ENGL 280 - The Futures of Africana Studies

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as AFRS 280) Diaspora is both a condition and a process. Diaspora carries the sense of being dispersed and transported from an origin. It also carries the possibility of sustaining ties to that point of origin and to others who share that point of origin and that experience of dispersal. The project of Africana Studies is to track and make meaning of the dispersal of peoples of African descent from the continent and the various social, political, and artistic legacies that have emerged out of this experience. In some respects, the field is also a condition and a process. It exists—and has done so for decades in the United States—it is also in process—still developing and honing its protocols and its modes of inquiry.

This fall, the Africana Studies Program is commemorating its 50^th year at Vassar College by hosting a conference that accounts for the past and present work of the Field of Africana Studies. An international cast of scholars will assemble in Poughkeepsie to account for how it has chronicled and analyzed the black experience in sites across the globe. The intensive course aims to familiarize students with the work of these scholars and with how scholarship develops over a lifetime. It also supports students to arrive at their own definition of Africana Studies as they ferret out the harmonies and tensions that exist between the work of these scholars. Tyrone Simpson.

Course Format: INT