AFRS 386 - Situating Blackness, Situating Vassar: Experience, Documentation, Transformation

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as ANTH 386) This course encourages students to explore the meanings of blackness (and raced identity categories) as lived experience at Vassar College and beyond. It provides methodological tools for students to explore self-knowledge, conduct social analyses of current contexts, and represent blackness as a lived experience today. The uses of historical literature, ethnography, film, guest speakers, social justice workshops, and first-hand accounts of experiences at Vassar and other institutions (by former students and existing members of the community) help contextualize local experiences in the broader world and also explore the meanings of blackness. The course addresses how raced identity is experienced, and
how it can be transformed in, and transformative to, social life at Vassar. A primary goal is to help students link pain and suffering to systemic inequality, social privilege, and collective transformation. Ms. Lowe Swift.

Prerequisite: open to all qualified students with the permission of the instructor.

One 3-hour period.