SHUM 6699 - Mapping the Black Pacific(s): Afro-Asian Encounters

(crosslisted) ASIAN 6699, ASRC 6699

Spring. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Open to: graduate students. Co-meets with AAS 4699/ASIAN 4699/ASRC 4699/SHUM 4699.

A. Allen.

This seminar investigates the emergent concept of the Black Pacific, an area that scholars across multiple disciplines in recent years have begun to shed new light on. This course is designed to encourage an exploration of various methods including autobiography, video, film and others. This seminar seeks to examine the histories of African descendants to Asia via the Pacific rim and consider the ways in the varying concepts of Blackness itself may look different if we center our gaze on the trans-Pacific world. The term “Mapping” in the course title is in response to the often-overlooked encounters between peoples of African and Asian descent and the presence of African descendants in this region.