Eric Tang

How and when do cities burn? The modern US city has seen its share of urban unrest, typified by street protests (both organized and spontaneous), the destruction of private property, looting, and fires. Interpretations of urban unrest are varied: some describe it as aimless rioting, others as political insurrection. Most agree that the matter has something to do with the deepening of racism, poverty and violence. This course takes a closer look at the roots of urban unrest, exploring a range of origins: joblessness, state violence, white flight, the backlash against civil rights gains, new immigration and interracial strife. Urban unrest is often cast as an intractable struggle between black and white, yet this course examines the ways in which multiple racial groups have entered the fray. Beyond race and class, the course will also explore unrest as a mode of pushing the normative boundaries of gender and sexuality in public space. Course material will draw from film, literature, history, geography and anthropology.

Required Texts:

The majority of readings will be available as pdf on Blackboard. Students must acquire the following texts:

Robert F. Williams, Negroes With Guns

Robin D.G. Kelley, Yo Mama’s Dysfunctional: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America

Dan Georgakis and Marvin Surkin, Detroit: I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution

Robert Gooding Williams eds. Reading Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising

Grading:

Attendance:                                                                                                                                                      

15%

Participation:                                                                                                                                                   

10%

Three Reflection Papers and re-writes [4 pages each] (worth 15% each):

45%

Final [TBD]                                                                                                                                                           

30%

Racism preoccupies virtually every aspect of U.S. society: culture, law, politics, economies. Yet U.S.-based scholars have offered surprisingly few comprehensive theories or definitions of what, exactly, racism entails and where it comes from. This course examines the few theories/definitions of racism across several fields: anthropology, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, gender/sexuality studies. During the second half of the course, we turn our attention to anti-racist activism, particularly within people of color and immigrant communities. How have these anti-racist efforts measured up to existing scholarly theories of racism? Or do they instead produce new theories and definitions of their own?

Racism preoccupies virtually every aspects of US society: culture, law, politics, economies. Yet US-based scholars have offered surprisingly few comprehensive theories or definitions for what, exactly, racism entails and where it comes from. This course examines the few theories/definitions of racism across several fields: anthropology, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, gender/sexuality studies. During the second half of the course, we turn our attention to anti-racist activism, particularly within people of color and immigrant communities. How have these anti-racist efforts measured up to existing scholarly theories of racism? Or do they instead produce new theories and definitions of their own? (This is an upper division undergrad course).

Course Description

This course offers students a comparative study in the makings and meanings of diaspora. We begin by defining the differences and similarities between diaspora and related concepts such as race, nation and cultural identity. Focusing specifically on the making of the Black Atlantic world, we then draw a comparative analysis between black diasporic life and that of other global dispersals, particularly among Asian and indigenous populations. Resistance serves as a key link in this comparative study.  As such, we focus on themes such as slavery and colonialism, black revolt in the modern world, Third World/Afro-Asian liberation, Black/Third World Feminism, globalization, the sexual politics of diaspora, Across each of these themes, we work with the premise that diaspora is an open and fluid space through which its participants “make our world anew.” (This is a lower division undergrad course)

Requirements: Students are expected to complete the course readings and to arrive prepared for discussion on the readings. Students are expected to maintain regular attendance. Class assignments include one take-home essay  (3-4 pages, typed and doubled spaced), an in-class midterm exam (identifications and short essay) and a final exam.

Grading:

Attendance:                 20%

Participation:               10%

Essay Assignment      15%     Due Oct. 23

Midterm:                      20%     In Class- Nov. 5

Final Exam:                 35%     TBA

Guidelines for all assignments, including the midterm and final exam, will be distributed thrpughout the course of the semester.

 Required Texts—available at the Co-op

1. Course Reader  (Available at Abel’s Copies)
2. Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route
3. W.E.B DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk
4. Vijay Prashad, Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections & The Myth Of Cultural Purity
5. C.L.R James, A History of Pan African Revolt
6. Horace Campbell, Rasta and Resistance: From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney

Course Description
Racism preoccupies virtually all aspects of US society: culture, law, politics, the economy. Yet US-based scholars have offered surprisingly few comprehensive theories or definitions for what, exactly, racism entails and where it comes from. In the U.S., racism is chalked up to common sense: We know it when we see it. This course digs a little deeper by examining theories/definitions of racism across a number of fields: anthropology sociology, psychology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, gender/sexuality studies. During the second half of the course, we turn our attention to anti-racist activism, particularly within people of color and immigrant communities. How do these anti-racist efforts measure up to existing scholarly theories of racism?

Grading Policy
Grading System Participation and attendance 20% Reflection Paper #1     10% Midterm (identifications and short essay)     20% Reflection Paper #2     10% Final Project 40%

Texts
Required Texts: In addition to a Course Reader, the following texts are required Albert Memi, Racism Edward Said, Orientalism Himani Bannerji eds, Returning the Gaze: Essays on Racism, Feminism and Politics Laura Pulido: Black, Brown Yellow and Left: Radical Activism in Los Angeles Franz Fanon, Black Skins, White Masks Vijay Prashad, Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States.

DIASPORA: RACE, NATION & RESISTANCE

AFR 317E (35717)/ ANT 310L (30399)/ AAS 310 (35982)

Tues. & Thurs. 9:30a-11a

JESA230

Instructor: Dr. Eric Tang

erictang@mail.utexas.edu

Fall Office Hours: Monday’s 1:30p-3:30p (or by appointment)

UT Community Engagement Center (CEC) 1009 East 11^th Street, RM 214

Course Description

This course offers students a comparative study in the makings and meanings of diaspora. We begin by defining the differences and similarities between diaspora and related concepts such as race, nation and cultural identity. Focusing specifically on the making of the Black Atlantic world, we then draw a comparative analysis between black diasporic life and that of other global dispersals, particularly among Asian and indigenous populations. Resistance serves as a key link in this comparative study.  As such, we focus on themes such as slavery and colonialism, black revolt in the modern world, Third World/Afro-Asian liberation, Black/Third World Feminism, globalization, the sexual politics of diaspora, Across each of these themes, we work with the premise that diaspora is an open and fluid space through which its participants “make our world anew.” (This is a lower division undergrad course)

Requirements: Students are expected to complete the course readings and to arrive prepared for discussion on the readings. Students are expected to maintain regular attendance. Class assignments include one take-home essay  (3-4 pages, typed and doubled spaced), an in-class midterm exam (identifications and short essay) and a final exam.

Grading:

Attendance:                 20%

Participation:               10%

Essay Assignment      15%     Due Oct. 23

Midterm:                      20%     In Class- Nov. 5

Final Exam:                 35%     TBA

Guidelines for all assignments, including the midterm and final exam, will be distributed thrpughout the course of the semester.

 Required Texts—available at the Co-op

1. Course Reader  (Available at Abel’s Copies)
2. Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route
3. W.E.B DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk
4. Vijay Prashad, Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections & The Myth Of Cultural Purity
5. C.L.R James, A History of Pan African Revolt
6. Horace Campbell, Rasta and Resistance: From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney

Course Schedule

Welcome and Introduction to the Course

August 27

Defining Diaspora, Race and Nation

Sept.1              Stéphane Dufoix, excerpt from Diasporas (Reader)

Sept 3              Patterson and Kelly, “Unfinished Migrations: Reflections on the African Diaspora and the Making of the Modern World,” (Reader)

On Loss

Sept 8              Hartman, Lose Your Mother, Chap 1-5

Sept 10            Hartman, Lose Your Mother, Remainder

Makings and Meanings of Blackness

Sept 15            Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, Chap 1-3

Sept 17            Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, Chap 4-6

The Global Dimensions of Blackness

Sept 22            Appiah, excerpt from In My Father’s House (Reader)

Sept 24            Prashad, Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting (Chap 1 & 2)

Global Dimensions of Resistance

Sept 29            James, History of Pan African Revolt (Intro, Chap 1-3)

Oct 1              James, History of Pan African Revolt (Chap 4-6)

Anti-Colonialism and the Third World Idea

Oct 6               Aime Cesaire, excerpt from Discourse on Colonialism (Reader)

Prashad, excerpt from The Darker Nations (Reader)

Oct 8               Von Eschen, “The Diaspora Moment” (Reader)

The Afro-Asian Caribbean

Oct 13             Thomas, “Caribbean Black Power: From Slogan to Practical Politics” (Reader)

Oct 15                         Prashad, Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting (Chapter 3);

Yun, “Chinese Freedom Fighters in Cuba” (Reader)

Diaspora and the Postcolonial World

Oct 20             View Film La Haine

Oct 22             Prashad, Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting, (Chapter 4)

* Short Essay Assignment due by Friday, Oct 23 by 3pm at the Warfield Center JES A232A. Drop box will be available. No email submissions please*

Brazil

Oct 27             Butler, Freedom Given, Freedom Won (Introduction, Chap 1 & 2). (Book available online)

Oct 29             Costa Vargas, ““The Inner City and the Favela: Transnational Black Politics” (Reader)

Nicaragua

Nov 3               Hooker, “‘Beloved Enemies’: Race and Official Mestizo Nationalism in      Nicaragua” (Reader)

Nov 5               MIDTERM EXAM

Gendering the Diaspora

Nov 10             Maryse Conde, “Pan Africanism, Feminism and Culture” (Reader)

Nov 12             Mohanty, “Cartographies of Struggle” (Reader)

Diaspora and the Politics of Sexuality

Nov 17             Clarke, “Lesbianism is an Act of Resistance” (Reader)

Lourde. “Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference (Reader)

Nov 19             View Film Looking for Langston

Jamaica

Nov 24             Campbell, Rasta and Resistance (Chap 1-3)

Nov 26             NO CLASS -- Thanksgiving (Continue reading Campbell, Chap 4-5)

Cultures of Resistance

Dec 1              Fernandes and Stanyek, “Hip-Hop and Black Public Spheres in Cuba, Venezuela, and Brazil” (Reader)

Dec 3              Prashad, Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting, (Chapter 4)

FINAL EXAM—TBA