The Politics and Culture of Black Hair

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

It is never "just hair." This course is a thematic overview of how the curls, coils, and kinks of Black hair give insight to the political, cultural, economic, and gendered dynamics of the U.S. Students will engage a breadth of interdisciplinary sources focusing on the hair of those of African descent. From questioning societal beauty standards to political debates in the barbershop to passing of California's CROWN Act, how society understands hair is complex. Throughout the course students will study this complexity and produce their own intellectual analyses of hair and society in the U.S.