African Diaspora Communities and Cultures MWF 1:30-2:20 Monroe Hall 412 Spring 2016 Dr. Angel Adams Parham Office Phone: 504-865-3581 Office Hours: Mon 3:00-4:15 pm, Wed 3:00-4:15 pm OR By Appointment Office: Monroe Hall room 240 E-mail: [email protected] Course Description The African diaspora in the Americas includes a large number of diverse communities and cultures. What are their commonalities and what are their differences? What does it mean to be both “African” and “American”? These are complex questions and we will study the rich tradition of scholarly work that has addressed them. Once we establish the conceptual and theoretical foundation for our discussions, we spend the bulk of the course comparing and contrasting African diaspora communities in Haiti, the Bahamas, Louisiana, and the Georgia and South Carolina Sea Islands. In our study of the U.S. we will give special attention to the past and present of New Orleans, and its rich African diaspora history and traditions.. Hybrid Course Structure This course is taught with a combination of face to face and online sessions. Monday and Wednesday classes are conducted in class, face to face. All Friday sessions are online sessions. For Friday sessions you will be asked to participate in the course discussion forum on Blackboard or to complete a brief response to course readings or lectures. Course Readings All required readings will be placed on Blackboard. Grading Breakdown (by percentage): 93-100 A 73-76 C 90-92 A- 70-72 C- 87-89 B+ 67-69 D+ 83-86 B 63-66 D 80-82 B- 60-62 D- 77-79 C+ <60 F 1 Disability Services and Accommodations A student with a disability that qualifies for accommodations should contact the director of Disability Services at 865-2990 (Academic Resource Center, Room 405, Monroe Hall). A student wishing to receive test accommodations (eg. extended test time) should provide the instructor with an official Accommodation Form from Disability Services in advance of the scheduled test date. Course Readings All required readings will be placed on Blackboard. Course Requirements Percentage of Course Online Sessions 20 Attendance and In-Class Participation 15 Research Paper (Divided up into three parts) 45 Oral Final Exam 20 Total 100 Online Sessions All Monday and Wednesday sessions will meet face to face and all Friday sessions will be conducted online. The content of the Friday online sessions will include a 5 question multiple choice, open-book quiz AND your written, qualitative response to one or more of the following: a reading, film, or online simulation or activity. For online sessions you will be required to complete the reading, film or online activity and then complete the activities outlined for that session. These sessions are mandatory and will be graded. 2 In-Class Participation This part of your grade is based on a combination of attendance and verbal participation in class discussions on Mondays and Wednesdays. I will take attendance and will make note of your participation in Monday and Wednesday discussions. In order to get credit, your participation needs to be based on your engagement with and direct reference to the reading with page numbers. Research Paper This paper will be divided up into three parts with due dates throughout the semester. Oral Final Exam The oral final exam will occur as a 20 minute one-on-one session between each student and the instructor. Your oral exam time will be scheduled during a 20 minute period during the last week of class OR on the day of the university’s official final exam period for this class. I will work with you to find a time that is convenient for you. In-Class Oral Questions—Extra Credit Because the final exam is in oral form, and because you will need to be able to answer these questions comprehensively and with excellent reference to readings, concepts and theories from the course, we will have opportunities in class each week for a few people to answer a sample oral exam question based on what we have learned up until that point in the semester. The person who answers will get extra credit that will be graded according to how well the question was answered. After she/he answers, we will use the response to discuss the strengths and weaknesses and how the response could be improved. Thus this extra credit will serve as a mini-review both for the individual and for the class as a whole. Salons—Extra Credit Three times during the semester you have the opportunity to participate in a “salon”. These meetings consist of discussion over refreshments outside of class and are restricted to 10 participants. Salons are designed to allow us to wrestle with and reflect upon the issues we are studying as well as to help us think about the personal and social implications of what we have been studying. There will therefore be ample time for discussing how what we have been studying makes a difference for our lives. Each “salon” earns a participant extra credit toward the final grade in the course. Sign- ups for the salons will occur the week before the salon is scheduled to take place. 3 Policy on Late Work Online Sessions: NO late work will be accepted. If the online contribution has not been received by the due date and time it will not be accepted. Analytical Papers The first paper may be turned in up to 7 days late with 10% taken off of the grade for each day late (Saturdays and Sundays are also included as days where points will be lost). The second paper will NOT be accepted late. Oral Final Exam: You must come to your scheduled test appointment. This exam will be cumulative. There will be no make-ups. IMPORTANT: • Bring your reading to EVERY class session where we meet face to face. This means that you must print out the readings from Blackboard each time we meet. Module 1: African and American—Conceptual Foundations W 1/20 Introduction: What does it mean to be “African and “American”? Reading:Poetry Selections, See on Blackboard F 1/22 Online Session • Selection from Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis Response Due by 5pm, on Saturday January 23rd M 1/25 • “Forgotten Memories”, pp.3-16 in The Negro Family in the United States by E. Franklin Frazier,1966,University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL (originally published in 1939) • “African survivals in America”, pp.168-175 in The African Background Outlined: Or handbook for the study of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson, 1936, The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Inc. Washington, D.C. W 1/27 “The contemporary scene: Africanisms in secular life”, pp.143-206 in The Myth of the Negro Past, by Melville Herskovits, 1941, Harper and Bros. Publishers, New York, NY. F 1/29 Online Session Response Due by 5pm, on Saturday January 30th 4 M 2/1 “Kinship and sex roles”, pp. 61-80 in The Birth of African-American Culture: An anthropological perspective by Sidney W. Mintz and Richard Price, 1992, Beacon Press, Boston, MA. AND Poetry Selections, See on Blackboard W 2/3 “Dancing between circles and lines”, pp.1-23 in The Afrocentric Idea by Molefi Kete Asante, 1998, Temple University Press, Philadelphi, PA AND Poetry Selections, See on Blackboard F 2/5 Online Session Response Due by 5pm, on Saturday, February 6th M 2/8 Mardi Gras Holiday W 2/10 Mardi Gras Holiday F 2/12 Mardi Gras Holiday Module 2: African and American in Haiti M 2/15 “Slaves in the North”, pp.91-117 in The Making of Haiti:The St. Domingue Revolution from Below by Carolyn Fick W 2/17 “The history of voodoo”, pp.25-49 in Voodoo in Haiti by Alfred Métraux, transltd by Hugo Cherteris, 1972 Schocken Books, New York, NY (originally, 1959) F 2/19 Research Statement and Literature Review Due—My Office by 12pm, Noon Online Session Response Due by 5pm, on Saturday, February 20th M 2/22 “The Art of Transformation” 5 W 2/24 Selections from: Open Gate: An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry eds. Paul Laraque and Jack Hirschman F 2/26 Online Session Response Due by 5pm on Saturday, February 27th Module 3: African and American in Louisiana M 2/29 “The Creole Slaves: Origin, family, language, folklore”, pp.156-200 in Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century by Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, 1992, LSU Press, Baton Rouge,LA. W 3/2 Excerpt from Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook, by Jeffrey Anderson. 2008. Greenwood Publishing Group. Westport, CT F 3/4 Online Session Excerpt from Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook, by Jeffrey Anderson. 2008. Greenwood Publishing Group. Westport, CT Response Due by 5pm Saturday, March 5th M 3/7 “The Kongo Period”, pp. 106-115 in The World that Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette, 2008, Lawrence Hill Books, Chicago, IL. W 3/9 “Louisiana Creole Food Culture:Afro-Caribbean Links”, by Sybil Kein, pp. 244-251 in Creole: The history and legacy of Louisiana’s free people of color, edited by Sybil Kein, 2000, LSU Press, Baton Rouge, LA AND Poetry Selections, See on Blackboard F 3/11 Online Session “A Commentary: African Cultural Retentions in Louisiana”, by Charles E. Siler (Available at the link below) http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/afri_cult_retent.html Response Due by 5pm Saturday, March 12th 6 Module 4: African and American in Georgia and South Carolina M 3/14 “A people in crisis”, pp.3-12 in The Gullah People and their African Heritage by William S.