Galactic Black Studies

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course explores why Black Studies as a field should be engaged with the development of policy and law related to regulating space and aerospace technology, as well as why space law and policy would benefit from Black Studies interventions. It does so by examining African Diasporic ethics and philosophies about extraterrestrial life forms and outer space; in addition to illuminating policy and cultural responses to the space race from Black writers, artists, politicians, policymakers, legal scholars, and filmmakers from across the globe. Using methods and approaches from Black Studies, Critical Legal Studies, Queer Legal Theory, Crip theory, and African American literature, we will explore why and how Black people’s limited access to institutional power, technology, and private corporatization has not kept them from developing arguments and theories relevant to developments in space policy and law.