African 100: Introduction to African Cultural Expression

Fall 2018

Matthew H. Brown
3 credits
Tue/Thur 11-12:15pm + disc

Wakanda forever! Do you have the critical tools to engage with all the forms of cultural expression, related to Africa and the African diaspora, that form the backcloth of so much contemporary cultural production around the world? This course can help you bring all the stars closer.

African 100 introduces undergraduates to methods of studying African and African-diaspora cultural expression that are employed in the Department of African Cultural Studies (ACS). The course features lectures by ACS faculty and advanced graduate students, who present introductory portraits of their respective research areas and the subdisciplines to which they are attached. Topics range from literary and visual culture analysis to the study of African languages and discourse; contemporary media (e.g., film, television, cartooning, journalism, internet platforms) to performance genres (music, HipHop, theater). Through an introduction to these many areas of inquiry, students gain a new understanding of Africa and the African diaspora as cultural fields, together with an appreciation of the many theories and theoretical concepts—such as cultural circulation, colonialism, neoliberalism, religion, aesthetics, race, indigeneity—that can be used to analyze them.