Black Queer Diasporas 2023
Fall 2023 Professor Weheliye
T/Th 10:30-11:50AM
Lindemann Performing Arts 308
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.
As a Race, Power and Privilege (RPP) course, this class examines issues of structural inequality, racial formation and disparities and systems of power within a complex, pluralistic world, paying particular attention to how Blackness is produced and lived intersectionally in relation to other hierarchical structures of difference including gender, sexuality, class, religion, ability, citizenship status and geography.
Requirements:
*Regular attendance
*Final multimedia group project and presentation
*Two weekly blog posts/responses
*In-class participation
*Creating or editing three Wikipedia entries related to the course topic
* The course requires about 9 hours per week of reading and watching films outside of class time (39 hours class time over the course of a 13-week semester), and about 30 hours on the final project
Course Learning Objectives:
1) Learn about the culture of Black queer and transgender people in the US, Caribbean, Africa, and Western Europe.
2) Learn how to conduct research through varied internet portals to scholarship and intellectual journalism related to Black queer and transgender people
3) Learn how to select effective evidence to develop and complicate an exploration of a particular topic related to Black queer and transgender people
4) Learn how to attribute and cite sources accurately
5) Learn how to analyze complex concepts relating to Black gender and trans studies
6) Learn how to analyze films
7) Learn how to create and/or edit a Wikipedia page
8) Learn how to use a specific multimedia app or platform for final project
Grading
Multimedia Project/Presentation 35%
Blog posts/responses 25%
Essay 15%
Participation, Attendance, 15%
Wikipedia Entries 10%
Discussion is a key component of this course, as is leading a class discussion on the course blog. You are required to develop opinions and thoughts about the readings, and to share them with others.
Rules
*Laptops, cell phones, and other mobile devices may be used for class related activities.
*You are required to bring reading materials to class, either in hard copy or electronic form.
*Attendance is mandatory. If you miss three sessions without medical or serious reason, you will earn no credit for the course.
*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.
*Late submissions of any assignment or blog post will not be accepted, except under acceptable documented circumstances such as the following:
• Illness or injury when the student is unable to attend class
• Death of a family member
• Religious observance where the nature of the observance prevents the student from
attending class
• Participation in university activities at the request of university authorities (e.g.,
Intercollegiate Athletics, Forensics Team, Dance Company, etc.)
• Compelling verifiable circumstances beyond the control of the student
Accessibility and Accommodations:
Brown University is committed to full inclusion of all students. Please inform me early in the term if you may require accommodations or modification of any of course procedures. You may speak with me after class, during office hours, or by appointment. If you need accommodations around online learning or in classroom accommodations, please be sure to reach out to Student Accessibility Services (SAS) for their assistance (sas@brown.edu, 401-863-9588). Undergraduates in need of short-term academic advice or support can contact an academic dean in the College by emailing college@brown.edu.
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 Media Library section in Canvas.
Expenses and Financial Concerns: The estimated course materials cost for this course are $36 and therefore less than $50.
Students with concerns about the non-tuition cost(s) of a course at Brown may apply to the Dean of the College’s Academic Emergency Fund to determine options for financing these costs, while ensuring their privacy. The Fund can be found in the Emergency, Curricular & Co-curricular Gap (E-Gap) Funds in UFunds. More information is available at: http://brown.edu/go/egap. Students may also submit inquiries to egap-funds@brown.edu.
Academic Integrity:
“Academic achievement is evaluated on the basis of work that a student produces independently. A student who obtains credit for work, words, or ideas that are not the producers of their own effort is dishonest and in violation of Brown’s Academic Code. Such dishonesty undermines the integrity of academic standards of the University. Infringement of the Academic Code entails penalties ranging from reprimand to suspension, dismissal, or expulsion from the University.” (The Academic Code, 5).
Any violation of the above statement will be understood as an act of academic dishonesty and will be handled according to the policies detailed in Brown University’s Academic Code. Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty may be result in a grade of N/C for this course as well as other penalties. Questions or concerns about academic integrity should be raised with the instructor prior to submitting an assignment.
Semester Schedule
Thu, Sep 7, 2023 Introduction to the course
Tue, Sep 12, 2023 Tinsley, “Black Atlantic, Queer Atlantic” & Walcott, “Outside in black studies:
Reading from a queer place in the diaspora”
Thu, Sep 14, 2023 Spillers, “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe”
Tue, Sep 19, 2023 Woubshet, “Archiving the Dead: AIDS Obituaries and Final Innings”
& Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens.”
Film: Tongues Untied
Thu, Sep 21, 2023 Audre Lorde, Zami (Beginning to chapter 16 p. 4-118)
Tue, Sep 26, 2023 Richardson, “Our Stories Have Never Been Told”
Film: The Watermelon Woman
Thu, Sep 28, 2023 Audre Lorde, Zami (Chapter 17 to the end p. 118-256) & “Use of the Erotic”
Tue, Oct 3, 2023 Film: Pariah
Thu, Oct 5, 2023 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
Tue, Oct 10, 2023 Films: Madame Sata and Of Men and Gods
Thu, Oct 12, 2023 No Class
Tue, Oct 17, 2023 Emezi, Freshwater (Chapters 1-10)
Thu, Oct 19, 2023 Film: Dakan/Destiny
Tue, Oct 24, 2023 Emezi, Freshwater (Chapters 11-22)
Thu, Oct 26, 2023 Macharia, “Queer Kenya in Law and Policy”
Film: Rafiki
Tue, Oct 31, 2023 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
Thu, Nov 2, 2023 No Class
Tue, Nov 7, 2023 Keeling, “Looking for M”
Film: Moonlight
Thu, Nov 9, 2023 Bailey, “Theorizing the Gender System in Ballroom Culture”
Film: Paris Is Burning
Tue, Nov 14, 2023 Clay, “Queer Women of Color and Hip-Hop Masculinity”
Film: The Aggressives
Thu, Nov 16, 2023 Puar, “Queer Times, Queer Assemblages”
Film: Naz and Maalik
Tue, Nov 21, 2023 No Class: Genocide Remembrance
Thu, Nov 23, 2023 No Class: Genocide Remembrance
Tue, Nov 28, 2023 Kay, Trumpet (Chapters House and Home to Music)
Thu, Nov 30, 2023 El-Tayeb, “Because It Is Our Stepfatherland”
Film: Everything Will Be Fine
Tue, Dec 5, 2023 Kay, Trumpet (Chapters Sex to Shares)
Thu, Dec 7, 2023 Final Presentations
Final Projects & Wikipedia entries due on Canvas: Tuesday, December 19 at noon