AMST 225
Black Outside the U.S.
Last Offered n/a
Division II
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

This course explores multiple ways Black identity evolves, adapts and is experienced differently depending on location. Students analyze Black experience in the U.S., France and Senegal through a range of texts from books and social media to music and film. One key aspect of the course is a study abroad trip to Senegal, which increases cultural awareness through experiential learning. This combination of textual learning with experiential knowledge exemplifies how language, religion, gender, geography, and performance shape one’s racial identity. In the first section of the course, students investigate Black experience in the U.S., focusing on such topics as the one-drop rule, racial profiling and where mixed people fit within Black/White tensions. The second section highlights the politics of language in France. Students explore how words like “Black,” “noir” and “race” have strong political connotations in France and spur both resistance to and alliance with Black American civil rights history. In the third part of the course, students visit Dakar, Senegal, and analyze Blackness through their own observations and encounters. Their trip insights jumpstart the final focus of the course on Senegal. Students investigate the influence of French colonialism on Black identity in Senegal, which makes the two geographical experiences of Blackness very different but still forever linked.
The Class: Format: seminar; seminar, the course includes a required spring break trip to Dakar, Senegal, which is no additional cost to students
Limit: 8
Expected: 8
Class#: 0
Grading:
Requirements/Evaluation: evaluation will be based on class participation, short weekly reading responses, two 4-5 page papers, a presentation based on the spring break trip, and a final presentation including a short 2-page report
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: students who have taken other AFR courses, Francophone speakers and students
Distributions: Division II
Attributes: AFR Core Electives
GBST Borders, Exiles + Diaspora Studies

Class Grid

Updated 9:23 am

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