My Favorite Class: Before ‘Black Lives Matter’
As a first-year, I struggled to pick my first semester classes. The number of options was overwhelming and I wasn’t sure which classes would be the best for fulfilling my Foundations requirements. While looking at a list of classes that would fulfill foundational requirements, I saw the class “Before ‘Black Lives Matter’” as an option to fulfill my Thinking With Historical Perspective Foundations requirement. Though I didn’t know much about the class, professor, or the Africana Studies department, I was immediately intrigued by the class. As someone with a background in activism, the course description of “situating the American Black Lives Matter phenomenon in relation to other and earlier movements that sought redress in contexts of racial discrimination,” immediately appealed to me.
Despite being in my first semester at Barnard and never having taken an Africana studies course, I felt that Professor Christiansen’s lecture was accessible and engaging. We studied the marginalization and rebellion of Black people in the global south and early colonial America. This class felt particularly apt to take in late 2019, as Black Lives Matter movements across the country gained in momentum. The class was fairly high level, but the material was interesting and my professor was able to present it in an understandable way. The class was also small and discussion-based, with under 25 people in the course.
Despite the course being challenging, I felt as though the skills and information I learned in that class by observing older Barnard students and participating in discussions are invaluable to me. I learned to make connections between my other courses in other departments and to not be too intimidated to voice my opinions and ideas. The older students were encouraging and always considered my opinions, despite my relative lack of academic experience.
Our assignments included journal entries, a mid-term and final essay, and a project that we proposed ourselves. The mid-term essay was one of my first long writing assignments in college. The essay allowed me to explore any of the readings I found interesting. The journal entries were also an excellent way to further reflect on my feelings about the topics we discussed in class and the difficult subject matter. My final project allowed me to be more creative with what we did, and I created an audio-visual presentation to talk about the gentrification of Harlem.
Now, as a sophomore, I still think that Before ‘Black Lives Matter’ was my favorite class that I took my freshman year. Despite the difficulty of the class, I was able to learn a lot about what it’s like to engage in college-level discussion and make connections with older Barnard students. I would highly recommend this class, whether you want to fulfill a Foundations requirement or just see if you’re interested in Africana Studies.