Whelehan, Imelda, MODERN FEMINIST THOUGHT. NYU Press, New York, 1995, “Introduction” pages 1-24, Chapter 5, “ Black Feminism: Reimagining ‘Equality’ pp 106-124

Description:

The course is a global, cross-cultural survey of the lives and contributions of women of African ancestry. Emphasis will be placed upon shared elements of African culture that, when impacted by colonialism and/or the Atlantic slave trade, resulted in similar types of resistance to oppression, and analogous cultural expression among the women of these four locales. Theoretical methodologies, historical narrative, literature, demographic data, material culture, representations of self, and representations by others will be explored to illuminate/explain the:

· History

· Cultural artifacts

· Cultural retentions and

· Self-concept

that define and connect women of African ancestry.

Course Goals:

· Learners will be able to define old and new theories and methodologies applied to the study of women of African ancestry.

· Learners will be able to explain the strengths and weaknesses of these theoretical models.

· Learners will be able to explain the difference between disciplinary and interdisciplinary analyses of data.

· Learners will be able to identify women central to the history, religious practices, literary traditions, artistic production, and study of women of African ancestry.

· Learners will be able to demonstrate understanding of Africana women’s networks and their relationship to: work, education, religion, politics, economics and family life.

· Learners will be able to demonstrate multimedia literacy that encompasses at least two presentation formats, one of which must be hypertextual.

· Learners will be able to demonstrate understanding of Africana women’s networks and their relationship to: work, education, religion, politics, economics and family life.

· Learners will be able demonstrate comprehension of the relationship between traditional African values and acts of resistance to oppression in global communities.

· Learners will be able to explain the relationship between African bodily adornment and dress/beauty practices in the diaspora.

· Learners will be able to explain various Africana women writers’ opinions regarding the contemporary practice of polygamy.

· Learners will be able to discuss the relationship of migration, marginalization and/or alienation to black women’s lives and the literature produced by black women.

· Learners will be able to explain how others have depicted/told stories about women of African Ancestry through

Historical narratives

Literature

Film/Visual imagery

Popular culture

Religious communities

The arts

· Learners will be able to exlplain how women of African Ancestry have told/preserved stories about themselves through

Autobiography

Photography

Historical narrative

Oral traditions

Religious rituals

Material culture

Bodily adornment

Religious practices

Film

The arts

Texts: ON RESERVE AT DESK IN R.L.WEST LIBRARY

1. Hine, Darlene Clark, Brown, Elsa Barkley and Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn, BLACK WOMEN IN AMERICA: AN HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA, VOLS. 1 & 2, Indiana University Press.

2. Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn, Harley, Sharon and Benton-Rushing, Andrea, Eds. Women In Africa and the African Diaspora, Howard University Press, Washington, 1987

Texts: In TCNJ College Store

3. Aidoo, Ama Ata, CHANGES:A LOVE STORY, Feminist Press

4. Ba., Mariama, SO LONG A LETTER, Heinemann

5. Danticatt, Edwidge, BREATH, EYES AND MEMORY

6. Hopkinson, Nalo, BROWN GIRL IN THE RING

7. Hurston, Zora Neale, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

8. Warner-Vieyra, Myriam, JULETANE, Heinemann

9. Clark-Hine, D. & Thompson, K, A SHINING THREAD OF HOPE, Broadway Books

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Participation- 10% (Includes : class discussion; online writing; e-mail assignments; bhm/whm programs)

1. General Requirements

Students are expected to:

Attend and participate in class meetings

Read materials for class when due

Be prepared to discuss reading assignments

Adhere to college rules with regard to style, footnoting, attribution

Plagarism = automatic F

No makeup exams / late submissions without doctor’s note

Citations

Please refer to the following site for guidance in properly citing

electronic sources in papers/assignments

http://h-net2.msu.edu/~africa/citation.html

E-Mail

· Address (Due by 2nd class meeting)

· Sign up for Listserv.

Send The Following Message:

To: listproc@list.tcnj.edu

Message:

SUBSCRIBE AFAM28002-L Your Name

Speakeasy Café

http://speakeasy.wsu.edu/studio

This is a website where you will post online writing for this class.

Step one is to submit a personal profile in the “café.” You will then read profiles from other class members and respond to AT LEAST TWO submissions. Detailed instructions will be distributed in class.

You will answer questions at this site throughout the semester.

ALL STUDENTS MUST sign up for the list and the speakeasy

NO LATER THAN THE 2^nd CLASS MEETING OF THE SEMESTER!

2. The E-mail assignment: (5%)

For each class meeting one student will prepare 2 questions based upon the assignments for that day. The student will forward the question to the class listserve AT LEAST 48 HOURS before the class. The instructor will put the questions on the SPEAKEASY online writing space. Each student will answer ONE OF the questions BEFORE coming to class. Each student will also READ AND REPLY TO the person who posts after him/her. (Note, if you are the last to post you will answer the first student who replied. The creator of the question may be asked to serve as moderator for a brief discussion at the beginning of each class. Questions are to be based on the assigned readings.

§ The answers to the questions and the dialogue with other students will be graded as part of your participation grade.

The instructor will assign the date(s) and topics after the first class meeting.

3. African American History Month & Women's History Month Programs And Field Trips

During the Spring semester, students will be required to attend programs scheduled as part of the college's AAHM and WHM observances. Papers of 1-2 pages will be required after each activity. Should field trips be assigned, students will be notified in advance. A written assignment will be attached to the trip. Assignments related to this category will be included in the “class participation” grade.

Group Presentations ( 20 %)

1. IN CLASS Group Projects (5 %):

In addition to participation in class discussions that reflect a mastery of the assigned readings, students will be assigned to one of five groups that will be responsible for in-class presentations. Students must complete a “peer review” form for the group project and turn it in on the day of your presentation.

Each group will be responsible for one full class session

Students will be expected to present an interesting, enlightening session that fully explores the assigned topic.

Contact the instructor at least one week in advance if you need audiovisual equipment.

There will be one grade for the group

Students who do not participate will be given a grade of "F" if the absence is not verified by a medical excuse.

The dates for the assignments are as follows:

Group 1 Radiance from the Waters; Mende Wom - Week 7:2

And the Bundu Secret Society

Group 2 European & Canadian Women Week 9:2

Group 3 Educators & Activists - Week 10:2

Group 4 Religion Week 12:1

Recommended resources are listed in the syllabus under each topic. You should also use other sources!

2. The Old South Assignment – Due Week 10/Class One- 5 %

Topic: The Status of Ante-Bellum Women

Assignment:

You will be divided into the same four groups.

Go the The Old South Home Page at http://fisher.lib.Virginia.EDU/census/

Use the census data provided to explore the status of Ante-bellum black women in:

Hunrterdon County, NJ , Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Greensboro, North Carolina and New Orleans, Louisiana. Use the census data for the years 1820-1860. Compare and contrast the status of free and enslaved women within each county and among locales. What conclusions can you draw regarding the living conditions, work, family life, etc for black women (1) over time and (2) in the North and the South.

Each group will post their findings on the SPEAKEASY. Each group will then critique the work of another group (1/l2; 2/3; 3/1). The critique will be posted to the listserve and SPEAKEASY during week 11. There will be one grade per group

3. Black Artists Group Assignment- Due Week 14 Class 1- 10 %

Assignment: You will work in the same four groups

Each Group will be assigned a phase of the arts. Resources are on the syllabus. MULTIMEDIA RESOURCES will be on reserve in the Library Media Center. You should use these materials when incorporating multi media into your presentation. You can do a multimedia PowerPoint presentation or a website that incorporates streaming audio and streaming video. Your in-class presentation should be 15 minutes.

Your group presentation that incorporates digitized: still images, digitized audio and digitized video will cover either music (1), dance (2), visual art (3) or literature (4) .

Oral History Project:

The "Oral Tradition" has been an integral aspect of the cultural survival of people of the African diaspora. Women have often been the "culture bearers" in these communities, and often "talked" their stories rather than "scribing" them.

The technocratic society of the western world discourages people from taking the time to tell and listen to their stories. Indeed, it is the stories of women that are most easily forgotten or dismissed. Yet their stories are one of our most valuable assets.

DIRECTIONS

Choose a black woman, preferably at least 2 generations older that yourself, and record her story. (An audio or video recorder is helpful in this assignment, but not necessary).

DATES TO REMEMBER:

Midterm March 21

Book Critiques- Due Dates

Assignment 1 Week 5:2 February 21, 2002

Assignment 2 Week 11:1

Monday, April 8, 2002

Oral History Project Last Day of Class Monday, April 29, 2002

NO CLASS ON THURS 5/2

Late assignments will lose ONE LETTER GRADE per day

SYLLABUS

PART ONE

Cross-Cultural Perspectives and Theoretical Models:

Week One

Class One

Overview of Syllabi, Assignments; Group Projects.

Assignments, Speakeasy, E-Mail ; INSPIRATION

Homework:

1. Powerpoint Tutorial

http://dickinsg.intrasun.tcnj.edu/powerpoint_tutorial/PowerPointTutorial.htm

2. DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE QUIZ http://www.popandpolitics.com/hype.cfm

3. AFAM Resources in the TCNJ Library http://www.tcnj.edu/~zangara/afram.htm

Class Two

SPEAKEASY CAFÉ & INSPIRATION

Bring a digitized photo to class

Post your bio and photo to the Speakeasy Café following the directions at:
http://www.tcnj.edu/~fisherc/speakeasy1.htm

l Write about your reaction to DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE (SPEAKEASY)

Write about the resources in the TCNJ library (INSPIRATION)

Week Two

Class One

Hmmm… http://www.justsaywow.com/100people.htm

“The History of A Day" & “The World's Women

Nichols Model

Afrocentric & Eurocentric Scholarship

Afrocentric vs Eurocentric Worldviews

http://www.TCNJ.EDU/~afamstud/diaspora/views.html

MYTHS ABOUT AFRICA

http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/guides/senegal/print1.html#myth

Websites that perpetuated common misconceptions about Egypt or Africa as a continent.

1) www.mesastate.edu/~pmcclell/dark.html

Webpage about film called "The Dark Continent" that portrays Africa of a

place of savagry and horror.

2) http://cnn.com/US/9707/16/racial.suit/index.html -- an article that discusses a man's fight to be considered black, even though the US government considers him white merely because he comes from Egypt,

3) http://www.cninews.com/CNI_SphinxWatch.html- site maintains that the Sphinx and pyramids were created by aliens and hold some sort of key to the end of the world..

Week Two

Class Two

Topic: Theoretical Models for Research on African Diaspora Women

Reading:

"African Feminism: A Theoretical Approach..."

WIA, pp 43-64 (Reserve)

STH (Hine) Prologue, pages 1-6

Study Questions due for "African Feminism: A Theoretical Approach..."

ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM SYMPOSIUM SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2002

FH 130

9-4

Week Three

Class One 2/4

Topic: Theoretical Models for Research on African Diaspora Women

Reading:

Steady, P, "Introduction," from The Black Woman Cross Culturally (Reserve)

Morton, Patricia “Black Studies/Women’s Studies: Discovering Black...” from

Disfigured Images (Reserve)

WEBSITES: Theoretical Models for Research on African Diaspora Women

African-American Women’s Archives at Duke University

A discussion of the difficulties in Retrieving African-American Women’s History The collections of this source seek to avoid the bias and ‘elite white perspective’ often found in accounts of African- American women’s history. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/women/afrointr.html#intro

General Women’s History- A dizzying array of WOS links called ViVa Women's History located at:http://www.iisg.nl/~womhist/vivalink.html

Brevity of sources on black women is noticeable.

African American Women's History

http://womenshistory.about.com/homework/womenshistory/cs/africanamerican/index.htm

FILM- OFF AIR SCREENING OF XALA by Ousmane Sembene on TCNJ Closed Circuit Network. Study Questions due week of Feb 11th

Week Three

Class Two 2/7

PART TWO-AFRICA

SYLLABUS AFAM 280

Africana Women in Historical Perspective

Participation- 10% (Includes : class discussion; online writing; e-mail assignments; bhm/whm programs)