SES # | TOPICS | KEY DUE DATES |
---|---|---|
Part 1: Being | ||
Week 1: Introduction | ||
1 |
What does it mean to study “the idea” of Africa? Introductions, course overview, how to read |
|
2 |
Making knowledge, ordering the world (I) |
Reading response #1 due |
Weeks 2 and 3: Geography | ||
3 |
Making knowledge, ordering the world (II) In-class map quiz |
Reading response #2 due |
4 |
Maps, power, and knowledge |
Reading response #3 due |
5 |
Mapping Africa |
Reading response #4 due |
Weeks 4 and 5: History | ||
6 |
Historicizing Africa Guest lecture by Prof. Kenda Mutongi, MIT History Department |
Reading response #5 due |
7 |
Restoring African histories: Afrocentrism |
Reading response #6 due |
8 |
Guest presentation and workshop by professional Vodou dance practitioner and Vodou priest, Jean-Sébastien Duvilaire |
Reading response #7 due |
9 |
Remembering |
Reading response #8 due Paper #1 due |
Weeks 6 and 7: Race | ||
10 |
Blackness and Otherness |
Reading response #9 due |
11 |
Blackness in Africa |
Reading response #10 due |
Special event - screening: “Rafiki.” Women Take the Reel Film Series, MIT List Visual Arts Center. |
||
12 |
The Black African body (I) Field trip: “Made Visible: Contemporary South African Art, Fashion and Identity” exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts. |
Reading response #11 due |
13 |
The Black African body (II) |
Reading response #12 due |
Part 2: Becoming | ||
Week 8: Africa and / in the world after independence | ||
14 |
Africa and / in the world after independence (I) |
Reading response #13 due |
15 |
Africa and / in the world after independence (II) |
Reading response #14 due |
Week 9: Modernization theory and Africa | ||
16 |
Modernization theory and Africa |
Reading response #15 due |
Week 10: Development and Structural Adjustment Programs | ||
17 |
Structural adjustment programs |
Reading response #16 due Final paper prospectus due |
Week 11: African Renaissance / Africa Rising | ||
18 |
The New Africa |
Reading response #17 due |
19 |
Africa as the future |
Reading response #18 due |
Week 12: Rwanda: An African Miracle? | ||
20 |
In-class research and discussion |
Reading response #19 due |
21 |
In-class research and discussion |
Final paper outline / first draft due |
Week 13: New Africans? | ||
Special event: “Inadelso Cossa: Personal Perspectives on Mozambican History through Film.” MIT Program in Art, Culture, and Technology. |
||
22 |
Telling stories of African pasts, presents, futures Guest visit by Mozambican filmmaker Inadelso Cossa |
Reading response #20 due |
23 |
Afropolitanism and its discontents |
Reading response #21 due |
Week 14: Final paper presentations | ||
24 |
Final paper presentations |
|
25 |
Final paper presentations |
Final paper due |
Calendar
Course Info
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As Taught In
Spring
2019
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assignment
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