Eric Covey

The relationship between Africa and the United States is often imagined simply as a westward movement in which Africans are forcibly transported across the Atlantic as commodities and then violently folded into the fabric of the American experience. While it is true that chattel slavery and African American cultural practices have exerted tremendous influence over the history of the United States, not all movement has been westward. Americans—black and white—have also traveled east, from the United States to Africa, and in the process have developed and reinforced affective bonds that stretch across time and space. This class explores these affective bonds through the lens of first-person narratives read alongside political, economic, cultural, and historic scholarship. We will move forward in time from the Atlantic slave trade to the U.S. Overseas Contingency Operations, but will also trouble the notion that there is a single narrative of the relationship between Africa and the United States, or a singular Africa for Americans to write about. Since this is a writing flag course, students will analyze the historical context in which representations of Africa and Africans circulate through a series of course readings, group discussions, and writing exercises that culminate in a final paper and presentation worth 40% of students’ final grades.

Requirements

4 Reaction Papers:              10% each

Final Paper:                        35%

Final Paper Peer Review:      10%

Final Presentation:                5%

Participation:                      10%

Possible Texts

John H. Ghazvinian, Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil

Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route

Theodore Roosevelt, African Game Trails

Frank B. Wilderson III, Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid

Additional course readings will appear on the schedule and be available through Electronic Reserves.

Flag(s): Writing, Global Cultures

The relationship between Africa and the United States is often imagined simply as a westward movement in which Africans are forcibly transported across the Atlantic as commodities and then violently folded into the fabric of the American experience. While it is true that chattel slavery and African American cultural practices have exerted tremendous influence over the history of the United States, not all movement has been westward. Americans—black and white—have also traveled east, from the United States to Africa, and in the process have developed and reinforced affective bonds that stretch across time and space. This class explores these affective bonds through the lens of first-person narratives read alongside political, economic, cultural, and historic scholarship. We will move forward in time from the Atlantic slave trade to the U.S. Overseas Contingency Operations, but will also trouble the notion that there is a single narrative of the relationship between Africa and the United States, or a singular Africa for Americans to write about. Since this is a writing flag course, students will analyze the historical context in which representations of Africa and Africans circulate through a series of course readings, group discussions, and writing exercises that culminate in a final paper and presentation worth 40% of students’ final grades.

Requirements

4 Reaction Papers:                        10% each

Final Paper:                                  35%

Final Paper Peer Review:                10%

Final Presentation:                         5%

Participation:                                 10%

Possible Texts

John H. Ghazvinian, Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil

Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route

Theodore Roosevelt, African Game Trails

Frank B. Wilderson III, Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid

Additional course readings will appear on the schedule and be available through Electronic Reserves.

Flag(s): Writing, Global Cultures

The relationship between Africa and the United States is often imagined simply as a westward movement in which Africans are forcibly transported across the Atlantic as commodities and then violently folded into the fabric of the American experience. While it is true that chattel slavery and African American cultural practices have exerted tremendous influence over the history of the United States, not all movement has been westward. Americans—black and white—have also traveled east, from the United States to Africa, and in the process have developed and reinforced affective bonds that stretch across time and space. This class explores these affective bonds through the lens of first-person narratives read alongside political, economic, cultural, and historic scholarship. We will move forward in time from the Atlantic slave trade to the U.S. Overseas Contingency Operations, but will also trouble the notion that there is a single narrative of the relationship between Africa and the United States, or a singular Africa for Americans to write about. Since this is a writing flag course, students will analyze the historical context in which representations of Africa and Africans circulate through a series of course readings, group discussions, and writing exercises that culminate in a final paper and presentation worth 40% of students’ final grades.

Requirements

4 Reaction Papers:                            10% each

Final Paper:                                     35%

Final Paper Peer Review:                   10%

Final Presentation:                            5%

Participation:                                   10%

Possible Texts

John H. Ghazvinian, Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil

Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route

Theodore Roosevelt, African Game Trails

Frank B. Wilderson III, Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid

Additional course readings will appear on the schedule and be available through Electronic Reserves.

Flag(s): Writing, Global Cultures

Description

From farm and factory to table, foodways in the United States have a long and rich history. This course introduces students to American studies by focusing on foodways as an entry point into the history and culture of the United States. We will begin by setting aside the question “what should we eat?” and focus on answering the question “what do we eat, and why?” For example, chocolate, corn, and potatoes originated in the Americas and became significant worldwide beginning in the fifteenth century. At the same time, sugar, rice, and bananas were transplanted to the Americas from elsewhere and play important roles in the history of the United States. How do we untangle the roots and routes of these foods and understand how foodways are central to American culture and the history of the United States? Understanding foodways as historically and culturally situated enables us to consider the meaning of American food and helps us to explain why foodways are a site of struggle over the past, present, and future of the United States. Course readings and lectures focus on the historical and cultural meanings of food and examine practices of producing, preparing, and consuming food in Indigenous America, Colonial North America, and the United States as an entry point into larger debates about immigration, labor, and globalization.

Over the course of the semester, students will 1) develop a familiarity with American studies and the methods that American studies scholars use to make sense of the history and culture of the United States 2) learn to identify the meanings embedded in everyday objects like food 3) chart the history and cultural significance of specific American foodways through time and space.                 

Requirements

Three exams composed of essay and identification questions.

Exam 1:                  30%

Exam 2:                  30%

Final Exam:             40%

Possible Texts

Carolyn de la Peña, Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweeteners from Saccharin to Splenda

Course reader

Partially fulfills legislative requirement in American History.

Flag(s): Cultural Diversity