purely individuo-psychological terms we can only assume that most violent acts are committed by dysfunctional, sociopathic persons. The perspective of this course suggests that violence in its many manifestations among African Americans is strongly functional, though not necessarily desirable. If the functional nature of the operation is not realized then the moorings of this historic and contemporary phenomenon will remain misunderstood and unresolved. Specifically, this course seeks to examine the dynamics of violence and the human drama as it unfolds in situations of oppression. Violence, therefore, is analyzed in its structural, institutional and personal dimensions. This engagement of violence not only reveals its ugly side but also examines views such as Fanon’s, which see its potential as a liberating, cleansing force.
Course Objectives:
1. To explore the philosophical foundations of the concept of "political" violence. The relationship between morality, legality, conceptualizations and definitions of violence by state and non-state actors are considered.
2. To examine the role that socio-political oppression and subsequent limited opportunity for mobility and integration has played in determining forms of black protest and resistance.
3. To engage violence as an institutionalized form of social control (rather than a dynamic relegated to individual spheres) of marginalized groups - in this case, the African American community.

PAS 325
Black Male Identity: The Politics and Problems of Personhood in Post-Modern America
Nature of the Course: This course seeks to examine factors which contribute to the construction of Black American male identity. It examines phenomena from fratricide to everyday "cool" and "hardness" as products of the unique identity of the Black American male. This identity is approached from the belief that it is not an individualistic occurrence, but more than likely a construct of the historical conscious and unconscious political and social oppression of this group by Anglo American centered structures of governance and determinants of social and political power. Some thinkers describe this system as institutional racism - a system in which the institutions and rules of American society are based on the values of the dominant white racial group and society’s goods and services are distributed according to these values. These thinkers conclude that continuing discrimination against African Americans has been one of the most powerful expressions of institutional racism in the society and the most devastating legacy of the supremacist ethos. This and other perspectives shall be examined in depth in this course.

Whether the thinkers who believe in the existence of institutional racism are right or not, the Black male Self that has been created by historical realities is only further fragmented by the onslaught of modernization and the economic and psychological problems it brings to bear. This phenomenon has changed the realities and life chances of most Americans during the post-modern era in that old familiar social forms have disintegrated before the new and highly aggressive forces of urbanization and industrialization. In relatively quick succession, family links in America have weakened, religious authority has waned, face to face communal life has been replaced by competitive, atomized city life, and custom and tradition have been displaced by the cold, brutal rationality of the modern market place. Black American male identity is bound up with the upheavals of these various factors in general rather than with the dynamics of any single interaction in particular. The historic psychic trauma of black males that is a result of chattel slavery and continued post-Civil War marginalization increases the toll of modern American society which often occasions painful dislocations economically, socially, and psychologically. Black Male Identity seeks to examine and ground the hypothesis that it is in the societal realm, rather than the individual, that we can locate the realities that will allow us to understand many norms among Black men which are brought into being by the combination of many factors.
Course Objectives:
1. To explore alternate epistemological approaches to the inter personal and societal behavior encountered within the African American male community.
2. To expose students to a range of literature dealing with the African American male human condition.
3. To provide a forum for student discussion which not only emphasizes academic theory, but seeks ways to impact real-world human interaction in the university’s host community.

PAS 326
Black Political Thought: Africa to Afrocentricity
Nature of the Course: This course is one which explores alternate epistemological views concerning the development of one of the most ancient of scholarly enterprises, Political Theory and Philosophy. It examines the development of political and philosophical engagement not centered on, though considering, Greece. This approach scrutinizes the contributions of Pre-Socratic thinkers and moves forward to the rise of Afrocentricity in the west. In the examination of political thought, socio-political philosophies ranging from Frederick Douglass, David Walker, and Martin Delany to Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Molefi Asante are examined. This course is different from often encountered Black Politics courses, because they primarily deal only with the history of African American participation in the American political system. Thus, most Black Politics courses begin with the study of American chattel slavery and lend a great amount of emphasis to the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements of the sixties. While these social movements are encountered, this course's scope is much broader than the African American experience. Black Political Thought does not only evaluate American acts and movements, but theories and philosophies which have driven the Black experience before and during the Diaspora.
Course Objectives:
1. To familiarize the student with alternate and traditional historical and epistemological approaches to the development of what we now know of as political theory / philosophy.
2. To address the current debate over the scholarly and social significance of the Afrocentric movement in the Academy and post-modern America as a whole.
3. To ultimately allow the student access to various views on the progression of political theory /philosophy in an effort to prompt intellectual engagement which develops their sense of the multi-faceted nature of historical and intellectual progression. Ideally, such engagement should help to produce a more diverse and inclusive collegiate population.

PAS 327
Politics of the Black Community
Nature of the Course: In 1974 Herbert Reid wrote in Up the Mainstream, "The student has a right to expect and demand general and critical interpretations that confront the yawning gap between theory and practice and that aid in organizing and penetrating the political events that go on around him or her and in taking action with respect to them. Youthful criticism of everyday life, to be politically significant, must be informed by a critical concept of ideology." This course is one which has been constructed to provide exposure to the political and social thoughts of modern Black intellectuals, political leaders and activists from Paul Cuffee to Louis Farrakhan and engage them critically as Reid suggested almost three decades ago. It also provides the student with the opportunity to engage American institutional structures, political values, and social mores which generatively and degeneratively impact African descended Americans. In an effort to provide a broad intellectual experience, the course will cover topics and structures from Slavery and Reconstruction through Blacks interaction with the modern Supreme Court, Interest Groups, and Political Parties. Hopefully, each student will gain an appreciation for "realities" or "ways of knowing the world" which are outside of their own particular ontologies. Beyond this, each participant should develop and augment intellectual skills which will enable them to engage in rational-critical discourse in and beyond this particular course.
Course Objectives:
1. To expose the student to various approaches to American and Diasporic socio-political arenas from a largely African descended perspective.
2. To prompt rational-critical engagement of Nationalist, Integrationist, Pluralistic, and Afrocentric schools of thought.
3. To familiarize the student with historical and contemporary Black thinkers and scholars who have impacted American political realities.

PAS 614
History of Pan-African Social Thought
Nature of the Course: History of Pan-African Social Thought is a graduate course whose aim is to explore primary writings and critiques of the major African descended thinkers of the 20th Century. The course is divided into four parts . Part 1 engages the social, political, and philosophical stances of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois around which most of early 20th Century African descended thought revolved. The course then moves to an examination of the activities of Blacks during what America called the "Roaring Twenties." More important to Blacks were the activities of Black Intellectuals and Artists during the Harlem Renaissance. Among others, Claude Mckay, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, and A. Philip Randolph are studied. With respect to alternative approaches to Black struggle, the History of Pan-African Social Thought considers the impact of Communism on Black intellectuals as well as contributions of non-American Blacks i.e. Marcus Garvey. Part 3 of the course moves on to compare and contrast the lives and politics of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The course concludes with an inquiry into what has become known as the Black Power Movement.
Course Objectives:
1. To expose the student to an array of influential African descended intellectuals who have impacted American socio-political thought in the 20th Century.
2. To engage issues of race, class, religion, nationalism, power and empire in an effort to arrive at more cogent explanations as to why Black intellectuals have approached American society in divergent ways.
3. To explore various social, intellectual, political, and cultural realms in which African Americans have dwelled. These range from the DuBois-Washington debate to the differences and similarities between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The thinkers and activists studied address issues ranging from racial discrimination and prejudice to questions of legal and social equality to the acceptance of leftist political thought i.e. Marxism.