Description
You have taken AMST 601 and have a basic sense of what American Studies “is” and can be, but the objective of this course is to venture into an often under-articulated and considered sub field of American Studies – Black Studies. My use of “sub,” here, is intentional and worthy of much critique. One could convincingly argue the father of American Studies, as we understand it, was W.E.B DuBois, a Black man. Moreover, “sub” names the academy’s concerted effort to diminish the provocative potential and canonical importance as well as confine an entire corpus of scholarship to the assumed niche and limits of racial embodiment. Next, finding your place within the contemporary crosscutting discussions and debates that comprise American Studies scholarship is an essential tenet of this course, but doing so, must center voices and discourses that for too long have been deemed alternative and “sub.” Black Studies, currently, is experiencing a moment of powerful renaissance and philosophical invigoration. Scholars rooted in this tradition are doing work transcending what not that long ago would’ve been the seemingly unassailable boundaries of mainstream (read: white) academic disciplines and conversations. Now, as the inclusion of Othered perspectives are momentarily en vogue, folks are having to play catch up, realizing just how well-equipped Black Studies is to address the current issues of our time.