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Fall 2014 AFAM 245 Professor Weheliye
TTh 11am-12:20pm Office: Crowe 5-121
Locy Hall 318 Office Hours: T: 2:00-3pm/Th 10am-11am
TAs: Cecilio Cooper & Chelsea Frazier a-weheliye@northwestern.edu
Introduction to Transnational Black Cultures: Britain and Germany
While the African diaspora is generally associated with the history of the Americas, recent years have seen the proliferation of African descended communities in Europe due to the aftermath of colonialism and various forms migration. This course will introduce students to the cultural productions of Afro-diasporic groups in Britain and Germany. We will begin the course with some theoretical and historical readings about the emergence of these communities within their respective national cultures as well as their transnational conversations with other Afro-diasporic groups. Then we will discuss recent films, novels, and autobiographies in order to understand both the commonalities shared and differences between these diasporic formations.
Requirements
*Regular attendance
*Essay
*Final multimedia project & presentation
*Weekly blog posts/responses
*In-class participation/Twitter
*Creating or editing three Wikipedia entries related to the course topic
Grading
Essay, Multimedia Project/Presentation, Blog Posts, and Wikipedia Entries 70%
In-class Participation, Twitter, and Attendance 30%
Rules
*Laptops may only be used for class related activities; otherwise they will be taken away.
*Cell phones and other mobile devices can be used for tweeting but nothing else during class time. Ringers should be off.
*You are required to bring reading materials to class, either in hard copy or electronic form.
*Please familiarize yourself with the “Avoiding Plagiarism” document posted on the Canvas Website site.
*Attendance is mandatory. Missing more than one class will result in a lower grade.
*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, I encourage you to ask about them.
Students with Disabilities
Any student requesting accommodations related to a disability or other condition is required to register with Services for Students with Disabilities (ssd@northwestern.edu; 847-467-5530) and provide professors with an accommodation notification from SSD, preferably within the first two weeks of class. For more information: http://www.northwestern.edu/disability All information will remain confidential. I can best accommodate students if they let me or the TAs know about their specific needs related to learning and fulfilling the requirements of the course.
Required Texts
Hügel-Marshall—Invisible Woman, Kay--Trumpet: A Novel, Oguntoye, et al.—Showing Our Colors, Procter--Writing Black Britain 1948-1998. All other class materials will be available through the Canvas website.
Blog Posts
The class blog on the course Canvas provides page a forum for discussion before and after our class sessions: https://northwestern.instructure.com/courses/5112
Each week you are required to contribute at least two substantive comments to one of the posts on the course blog. Each comment should reflect what you have learned from and think about the assigned class materials. Substantive responses consist of a paragraph that takes into account previous posts and assigned readings (200 words). These responses should focus on your classmates’ posts and the readings.
One time during the quarter, you will be required to write a substantive blog post (500-600 words). You will need to introduce the materials assigned for the session, provide links to secondary sources (blog posts, videos, etc.) that relate to the assigned materials, and post thought provoking discussion questions that show you have completed the reading and thought about the way the particular work fits into the larger themes of the course.
Your substantive blog posts should be posted no later than 24 hours before the class session during which we will discuss the assigned materials. Your responses to your classmates’ posts need to be posted no later than12am the night before the class session.
If no students are assigned to post for a session, all students are required to post shorter responses to the class materials no later than12am the night before the class session during which we will discuss the assigned materials.
You are also encouraged to respond in a less formal manner to the posts and comments of your classmates. These responses are in addition to your required comments. Here, you can comment less formally, provide links and/or quotes that illustrate or challenge another post, etc. Check the course blog often to engage with the ongoing discussion.
One or two students will be responsible for tweeting about the discussion during each class session from the course account (you can post questions or comments about the discussion, engage with the authors we’re reading, etc.). The rest of the class can respond either during class or afterwards. Every student should post at least five tweets per week. Please include the handle: @BlackDiaspora14 in your class-related tweets. If you do not have a Twitter account yet, you will need to create one and follow the course account.
Note: If you already a Twitter account. Twitter doesn’t let you associate the same email address with more than one Twitter account. If you have a Gmail account, however, you can add a dot (.) anywhere in the username and all emails will still reach you, because Gmail ignores periods. You can add the dot anywhere in your email address to create a separate Twitter account. For instance, if your Twitter account is associated with the email address: ABC@gmail.com, you can use A.BC@gmail.com or AB.C@gmail.com to sign up for a second Twitter account for the course.
Guidelines for 500-600 Word Posts
**Introduce the materials assigned for the session.
**Provide links to secondary sources (text, video, image, music, etc.) that relate to the assigned materials. Briefly explain how these sources relate to the assigned materials.
**Devise discussion questions that show you have completed the reading and have thought about the way the particular work fits into the larger themes of the course.
Here are some questions to consider:
*How do the assigned materials relate to the previous materials & discussions in the course?
*What new dimensions (historical facts, theoretical approaches, examples, etc.) do these materials add to our ongoing discussion?
*What is the author’s methodology, theoretical approach, disciplinary background, etc.? How does this shape his/her argument?
*Do these materials contradict and/or revise previous arguments? If so, how?
*How do these materials speak to current social, political, economic, and cultural conditions?
Quarter Schedule
Please note: the most up-to-date version of the quarter schedule will always be available online
Tuesday 9/23 Introduction to course
Thursday 9/25 Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic Chapter 1
Tuesday 9/30 Showing Our Colors (pp. vii-40)
Fatima El-Tayeb, “We are Germans” (Canvas website)
Thursday 10/2 Showing Our Colors (pp. 40-76)
Tina Campt, “Converging Spectres” and Krista O’Donnell, “The First Besatzungskinder” (Canvas website
Film: Toxi
Tuesday 10/7 Reading: Showing Our Colors (pp.77-123) and Yara-Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria, “Germany’s ‘Brown Babies’” (Canvas website)
Thursday 10/09 Ika Hügel-Marshall—Invisible Woman
Tuesday 10/14 Film: Black Deutschland
Showing Our Colors (pp. 127-233)
Thursday 10/16 Film: Audre Lorde the Berlin Years
Reading: Maisha Eggers, “Knowledges of (Un)Belonging” and Tiffany Florvil, “Deutsch und Schwarz” (Canvas website)
Tuesday 10/21 Film: Everything Will Be Fine
Reading: Fatima El-Tayeb, “Because It Is Our Stepfatherland” (Canvas website)
Thursday 10/23 Music: Advanced Chemistry, Brothers and Sisters Keepers, Glashaus
Reading: Alexander Weheliye, “My Volk to Come” (Canvas website)
Essay due at 5pm via Canvas Website
Tuesday 10/28 Film: Blacks Britannica
Reading: Writing Black Britain (pp. 1-12 and 57-93)
Thursday 10/30 Film: Small Island
Tuesday 11/04 Film: Pressure
Reading: Writing Black Britain (pp. 95-97 and 149-92)
Thursday 11/6 Film: White Teeth
Tuesday 11/11 Film: Young Soul Rebels
Reading: Writing Black Britain (pp. 193-96, 261-85, and 307-320)
Thursday 11/13 Jackie Kay--Trumpet: A Novel
Tuesday 11/18 Music: Soul II Soul, Loose Ends, Tricky, Jungle, Dizzee Rascal, Dubstep, etc. Reading: Hesmondhalgh and Melville, “Urban Breakbeat Culture,” Zuberi, “Black Whole Styles” (Canvas website
Thursday 11/20 Jackie Kay--Trumpet: A Novel
Tuesday 11/25 Film: Stuart Hall Project
Thursday 11/27 No Class: Thanksgiving
Tuesday 12/2 Presentation of Final Group Projects
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