This research seminar purposefully brings Africa north and south of the Sahara into a unified frame of study. It focuses on African cultural expressions such as music, song, literature, fashion, photography and film, digital creations, museums, and architecture in the period 1900 to the present. The themes structuring the syllabus are: colonialism, nationalism, and modernity; constructions of gender; identities, and the changing environment. You will learn about important concepts and themes in African historiography and cultural studies, and a wide range of relevant texts. Explorations of African subjectivities and narrative agency in all their complexity are central to the intellectual trajectory of this class. Research papers will engage with a particular kind of text or form of African culture across regions.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses:

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor required. Normally open to juniors and seniors who have taken a 200-level unit in history and/or a 200-level unit in a relevant area/subject.

Instructor: Kapteijns and Aadnani (Middle Eastern Studies)

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: