African 203: Immigrating While Black (and African)

This course will introduce students to African Cultural Studies topics and concepts such as migration, race and ethnicity, Afropolitanism, dislocation, diaspora, and hybridity/third space. African migration to the United States has grown significantly in the last several decades, bringing to the fore a number of interrelated socio-historical, cultural, and political processes. Although fairly small, in comparison to other migrant groups who have longer histories and trajectories in the U.S., this growth in African migration has seen a related increase in migrant literature, films, music, art, and other forms of cultural production. In considering this population growth and its corresponding cultural production realities, this course will investigate two overlapping questions: What does it mean to migrate while Black, and while African as represented in African migrant literature and film?