| Course Info | Class Number: 1111
In this course, we will approach Africa with an emphasis on the many interconnections that link the continent with the rest of the world, through both time and space. Much popular talk about Africa in the U.S. is overwhelmingly negative—focusing on poverty, violence, and failed states—and often portrays Africa as something “other,” both different from and unrelated to the United States and much of the rest of the world. But such preconceptions blatantly overlook what we know about historical and contemporary movements of people, ideas, materials, and money around the globe. Rather than regarding Africa as separate or apart, in this course we will examine the centrality of African engagements with these global movements. Rather than attempting a survey of particular, bounded African “peoples” or “cultures,” we will explore complex issues and processes through interconnected topics including colonial and postcolonial politics, urban life, gender and sexuality, religion, economic networks, development, and transnational migration. We will use these themes as guides for exploring larger, interlinked questions of social life in Africa and around the world. This course fulfills the BMC Anthropology major/minor ethnographic area requirement. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher.
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC);
Enrollment Limit: 25; Enrollment Criteria: Major/Minor/Concentration; |
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