Making and Remaking Blackness in the Western World

This course is an interdisciplinary survey of cultural, social, and political expressions of Blackness among people of African descent in the Western World, primarily the United States, and the social forces that create various understandings of this identity. Black experiences of and reflections on what it means to be Black are articulated in writing, visual and performing arts, music, and social media. Students will read, listen, and view a wide of set of materials that reflect people of African descent and their negotiation, rejection, and reimagination of different forms of Blackness in affirmative and complex ways from the 18th century to the present. Primary and secondary texts will comprise the course readings and range from cultural studies, philosophy, critical race theory, sociology, political science, literature, and history, among other areas.