Week One: January 9, 2008

Introducing Black Cultural Studies

Introductions and logistics

Intro PPoint

Week Two: January 16, 2008

Mapping Black Cultural Studies

1. Readings:

Eds. Houston A. Baker, Jr., Manthia Diawara, and Ruth H. Lindeborg, Black British Cultural Studies: A Reader, Intro-Ch. 3 (pp. 1-60)

E. Patrick Johnson, Appropriating Blackness, pp. 1-47

Jane Rhodes, Framing the Panthers, pp. 1-56

2. History:

BCS timeline drawing on three texts

3. Cultural works:

Contemporary representation of US blackness read a la Johnson, Rhodes and Hall

Week Three: January 23, 2008

Blackface Minstrelsy

Class Location: TBA

3. Readings:

Excerpts, Michael Rogin, Blackface White Noise

Excerpts, Eric Lott, Love and Theft

From Black, British Cultural Studies: ch. 11, Stuart Hall, "Cultural Identity and Cinematic Representation"

1. History:

Jim Crow South

2. Cultural works:

The Jazz Singer, Bamboozled, Black.White

Week Four: January 30, 2008

Representing Black Male Bodies

2. Readings:

From Black, British Cultural Studies: ch. 14, Kobena Mercer, "Just Looking for Trouble: Robert Maplethorpe and Fantasies of Race"

Kobena Mercer, "Skinhead Sex Thing"

Malcolm X, "Statement of Basic Aims"

Herman Gray, "Black Masculinity and Visual Culture"

Kobena Mercer and Isaac Julien, "True Confessions"

3. History:

Civil Rights Movement and Black Masculinity

1. Cultural works:

"Black Male" exhibition at the Whitney Museum (1995)

Week Five: February 6, 2008

Class Location: CMU 126

Black Power, Media Representations, and the Black Panther Party

1. Readings:

Jane Rhodes, Framing the Black Panthers: The Spectacular Rise of a Black Power Icon, pp. 57-336

2. History:

Rhodes timeline

3. Cultural works:

Changing representations of the Panthers and/or Black Power

NOTE: On February 6-7 the Communication Department, Diversity Research Institute, and Simpson Center are hosting Dr. Jane Rhodes.  Your attendance is required for Rhodes's Scheidel lecture on February 6, 3:30-5pm in CMU 126.  Please write a no-longer-than seven-page response paper to Rhodes's book and talk.  Be sure to address how Rhodes defines "Black Cultural Studies" (either directly or indirectly) in her work.  Your essay is due to my box by 5 pm on Monday.

Week Six: February 13, 2008

Representing Black Female Bodies

3. Readings:

From Black, British Cultural Studies:

Ch. 2, Hazel Carby, "White Women Listen!"

Ch. 16, Sonya Boyce and Manthia Diawara, "The Art of Identity: A Conversation"

Ch. 13, Gilane Tawadros, "Beyond the Boundary: The Work of Three Black Women Artists in Britain"

From e-reserve:

Patricia Hill Collins, "Politics of Black Feminist Thought"

Patricia Hill Collins, "Defining Black Feminist Thought"

1. History:

Combahee River Collective Statement and womanism

2. Cultural works:

Sarah Baartman/"Hottentot Venus" exhibition

Week Seven: February 20, 2008

Work Week

I will be out of town on Wednesday so we do not have class.  Use this week to work on your seminar paper. 

Please email me a 5-6 page paper proposal or draft by 8:30 am on Wednesday, February 20.  I will return them to you with feedback but will not grade them.

Week Eight: February 27, 2008

Performance Studies Part 1: Queering Black Cultural Studies

Readings:

E. Patrick Johnson, Appropriating Blackness, pp. 48-255

History:

Johnson timeline

Cultural works:

Choice of Looking for Langston, Tongues Untied, Paris is Burning

NOTE: On February 27 and 28 the Simpson Center is hosting E. Patrick Johnson.  Please plan on attending his talk on Thursday, February 28 at 3:30 in CMU 226 and his performance on February 26 at 6:30 pm at UW Bothell.  More details to come.  Please write a five-page response paper to Johnson's book and talk.  Be sure to address how Johnson defines "Black Cultural Studies" (either directly or indirectly) in his work.  Your essay is due to my box by 5 pm on Monday.

Week Nine: March 5, 2008

Performance Studies, Part 2: Hybridizing Black Cultural Studies

Reading:

From Black, British Cultural Studies:

Ch. 5, Stuart Hall, "Minimal Selves"

Ch. 7, Stuart Hall, "New Ethnicities"

Ch. 3, Homi Bhabha, "The Other Question: Difference, Discrimination, and the Discourse of Colonialism"

Ch. 12, Paul Gilroy, "British Cultural Studies and the Pitfalls of Identity"

History:

Mapping of Black Cultural Studies and either (choose one): post-structuralism, post-colonialism, or post-modernism

Cultural works:

Free choice representation of Black hybridity

Week Ten: March 12, 2008

Black Cultural Studies Mini-Conference

8:30-10:00

Panel 1: TITLE

            Moderator/Discussant:

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10:10-11:20

Panel 2: TITLE

            Moderator/Discussant:

            Paper:

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