Black Queer Diasporas

Fall 2020 AFAM 245 Professor Weheliye

T/Th 11:20am-12:40pm TA: Jordan Mulkey

Via Zoom

Black Queer Diasporas

This course serves as an introduction to critical theories of race, gender, and sexuality across the African diaspora and on the African continent. We will discuss critical writings and analyze literary texts, films, and musical practices about queerness in order to understand the complex ways Blackness and shapes marginalized genders and sexualities across the globe.

Requirements

*Attendance/participation

*Mid-term and final essays

*Weekly blog posts/responses (at least two each week)

*Creating or editing three Wikipedia entries related to the course topic

Rules

*In-class/online behavior should be based on mutual respect. I encourage and appreciate active, informed, and critical interchanges during our discussions, but these should be conducted in a manner that is considerate of others. This means that we should not use discriminatory and non-inclusive language whenever possible, even if we encounter this language in some of the materials on the syllabus. If you are unsure about using any particular terms, you should ask about them.

* Though *not a requirement*, please use your camera while on Zoom whenever possible, since it helps us to build community.

*The chat function will be available in each session for you to ask questions and contribute to the discussion.

* All Zoom meetings will be recorded (with consent) and posted to the Canvas site each week.

Students with Disabilities

Any student requesting accommodations related to a disability or other condition is required to register with AccessibleNU (accessiblenu@northwestern.edu; 847-467-5530) and provide professors with an accommodation notification from AccessibleNU, preferably within the first two weeks of class. All information will remain confidential. I can best accommodate students if they let me or the TA know about their specific accommodation needs related to learning and fulfilling the requirements of the course.

Required Texts:

Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater, Jackie Kay, Trumpet: A Novel, Audre Lorde, Zami

All other materials are available through Canvas. All the films can be accessed through the Pages section in Canvas.

Quarter Schedule

Thursday, September 17, 2020 Introduction to the course

Tinsley, “Black Atlantic, Queer Atlantic” & Walcott, “Outside in black studies: Reading from a queer place in the diaspora”

Tuesday, September 22, 2020 Spillers, “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe”

Thursday, September 24, 2020 Woubshet, “Archiving the Dead: AIDS Obituaries and Final Innings” & Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens.”

Film: Tongues Untied

Tuesday, September 29, 2020 Audre Lorde, Zami (Beginning to chapter 16 p. 4-118)

Thursday, October 1, 2020 Richardson, “Our Stories Have Never Been Told”

Film: The Watermelon Woman

Tuesday, October 6, 2020 Audre Lorde, Zami (Chapter 17 to the end p. 118-256) & “Use of the Erotic”

Thursday, October 8, 2020 Ellis, “Out and Bad: Toward a Queer Performance Hermeneutics in Jamaican Dancehall;” Glave, “An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Jamaica (June 2008)” & Agard Jones, “What the Sands Remember.”

Film: Out and Bad: London's LGBT Dancehall Scene

Tuesday, October 13, 2020 Emezi, Freshwater (Chapters 1-10)

Thursday, October 15, 2020 Macharia, “Queer Kenya in Law and Policy”

Film: Rafiki

Tuesday, October 20, 2020 Emezi, Freshwater (Chapters 11-22)

Thursday, October 22, 2020 Ndashe, “The single story of ‘African homophobia’ is dangerous for LGBTI activism” & Livermon, “Queer(y)ing freedom: Black queer visibilities in postapartheid South Africa”

Film: The Wound

Tuesday, October 27, 2020 Keeling, “Looking for M”

Film: Moonlight

Thursday, October 29, 2020 Clay, “Queer Women of Color and Hip-Hop Masculinity” & Shange, “A King Named Nicki: Strategic Queerness and the Black Femmecee”

Film: The Aggressives

Tuesday, November 3, 2020 Bailey, “Theorizing the Gender System in Ballroom Culture”

Film: Paris Is Burning

Thursday, November 5, 2020 Puar, “Queer Times, Queer Assemblages”

Film: Naz and Maalik

Tuesday, November 10, 2020 Kay, Trumpet (Chapters House and Home to Music)

Thursday, November 12, 2020 Film: Young Soul Rebels

Tuesday, November 17, 2020 Kay, Trumpet (Chapters Sex to Shares)

Thursday, November 19, 2020 Film: Rag Tag

Tuesday, November 24, 2020 El-Tayeb, “Because It Is Our Stepfatherland”

Film: Everything Will Be Fine

Essay #2 & Wikipedia entries due on December 12 at 12pm on Canvas