OSUN Theme: Liberal Arts and Sciences
Cultural Politics and Performance in the African Diaspora
Term: June 15, 2023 – July 10, 2023Level: 100-Level
Day/Time: M/T/Th/F 10 AM EST - 12:30 PM EST
All Summer Courses are accredited through Bard College.
This course will investigate cultural politics and performance in different Africana communities. Throughout the course we will discuss some histories of the African diaspora, examining the impact of major events like the transatlantic slave trade, colonization, and different artistic and social movements. We will spend some time examining how different scholars have conceptualized diaspora, specifically focusing on how race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality have shaped diasporic consciousness, networks, flows, and dialogues. We will also look at various issues related to struggles over the meaning and value of blackness and Africanity, individual and collective struggles for cultural equity and inclusion, as well as issues around group membership and belonging. We will conclude the course by focusing on three case studies, engaging in an intersectional analysis of cultural politics and performance in Panama, Senegal, and the United States of America. What role have culture, the arts, and performance played in struggles over power in different communities on the continent of Africa and in the Diaspora? What are the points of divergence and convergence between these different struggles? Lasty, what do cultural, artistic and performance practices reveal about the forces enabling or constraining individual and collective efforts to survive and thrive on the continent of Africa and in the African diaspora?
Credits: 4 U.S./8 ECTS