| SES # | TOPICS | KEY DUE DATES |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1: Being | ||
| Week 1: Introduction | ||
1 |
What does it mean to study “the idea” of Africa? Introductions, course overview, how to read | |
2 | Making knowledge, ordering the world (I) | Reading response #1 due |
| Weeks 2 and 3: Geography | ||
3 |
Making knowledge, ordering the world (II) In-class map quiz | Reading response #2 due |
4 | Maps, power, and knowledge | Reading response #3 due |
5 | Mapping Africa | Reading response #4 due |
| Weeks 4 and 5: History | ||
6 |
Historicizing Africa Guest lecture by Prof. Kenda Mutongi, MIT History Department | Reading response #5 due |
7 | Restoring African histories: Afrocentrism | Reading response #6 due |
8 | Guest presentation and workshop by professional Vodou dance practitioner and Vodou priest, Jean-Sébastien Duvilaire | Reading response #7 due |
9 | Remembering |
Reading response #8 due Paper #1 due |
| Weeks 6 and 7: Race | ||
10 | Blackness and Otherness | Reading response #9 due |
11 | Blackness in Africa | Reading response #10 due |
|
Special event - screening: “Rafiki.” Women Take the Reel Film Series, MIT List Visual Arts Center. | ||
12 |
The Black African body (I) Field trip: “Made Visible: Contemporary South African Art, Fashion and Identity” exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts. | Reading response #11 due |
13 | The Black African body (II) | Reading response #12 due |
| Part 2: Becoming | ||
| Week 8: Africa and / in the world after independence | ||
14 | Africa and / in the world after independence (I) | Reading response #13 due |
15 | Africa and / in the world after independence (II) | Reading response #14 due |
| Week 9: Modernization theory and Africa | ||
16 | Modernization theory and Africa | Reading response #15 due |
| Week 10: Development and Structural Adjustment Programs | ||
17 | Structural adjustment programs |
Reading response #16 due Final paper prospectus due |
| Week 11: African Renaissance / Africa Rising | ||
18 | The New Africa | Reading response #17 due |
19 | Africa as the future | Reading response #18 due |
| Week 12: Rwanda: An African Miracle? | ||
20 | In-class research and discussion | Reading response #19 due |
21 | In-class research and discussion | Final paper outline / first draft due |
| Week 13: New Africans? | ||
|
Special event: “Inadelso Cossa: Personal Perspectives on Mozambican History through Film.” MIT Program in Art, Culture, and Technology. | ||
22 |
Telling stories of African pasts, presents, futures Guest visit by Mozambican filmmaker Inadelso Cossa | Reading response #20 due |
23 | Afropolitanism and its discontents | Reading response #21 due |
| Week 14: Final paper presentations | ||
24 | Final paper presentations | |
25 | Final paper presentations | Final paper due |