21G.025 | Spring 2019 | Undergraduate

Africa and the Politics of Knowledge

Assignments

Reading Responses 

You will write a 200–300 word response to the readings / films for each session. These responses are meant to help you synthesize and integrate the readings for your own learning (and give you a starting point for in-class discussion!), and also to help me gauge your understanding of the readings, what they brought up for you, etc., so that I might pitch classes at the right level. To that end, your responses should engage critically with the assigned materials: summarize the questions they raise and their key arguments, and lay out how the pieces relate to one another; state what remains unclear to you or leaves you perplexed, what questions the texts brought up for you, etc. These posts are due by MIDNIGHT the day before class. You may be exempted for one of the 22 required responses during the semester without penalty; in addition, on the day when you lead class discussion (see below), your presentation will count as your reading response (please email it to me by midnight the day before class). In other words, by the end of the semester, to get full credit for reading responses, you must have handed in a total of 20 (20% of your grade).

Presentation of Readings and Class Discussion Lead

You will each lead class discussion on an assigned reading at one point in the semester; this will entail a 15-minute presentation of the reading / film, and 2–3 questions to launch discussion with your classmates.

This will count for 10% of your grade.

Paper 1

This paper is meant as an opportunity for you to take stock of the material we have discussed so far, and formulate key takeaways.

The central concern of this course is how ideas about Africa — about what Africa is, what it means / its place in the world — have been negotiated and articulated in different historical moments. Among other things, addressing this concern requires considering who is involved in these negotiations, what’s at stake in different stories about or conceptualizations of Africa (for various stakeholders), and the specificities of these negotiations in different arenas of knowledge production.

What trends have you identified in the material we have covered so far (through the end of the History unit) in response to the course’s central concern? If you don’t see a single dominant trend, what are the various trends or directions this process has taken? What questions or concerns do the historical cases we have considered to date raise for the idea of Africa and Africa’s place in the world in the present / future, in your opinion?

Please use concrete examples from readings, employ appropriate citations, and include a bibliography (see Chicago Citation Style: Footnotes and Bibliography (PDF)).

The paper should be 1,250 words; 5 pages double-spaced, 12 size font.

Paper 1 will count for 10% of your grade.

Final Paper

This will be a research paper on a topic of your choosing related to course themes. You will build towards the final paper by handing in a proposal and outline first, and you will present the paper during the last week of classes.

For further detail, see Final Project Prospectus Guidelines.

The final paper will count for 30% of your grade.

Extra Credit Possibility

You can earn 5% extra credit (by event) by attending the following movie screenings and discussions and writing a 500-word reflection on the event that engages with course themes and readings. (If you cannot attend these screenings and would like to attend other Africa-related events instead for this extra credit option, please consult with the instructor beforehand.)

“Rafiki.” Women Take the Reel Film Series, MIT List Visual Arts Center.

“Inadelso Cossa: Personal Perspectives on Mozambican History through Film.” MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology.

The final project is an opportunity for you to build on the material we have covered over the course of the semester and go into greater depth on a topic of interest. In that spirit, your project can take one of three forms (all of the same length: 2500 words, or about 10 pages double-spaced):

  1. Research paper
  2. Speculative fiction
  3. Plan for a political / educational campaign / intervention

In all three cases, the focus of the paper needs to be on the central theme of the class: the production of knowledge about Africa and the negotiation of Africa’s place in the world. In all three cases, your project will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Quality of writing
  • Clarity of argument / statement of problem
  • Pertinence and validity of evidence (option 1) / alternate course of events (option 2) / proposed intervention (for option 3): Does what you offer support your argument / adequately address the problem you pose?
  • Extent to which the project engages with and integrates course materials
  • Structure: Organization, grammar and spelling, citational practices
  • Creativity: Make it interesting!

Research paper

Original research project on a topic of interest. You can pick up on a subject we addressed in class and explore it in greater depth, focusing, for instance, on a particular country, region, or time period. This paper should propose an answer to a research question (your argument), and this argument can be based either on primary (interviews, survey data, archival research, textual / other content analysis) or secondary sources (published academic articles on the topic).

Speculative fiction

A recurring concern in the course has been the question of “Now what?” or a lamentation about how history has seemed to repeat itself. This version of the assignment gives you the possibility of imagining alternate realities / futures. You can either return to a historical event and imagine a different course of events, or pick up in the present moment and imagine the future. As with the other options, I expect you to engage with course themes and readings; you must find a way to incorporate them into your narrative.

Campaign / intervention design

This option is another opportunity for you to explore means of taking action in light of what we have studied. Your campaign / intervention design must include:

  • A justification for the campaign: Why is it necessary? What theoretical perspectives animate it? Are there other examples (historical or contemporary) of similar campaigns?
  • A discussion of how the campaign relates to themes covered in this course: This section should include explicit references to course readings and citations. More than just a bibliography, it should critically engage the content of the readings. It is perfectly OK for you to use some of the analysis you completed for Paper 1 here, if it is applicable.
  • A description of the campaign itself: target population, components of the campaign, intended outcomes

Prospectus Guidelines

The prospectus for your final project should be 1 page long (single-spaced) and include the following information:

  • Project title
  • Project category (of the 3 options above)
  • Project description:
    • Research question / issue your project addresses (be as narrow and specific as possible in your focus)
    • Depending on the type of project, argument your project makes / what it shows or speaks to / what it proposes to intervene on
    • How your project relates to the overall subject of the course and to themes discussed so far
  • For research papers: Proposed research methodology:
    • How will you collect data / gather information for your paper (e.g. literature review, interviews, social media data gathering, etc.)?
    • What data will you collect? (e.g. for interviews, who will you interview, what questions will you be asking?)
    • Timeline for the project (data collection/research, analysis, production)
  • For speculative fiction: Synopsis of the narrative/story pitch
  • For campaign/intervention: Overview of the campaign/intervention, including the various elements listed in the prompt above

Please note that project outlines / first drafts are due during Session 21. You will present your project in class either during Session 24 or Session 25, and the project is due during Session 25.

Course Info

Instructor
As Taught In
Spring 2019