Department of African American and African StudiesAAAS 2201: Major Readings in African American and African Studies

Fall 2015

Instructor Dr. Cheikh ThiamDays and Time T-Th: 11:10-12:30Office hours T-Th: 9:30:11:00 Office 220 Hagerty HallEmail thiam.5@osu.edu

Access

Students with a disability have a right to an equal opportunity to participate and benefit from programs offered at OSU. Students who choose to exercise these rights have a responsibility to initiate and participate in the accommodation process. Students have a responsibility to identify themselves as needing accommodation in a timely fashion.

Academic IntegrityAs defined by University Rule 3335-31-02, plagiarism is the representation of another's works or ideas as one's own; it includes the unacknowledged word for word use and/or paraphrasing of another person's work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person's ideas. Plagiarism is one of the most serious offenses that can be committed in an academic community; as such, it is the obligation of this department and its instructors to report all cases of suspected plagiarism to the Committee on Academic Misconduct. After the report is filed, a hearing takes place and if the student is found guilty, the possible punishment ranges from failing the class to suspension or expulsion from the university. Although the existence of the internet makes it relatively easy to plagiarize, it also makes it even easier for instructors to find evidence of plagiarism. It is obvious to most teachers when a student turns in work that is not his or her own and plagiarism search engines make documenting the offense very simple. To preserve the integrity of OSU as an institution of higher learning, to maintain your own integrity, and to avoid jeopardizing your future, DO NOT PLAGIARIZE! To understand better academic integrity, please see http://oaa.osu.edu/coam/ten-suggestions.html

Course description In this course we will focus on the pivotal moments in Africana Studies through an exploration of some of the major readings in the discipline. These readings will enable us to investigate the philosophical and political relevance of African, African American, and Caribbean discourses since the 18th century. We will closely examine the ways major black intellectual and political movements such as Negritude, Black Power, Feminism, and Postcolonialism, have participated in understanding, conceiving, shaping, and orienting the very nature of our global culture. We will not only look at how these discourses are not only a product of modernity (be they often anti-modernist) but also how they are constitutive of it. In addition to exploring the relevance of Africana scholarship and its status within the modern and so called postmodern paradigm, we will, in the course of the semester, show how Africana Studies has offered, for the past three centuries, some of the most groundbreaking attempts to understand our world in its diversity and its constant becoming.

General Education Category: Social Diversity in the United States Goals:

Students understand the pluralistic nature of institutions, society, and culture in the United States and across the world in order to become educated, productive, and principled citizens.

Expected Learning Outcomes:1. Students describe and evaluate the roles of such categories as race, gender

and sexuality, disability, class, ethnicity, and religion in the pluralistic institutions and cultures of the United States.

2. Students recognize the role of social diversity in shaping their own attitudes and values regarding appreciation, tolerance, and equality of others.

Instructional MethodThis course is student centered, so come prepared.

Students will be asked to do oral and written exercises in class and at home We may have both pop quizzes and scheduled tests

Attendance-After the first unexcused absence, each subsequent absence will result in lowering your final paper’s grade by half a letter grade.

~An excused absence is an absence justified by a doctor’s note

-Coming to class unprepared will have the same consequences as an absence.

-Two tardies have the same consequence as one absence~If you come to class at 11:11, you will be marked late.

-Using cell phones or computers for anything that is not related to the course has the same consequence as an absence.

EvaluationUndergraduate students

Paper 1: 45%Paper 2: 45%Participation and presentation: 10%

Late work PolicyLate papers will be graded down one letter grade for each day they are late.All major assignments must be completed to pass the course.

Course Schedule

Week 1 and 2: What is Africana Studies?

- Tuesday, August 25: Introduction- Thursday, August 27: V. Mudimbe, “Discourse of Power and Knowledge of Otherness”- Tuesday, September 1: Lewis Gordon, “Introduction: Africana philosophy in context”- Thursday, September 3: T. Patterson and R. Kelley “Unfinished Migrations: Reflections on the

African Diaspora and the Making of the Modern World”

Week 3 and 4: The Relevance of Ancient African Historiography

- Tuesday, September 8: T. Patterson and R. Kelley “Unfinished Migrations: Reflections on the African Diaspora and the Making of the Modern World”

- Thursday, September 10: Ancient Africa A History Denied (Full Documentary)- Tuesday, September 15: Walter Rodney, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, chapter 2”- Thursday, September 17: Olufemi Taiwo, “Prophets Without Honors”

Week 5 and 6: Negritude and Cultural Resistance

- Tuesday, September 22: Senghor, Selected Writings - Thursday, September 24: Senghor, Selected Writings - Tuesday, September 29: Aimé Césaire, Notebook of the Return to the Native Land, TBA - Thursday, October 1: Aimé Césaire, Notebook of the Return to the Native Land, TBA

Week 7-8: Black Power, Pan-Africanism, Anti-colonial theories

- Tuesday, October 6: West, Martin “ From Toussaint to Tupac”- Thursday, October 8: Frantz Fanon “Concerning Violence” Paper 1 due- Tuesday, October 13: Conference- Thursday, October 15: Fall Break

Week 9-10: Beyond the Colonial Paradigm

- Tuesday, October 20: Fanon Concerning Violence- Thursday, October 22: Swan, “Caveat of an Obnoxious Slave: Decolonizing Black Power Studies” - Tuesday, October 27: Stewart Hall, New Ethnicities- Thursday, October 29: Stewart Hall, New Ethnicities

Week 11-12-13: Female Voices

- Tuesday, November 3: Oyeronke Oyewumi, The Invention of Women: Introduction- Thursday, November 5: Conference, no class

- Tuesday, November 10: Bell Hooks, “Cultural Criticism”- Thursday, November 12: Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and

Violence against Women of Color”- Tuesday, November 17: Hortense Spiller, “Mama’s Baby, Papas Maybe” - Thursday, November 19: Nkiru Nzegwu. "Cultural Epistemologies of Motherhood"

- Tuesday, November 24: Presentation- Thursday, November 26: Thanksgiving- Tuesday, December 1: Presentation- Thursday, December 3: Presentation

- Tuesday, December 8: Conclusion, Paper 2 due