Critical Southern Studies

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Historically the southern states in the U.S. have been at the epicenter of many evolutions and controversies of U.S. democracy and empire. Current economic, migratory, racial, and gender politics indicate new concerns about how important the region of the South will be to the future of the U.S., as well as global communities, which is why a course in Critical Southern Studies might be relevant and of interest to Georgetown students. From W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells, to James Baldwin and Trudier Harris, to Eddie Glaude Jr and Reverend William Barber, intellectual stalwarts in African American Studies and black public figures have consistently noted the importance of the southern United States to American governance, culture, and industry innovation. Increasingly, Black Studies and Southern Studies scholars have also demonstrated how the racial and capital logics of the U.S. South inform and influence those of marginalized geographies and peoples globally. This course will use the radical interdisciplinarity of Black Studies to engage New Southern Studies and the place of the South nationally and Diasporically in global futures.