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nb: to
be expanded and adapted to suit Semester sytsem
COURSE OBJECTIVE
.A
study and review of established and emerging research ideas and discourses,
methods, techniques, analytical tools
and research models for investigating the peoples, products and processes of
the African diaspora. The course begins
with an overview of paradigms, issues and concerns in worldwide diaspora research,
with emphasis on their relevance
to the African diaspora. Next, we will
examine argumentations and landmark research projects that locate and define
the African diaspora, including geographic limits, time depth, dialectics of
home and abroad/exile, etc., and with focus
on specific processes, products and experiences such as differentials in patterns
of slavery, mobility and multiple
deterritorialization, and others. We will examine specific analytical ideas and concepts
such as trauma, shared
consciousness and cultural memory, hybridity, Africanism, and current critical
discourse on race theory and identity
construction. Specific sites of cultural production and symbolic-aesthetic forms
and the media that uniquely position
peoples of African ancestry will be examined but with attention to the application
of original and existing investigative tools
from qualitative and quantitative research perspectives and from multi- and
interdisciplinary backgrounds.
Theorizing diaspora : a reader
/ edited by Jana Evans Braziel and Anita Mannur Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub.,
2003
African
roots/American cultures : Africa in the creation of the Americas /
edited by Sheila S. Walker
Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, c2001
New African diasporas / edited
by Khalid Koser London ; New York : Routledge, 2003
Black Cultural
Traffic: Crossroads in Global Performance and Popular Culture. Elam,
Harry J., Jr. and Kennell Jackson, eds. Ann
Arbor: Univ of Michigan Press, 2005.
Selections on reserve (see list of reserve materials); supplementary
articles are accesible from JSTOR
Students must complete all reading
assignments before each class and be prepared to respond to questions based
on the readings, as indicated in the weekly schedule.
Special Assignments: Students
will provide written and oral critical responses to selected essays, film, documentary,
musical composition, choreography, theatre piece, or significant audio or musical
recordings that reflect the experiences and ideas of individuals, people and
events of the African diaspora. [Students will be given a sample list of works/artists/authors,
as a starting point.] All students will complete a final research paper which
is based on either specific fieldwork assignments
or archival-library resources. Details of the research paper and special
assignments will be discussed in class.
All written assignments must be typed,
double-spaced, 12-point Times Roman and must conform to one of the major citation
formats or styles (include Internet) consistently. [Please see my website under
Research Guides for links to citation formats and writing /styles]
Grading:
Attendance
and participation 10% 4 Short Reviews (10% each) 40%
Mid-term
Exam 20%
Special
Fieldwork or Archival/Library Research Paper
30%
Grading: A combination
of points and letter grades and averaging will be employed, but instructor has
the discretion to favor a particular system. Example: 95-100 =A; 90-94-A-; 85-89=B+;
80-84=B; 75-79=B-; 70-74=C+; 65-69=C; 60-64=D; etc Letter grades will be assigned
in all cases.
*The instructors reserves the right to change, substitute, and add to the weekly schedule
SCHEDULE
Readings: special handouts
Assignments: special instruction
--Major African
civilizations and their global impact; diversity
of socioeconomic, political, religious and aesthetic traditions; and external
linkages and influences; unity in diversity
--Critical review of early African diaspora
studies
WEEK 4: THE MEDIA AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA--I
Contemporary local performances, fiction,
exhibition (physical and virtual cyberspace,
photography,
etc), theater, and questions of Roots and Memories of Africa (nostalgia, imaginary,
etc.) cultural, racial, ethnic identities
WEEK 5: THE MEDIA
AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA--II
Contemporary local performances, fiction,
exhibition (physical and virtual cyberspace,
photography,
etc), theater, and questions of Roots and Memories of Africa (nostalgia, imaginary,
etc.) cultural, racial, ethnic identities
Critiques of the literature
and in the light of specific performance/media events
WEEK 6: CONTEMPORARY
APPROACHES TO STUDYING DIASPORIC COMMUNITIES--1
Selective ideas from Theorizing Diaspora; Global Diasporas;
Cartographies;
Displacement,
diaspora, and geographies of identity; Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora; Identity and the Arts in Diaspora Communities;
Maggie Morehouse essay
WEEK 7: CONTEMP. APPROACHES
TO STUDYING DIASPORIC COMMUNITIES--II
Overview of
Qualitative and Quantitative Methods—Questionnaire design
Problems of
the quantitative method in studying Africa and the African Diaspora
WEEK 8: CONTEMP. APPROACHES TO STUDYING DIASPORIC COMMUNITIES--III
“Space” in Historiography; techniques
of oral history; interpreting and analyzing
autobiographies and narratives; auto-ethnography and critical ethnography
WEEK 9: The Comparative Method—review
and critique of selective studies, I
large-scale
and simple comparative methods
WEEK 10: The Comparative Method—review
and critique of selective studies, II
--one ethnic
group spread in several African Diaspora communities—Yoruba
--maroon communities and basic assumptions underlying Africanisms and
retention studies
--Typology of trauma and challenges to theory and method
WEEK 11: Archaeology—integrating oral history, linguistics,
indigenous script; the
relevance of mixed methods and triangulation,
team research, audiovisual documentation;
--review and critique of selective documentaries, professional and amateurs