Anthropology and the African Diaspora

Catalog description

This class explores diverse readings and perspectives on the African Diaspora. Through works on history, culture, aesthetics and literature, and materials taken from Africa, the Caribbean, the US and Europe, we will explore the multiple meanings of the concept of Diaspora and its role in identity formation in the late twentieth century cultures of the Atlantic basin. We will pay particular attention to the ways the experiences of slavery and dislocation - and by corollary, rootedness and mobility - have constituted foundational tropes for Black Atlantic identities, both historically and in the contemporary period. We will also examine how the diaspora concept subverts Eurocentric formulations of nationalism, citizenship, and cultural belonging.