AFR 400
Race, Gender, Space (Capstone Seminar for AFR)
Last Offered Fall 2008
Division II
Cross-listed COMP 369 / ENGL 365 / WGST 400
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Physical or symbolic manipulation of space is one mode through which power operates, one manner in which power is exercised and experienced. Historically and currently, space has been divided and resources have been unevenly distributed along numerous axes. Thus, we are left with a constellation of dubiously constructed but nonetheless segregated spaces: public vs. private, male vs. female, white vs. black, native vs. immigrant, rich vs. poor, Christian vs. heathen (even Protestant vs. Catholic), and straight vs. queer sexuality. In this senior seminar, we will examine the ways in which power is enacted, experienced, and resisted through space. In particular, we will investigate the role of space in the creation of raced and gendered identities. Also, because the political and social manipulation of space is not the exclusive prerogative of the empowered, we will consider ways that resisting communities have sought to negotiate, redesign, or redefine space-or even transgress constrictive physical or social boundaries. Finally, we will inquire into the complex politics involved in attempts to establish alternative spaces of relative autonomy beyond the rules or the space of dominant culture. Likely texts include but are not limited to: Henri LeFebvre’s The Production of Space, McKittrick and Woods’ Black Geographies, Toni Morrison’s Paradise, Phanswane Mpe’s Welcome to Our Hillbrow, essays by Morrison, Michel de Certeau, Neil Smith, bell hooks, David Harvey, Sarah Mills, among others.