Department of African American and African Studies

AAAS 2201: Major Readings in African American and African

Studies
Fall 2015

Instructor
Days and Time
Office hours
Office
Email

Dr. Cheikh Thiam

T-Th: 11:10-12:30
T-Th: 9:30:11:00
220 Hagerty Hall
thiam.5@osu.edu

Access

Students with a disability have a right to an

equal opportunity to participate and benefit
from programs offered at OSU. Students who
choose to exercise these rights have a
responsibility to initiate and participate in the
accommodation process. Students have a
responsibility to identify themselves as
needing accommodation in a timely fashion.
Academic Integrity
As defined by University Rule 3335-31-02, plagiarism is the
representation of another's works or ideas as one's own; it includes the
unacknowledged word for word use and/or paraphrasing of another
person's work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of
another person's ideas. Plagiarism is one of the most serious offenses
that can be committed in an academic community; as such, it is the
obligation of this department and its instructors to report all cases of
suspected plagiarism to the Committee on Academic Misconduct. After
the report is filed, a hearing takes place and if the student is found
guilty, the possible punishment ranges from failing the class to
suspension or expulsion from the university. Although the existence of
the internet makes it relatively easy to plagiarize, it also makes it even
easier for instructors to find evidence of plagiarism. It is obvious to
most teachers when a student turns in work that is not his or her own
and plagiarism search engines make documenting the offense very
simple. To preserve the integrity of OSU as an institution of higher
learning, to maintain your own integrity, and to avoid jeopardizing your

future, DO NOT PLAGIARIZE! To understand better academic integrity,

please see http://oaa.osu.edu/coam/ten-suggestions.html

Course description
In this course we will focus on the pivotal moments in Africana Studies
through an exploration of some of the major readings in the discipline.
These readings will enable us to investigate the philosophical and political
relevance of African, African American, and Caribbean discourses since the
18th century. We will closely examine the ways major black intellectual
and political movements such as Negritude, Black Power, Feminism, and
Postcolonialism, have participated in understanding, conceiving, shaping,
and orienting the very nature of our global culture. We will not only look at
how these discourses are not only a product of modernity (be they often
anti-modernist) but also how they are constitutive of it. In addition to
exploring the relevance of Africana scholarship and its status within the
modern and so called postmodern paradigm, we will, in the course of the
semester, show how Africana Studies has offered, for the past three
centuries, some of the most groundbreaking attempts to understand our
world in its diversity and its constant becoming.
General Education Category: Social Diversity in the United
States
Goals:
Students understand the pluralistic nature of institutions, society,
and culture in the United States and across the world in order to
become educated, productive, and principled citizens.
Expected Learning Outcomes:
1. Students describe and evaluate the roles of such categories as
race, gender and sexuality, disability, class, ethnicity, and
religion in the pluralistic institutions and cultures of the United
States.
2. Students recognize the role of social diversity in shaping their
own attitudes and values regarding appreciation, tolerance, and
equality of others.
Instructional Method
This course is student centered, so come prepared.
Students will be asked to do oral and written exercises in class
and at home
We may have both pop quizzes and scheduled tests
Attendance

-After the first unexcused absence, each subsequent absence will result in
lowering your final papers grade by half a letter grade.
~An excused absence is an absence justified by a doctors note
-Coming to class unprepared will have the same consequences as an absence.
-Two tardies have the same consequence as one absence
~If you come to class at 11:11, you will be marked late.
-Using cell phones or computers for anything that is not related to the course has
the same consequence as an absence.
Evaluation
Undergraduate students
Paper 1: 45%
Paper 2: 45%
Participation and presentation: 10%
Late work Policy
Late papers will be graded down one letter grade for each day
they are late.
All major assignments must be completed to pass the course.
Course Schedule
Week 1 and 2: What is Africana Studies?
-

Tuesday, August 25: Introduction

Thursday, August 27:
V. Mudimbe, Discourse of Power and Knowledge of
Otherness
Tuesday, September 1:
Lewis Gordon, Introduction: Africana philosophy in
context
Thursday, September 3:
T. Patterson and R. Kelley Unfinished Migrations:
Reflections on the African Diaspora and the Making of the Modern World

Week 3 and 4: The Relevance of Ancient African Historiography

-

Tuesday, September 8:
T. Patterson and R. Kelley Unfinished Migrations:
Reflections on the African Diaspora and the Making of the Modern World
Thursday, September 10:
Ancient Africa A History Denied (Full Documentary)
Tuesday, September 15:
Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,
chapter 2
Thursday, September 17:
Olufemi Taiwo, Prophets Without Honors

Week 5 and 6: Negritude and Cultural Resistance

Land, TBA
TBA

Tuesday, September 22:

Thursday, September 24:
Tuesday, September 29:

Senghor, Selected Writings

Senghor, Selected Writings
Aim Csaire, Notebook of the Return to the Native

Thursday, October 1: Aim Csaire, Notebook of the Return to the Native Land,

Week 7-8: Black Power, Pan-Africanism, Anti-colonial theories

-

Tuesday, October 6: West, Martin From Toussaint to Tupac

Thursday, October 8: Frantz Fanon Concerning Violence Paper 1 due
Tuesday, October 13: Conference
Thursday, October 15:
Fall Break

Week 9-10: Beyond the Colonial Paradigm

Tuesday, October 20: Fanon Concerning Violence
Thursday, October 22:
Swan, Caveat of an Obnoxious Slave: Decolonizing
Black Power Studies
Tuesday, October 27: Stewart Hall, New Ethnicities
Thursday, October 29:
Stewart Hall, New Ethnicities
Week 11-12-13: Female Voices
Introduction
-

Tuesday, November 3:

Oyeronke Oyewumi, The Invention of Women:

Thursday, November 5: Conference, no class

Tuesday, November 10: Bell Hooks, Cultural Criticism
Thursday, November 12: Crenshaw, Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality,
Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color
Tuesday, November 17:
Hortense Spiller, Mamas Baby, Papas Maybe
Thursday, November 19:
Nkiru Nzegwu. "Cultural Epistemologies of
Motherhood"

Tuesday, November 24:

Thursday, November 26:
Tuesday, December 1:
Thursday, December 3:
Tuesday, December 8:

Presentation
Thanksgiving
Presentation
Presentation
Conclusion, Paper 2 due