AFST 460 - Seminar in Black Hair and Body Politics

(3.00)

This course will focus on constructions of Black hair and the Black body in media of the 20th and 21st century. The seminar combines primary readings, personal anecdotes, and applied research about the body, its extremities (such as hair), its performance of sexualities and identities in the context of the production of culture and social relations. Examining this body of literature from a range of theoretical and applied perspectives enables analysis and discussion of the processes used in the creation of cultural meaning-making. Additionally, a critique of the readings will also afford the opportunity to explore alternatives to the perpetuated materialist or constructivist binary existing in approaches to the body. Measures of prescription give way to problematizing and questioning the readings in order to explore dynamic resolutions at the individual level. AFST or AMST or other social sciences of humanities course focused on American society or culture will provide students a knowledge base useful for this course.

Components: Lecture
Same as Offered: AMST 460