Joy A. James

Course Description

This course examines 20th century approaches to Marxism through the Black liberation tradition. It focuses on the works of key theorists and writers from Africa and the diaspora, with an emphasis on expanding existing theories to incorporate analyses of gender and sexuality. The course explores political economies and libidinal economies from 19th century enslavement to 21st century mass incarceration.

Grading Policy

Presentation of assigned reading (25%)

Attendance and participation in classroom discussion (25%)

Two 8-10 page papers (25% each, 50% total)

Texts

Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism

Amilcal Cabral, Revolutionary Leadership and People's War

C.I.R. James, American Civilization

Robin Kelley, Hammer and Hoe

Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery

Saidiya Hartman, Scenes of Subjection

Cedric Robinson, Black Marxism

W.E.B Du Bois, The Suppression of the Afican Slave Trade to the United States (excerpts); Black Recontruction (exceprts) (Project Guttenberg)

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto (Project Guttenberg)

Angela Y. Davis, "Women and Capitalism: Dialectics of Oppression and Liberation"

Walter Rodney, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Africa

Carole Boyce Davies, Left of Karl Marx: Claudia Jones

Frank Wilderson, "Prison Slave as Hegemony's Silent Scandal"

Introduction to the feminist theories and methods used in various disciplines; the ways these theories can inform interdisciplinary perspectives in the student's own field of study.

This course begins with civil rights activism in the 1940s and its legacies in contemporary poltical activism and political incarceration. We begin with the work of the NAACP, study the activism and brief imprisonment of Rosa Parks, examine the roles of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) activists, such as Anne Moody, Fannie Lou Hamer; evaluate the contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr. to nonviolent civil disobedience and the rise of the black liberation movement, and the role of the Black Panther Party. This course will analyze political movements from civil rights through black power to block liberation; the FBI's counterintellegence program; constructions of masculinity and femininity in movements; and the role of female leadership in redefining "civil rights" and "human rights."

•Women in National PoliticsThis course examines the role of women from the Johnson to Obama

Administrations. It critically examines the role of ideology, racism and racial

formations, sexism and political movements and coalitions in the impact of

select women on U.S. domestic and foreign policies. We will use biographies, memoirs and

legislative agendas to study the lives of: Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisholm, Condoleeza Rice,

Lani Guinier, Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Sonia Sotomayor, Sarah Palin.

Requirements: 10-page final paper; collective digital project and report.

Texts include: Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement; Lee, For Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer; Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero; Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed; Condoleeza Rice: A Memoir; Reader.

•Inventing the Sexual Savage

This seminar begins with an examination of the history of sexuality in the United

States, comparing cultural representations and stereotypes of Native, African,

European, Latino/a, Asian and Arab American communities. Students will also

explore contemporary policing of gendered and racially fashioned bodies from

penal sites to the Pentagon as we examine the roles of gender, racism/xenophobia and

homophobia in shaping a national culture.

Requirements: 10-page final paper; collective digital project and report.

Texts include: J. D’Emilio, et al., Intimate Matters; Ida B. Wells, Southern Horrors;

P. Holland, Raising the Dead; Incite!, Color of Violence. Reader.