Current Course Schedule |
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GRADUATE COURSE SCHEDULE
SPRING 2009
AFRICAN AMERICAN CITY CINEMA - G11.2303
Wednesday 4:55-7:35 4 pts Ed Guerrero
From the first mass, black migrations North at the beginning of the 20th Century, through the rise of ‘black, industrial modernism’ and the Harlem Renaissance, to contemporary ‘hood-homeboy’ flicks, and beyond, with few exceptions African American cinema has been an urban experience. This course will survey and critically explore an historical range of black films in relation to the modern city, as an inspiration, as a setting, and as a site of production. We will screen, discuss, read and write about a range of important black independently made, and/or black cast and narrative feature films, such as Juke Joint, Moon Over Harlem, Killer of Sheep, Bush Mama, Stormy Weather, Soul Food, Do the Right Thing.
THE SWEAT OF THY FACE: AFRICAN AMER LABOR HIST - G11.2611
Wednesday 2-4:45 4 pts Robert Hinton
Enslaved Africans and recently emancipated African Americans, in the United States, are usually depicted working in the fields growing cotton. Folks did grow cotton but that was just one of many roles they played. This seminar looks at the variety of labor experiences of African Americans, in slavery and in freedom. Although designed for graduate students, the seminar is opened to seniors with GPA of 3.75.
TOPICS IN CARIBBEAN LITERATURE: SYCORAX AESTHETICS – G11.2651
Tuesday 6:20-9:00 Kamau Brathwaite
For description contact Comparative Literature at 212-998-8790
RESITING RESISTANCE: FROM NATION TO DIASPORA IN CARIBBEAN WRITING - G11.2654
Monday 3:30-6:10 4 pts Michael Dash
In the islands of the Caribbean archipelago, plantation slavery and later schemes of indentureship left in their wake diverse groups of people who were cut off from their communities of origin. Ethnic and cultural heterogeneity was further intensified by prolonged periods of colonization making Caribbean societies some of the oldest colonies in the West which because of their unusual hybrid genesis, could neither be seen as “western” or could they be considered “native”, that is distinctly “other”. This course looks at the Caribbean archipelago in terms of its fragmented island spaces, the dominance of the sea and the influence of the Atlantic world. Theorizing Caribbean identity will be treated not in terms of an inherent wholeness or cultural unity in the region but of open-ended cultural interaction. Caribbean literary theories manifest a connectedness and cross-cultural relocation that mark all the major literary movements. Some of the central paradigms to be addressed will be nationalism, cosmopolitanism, creolization and relationality
THE BLACK BODY AND THE LENS – G11.3213
Tuesday 2-4:45 Deb Willis
This interdisciplinary seminar explores the range of ideas and methods used by critical thinkers in addressing the body in photography, video, music, and film. Central to our discussions will be a focus on how the display of the black body affects society; how we see and interpret the world. Using a series of case studies, we will consider the construction of beauty, gendered images, sports, race, and hip-hop culture. The historical gaze has profoundly determined the visual construction of the black body in contemporary society. The interplay between icon and iconoclastic images, the historical and the contemporary, between self-presentation and imposed representation--all fundamental to our discussions. The seminar will center the student within the contemporaneous world of image making with an emphasis on the black body.
READINGS IN AFRICANA STUDIES – G11.3210 & G11.3211
IND ***To be arranged*** 1-4 pts (Note: Permission of the Department required)
INTERNSHIP – G11.3311
IND ***To be arranged*** 1-4 pts (Note: Permission of the Department required)
