AFRO 498

Spring 2017 All Classes

All Classes

Spec Topics African Am Studies

SHOW FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE

Credit: 3 OR 4 hours.

Seminar on selected topics with particular emphasis on current research trends.

3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. May be repeated up to a maximum of 6 undergraduate hours or 8 graduate hours. Prerequisite: Upper level AFRO course (300 or above) or consent of instructor.

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AFRO 498 class schedule data for spring 2017
CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
65628	Lecture-Discussion	1G	12:30PM -1:45PM	TR	131 English Building	Jenkins, C	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/17/17-05/03/17 Credit: 4 hours Section Title: Hip Hop as Narrative Section Info: Topic Section 1U/1G: Theorizing Hip Hop: Hip Hop (as) Narrative In this seminar we will apply the tools of literary theory and criticism to hip hop artistry. We will think about rap music not only as a poetic or lyric form, but as a narrative one: a medium of storytelling. While we will explicate individual performances and recordings, our larger goal will be to theorize hip hop as national discourse and contemporary cultural artifact. To that end, our study will include a great deal of recent scholarship on hip hop, particularly new analyses of hip hop aesthetics that expand upon earlier, purely historical treatments. In our work with both primary and secondary texts, we will consider the kinds of stories that rap music tells, including those that it tells about the nature of hip hop itself (hip hop meta-narratives). We will also explore the ways that hip hop culture is deployed in the telling of other types of stories, and in other media (the novel, television and film, visual art). Focusing primarily on work produced in the last fifteen to twenty years, the course will be organized thematically, addressing key topics that recur in the music and in the culture more broadly. Our primary objective will be to gain a more nuanced understanding of rap music’s aesthetic and cultural significance, through critical analysis of hip hop as performance and as social metaphor. Attendance and participation, short responses, online postings, midterm and final paper.
65629	Lecture-Discussion	1U	12:30PM -1:45PM	TR	131 English Building	Jenkins, C	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/17/17-05/03/17 Credit: 3 hours Section Title: Hip Hop as Narrative Section Info: Theorizing Hip Hop: Hip Hop (as) Narrative In this seminar we will apply the tools of literary theory and criticism to hip hop artistry. We will think about rap music not only as a poetic or lyric form, but as a narrative one: a medium of storytelling. While we will explicate individual performances and recordings, our larger goal will be to theorize hip hop as national discourse and contemporary cultural artifact. To that end, our study will include a great deal of recent scholarship on hip hop, particularly new analyses of hip hop aesthetics that expand upon earlier, purely historical treatments. In our work with both primary and secondary texts, we will consider the kinds of stories that rap music tells, including those that it tells about the nature of hip hop itself (hip hop meta-narratives). We will also explore the ways that hip hop culture is deployed in the telling of other types of stories, and in other media (the novel, television and film, visual art). Focusing primarily on work produced in the last fifteen to twenty years, the course will be organized thematically, addressing key topics that recur in the music and in the culture more broadly. Our primary objective will be to gain a more nuanced understanding of rap music’s aesthetic and cultural significance, through critical analysis of hip hop as performance and as social metaphor. Attendance and participation, short responses, online postings, midterm and final paper.
65597	Lecture-Discussion	KS	6:00PM -8:50PM	TR	109A Davenport Hall	Smalls, K	Part of Term: B Date Range: 03/13/17-05/03/17 Credit: 4 hours Section Title: Anthropology of Gullah/Geechee Section Info: Who exactly are the Gullah/Geechee? How have they been imagined in different scholarly and social sectors, and how have they imagined themselves throughout history? In particular, how do they help “interpolate” or integrate Africa and the Americas – constituting what many consider to be “the missing link” between an African past and a Black American present? This course will introduce students to the Gullah/Geechee people of the southeastern United States – their winding political and cultural histories and their ever-changing contemporary cultural practices. From worship to foodways to language to traditional medicine, many practices help distinguish the Gullah/Geechee as a vital and vibrant cultural community and these phenomena also provide a rich resource for students and scholars of Black Diaspora around the world. Their past and present – and possible futures – bring to the fore pertinent questions around creolization and African retentions, the circum-Caribbean, black indigeneity, linguistic and cultural endangerment, and heritage tourism, among many others. But with increasing rural and urban poverty in the region, sustained erasure of their language practices from formal schooling, and ongoing land rights struggles, this community also faces challenges that shape everyday practices and individuals’ life chances and that interrupt prevalent notions of “authenticity” – helping to reshape what it means to be Gullah/Geechee, then and now. Enrollment in this course is restricted to students who agree to participate in the field trip to Georgia and South Carolina scheduled for May 15-May 31, 2017.