BLST 295 Topics in Black Studies
Topics vary semester to semester. Specific topics may satisfy different Core Program requirements.
Race, Archive, Performance
What is the relationship between race, archive and performance? Why and how does the/an archive matter to racial formations, intimacies, kinships? Why and how does performance matter to the study of the/an archive? What do we mean, in fact, when we invoke the/an archive? When we invoke a performance? This course is an exploration of the intersections between Black Studies and Performance Studies as disciplines that are inextricably bound up in questions on the/an archive, and how, in turn, our understanding of the/an archive as singular and stagnant is disrupted by Black Studies and Performance Studies. Students will be asked to read an array of texts, including primary archival materials, dramatic plays, visual texts and performance art, and will be introduced to preliminary steps in archival methods.
Final projects may entail collaboration with Occidental College Library and its Special Collections and College Archives.
Fulfills Expressive Forms or Politics and Theory Requirement.