Justified Anger, an initiative of Nehemiah, is launching two new history courses this summer that will expand on the success of its “Black History for a New Day” course, the non-profit organization announced on Tuesday.
Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara, UW-Madison professor of history and department chair of African American Studies, developed the courses in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a new series called “Why History Matters,” a critical look at racism in American institutions.
“To exclude people from the national histories, is to do an incredible violence, because history tells us our place in the world. It tells us who matters, it tells us why our world looks the way it does. When you start to tell an expansive, truthful history, that includes all the people who made things, because everyone’s a historical actor,” said Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara in a press release.
The two new course offerings are “Systemic Racism in Higher Education and Society” and “Slavery and Capitalism in the United States.” Each course will meet once a week for six weeks, starting in early July.
In fall 2023, “Systemic Racism in Higher Education and Society” was piloted with a small cohort. Now registration is being opened to members of the broader community who have already taken the “Black History for a New Day” course. “Slavery and Capitalism in the United States” is being piloted this summer with a select, small cohort and will be open to the public in a future offering. Both courses will be highly interactive, with dynamic lectures and small group discussions. The Black History for a New Day course is a prerequisite for the summer courses and will offered again in fall 2024, with registration open now.
The “Systemic Racism in Higher Education and Society” course will explore the systematic and structural exclusion and marginalization of Indigenous and Black people in higher education, including the founding of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The lectures will focus on my area of expertise — African American History — and then we will collectively think through how the readings focused on Native Americans complicate our understanding of both American history and African American history,” Dr. Clark-Pujara said.
For more information about the courses, click here.
