Topics in African-American Literature: Texts and Contexts of the Harlem Renaissance

In this course, we'll be bridging two interdisciplinary fields- the digital humanities and Black diaspora studies- in order to examine how technology has mediated new engagements with the Black Atlantic. Following the concept of "juxtaposition," what Kelly Baker Josephs and Roopika Risam see as the intersection "of disciplines, cultures, and methods" (The Digital Black Atlantic 2021), this course will consist of traditional class discussion, writing assignments, and lab days that bridge theory, method, and application. Ultimately, we will aim to discover how scholars utilize digital tools to engage with and better understand the cultures, histories, and literatures of the Black diaspora. We will examine a broad range of scholarship, such as Brittle Paper, an online literary magazine, "Digital Nollywood," "The Global Poetics Project," and "Archive of Languages and Oral Resources of Africa," which are digital archives and repositories, "Migration Stories: Africans in Midwestern Communities," a digital storytelling initiative, and the web series "Left of Black," which is a multimedia source. Throughout the semester, students will learn to work with DH tools like Voyant and Omeka, will conduct text analysis, develop maps and network models, and learn how to utilize and build databases. Readings and classwork will be supplemented by practicums, and a small-scale final DH project will serve as an entry-point into both the public and digital humanities. This course may fulfill the global or minority literatures requirement for students who declare an English major in the fall 2021 semester and beyond.
Course Attributes: EN H; AS HUM; FA HUM; EL GML; AR HUM

Topics in African-American Literature: Texts and Contexts of the Harlem Renaissance

AMERICAN CULTURE STUDIES 4244

Section 01