BAFD 4460

Political thinkers from Africa and its diasporas have rigorously challenged our conventional interpretations of concepts such as enlightenment, citizenship, colonialism, democracy, human rights, and capitalism. In this course, students will engage with and analyze key political texts by influential figures like Frantz Fanon, Claudia Jones, Amilcar Cabral, and Angela Davis. Additionally, we will explore the political, social, and economic contexts in which these thinkers wrote, examining how these settings shaped their ideas and internationalist struggles. The course aims to create a theoretical framework that equips student scholars to critique societal constructs of knowledge while providing an epistemological basis for Black Studies. It highlights the importance of human agency in research, scholarship, and various political, social, and cultural movements. Notably, these theoretical insights can enhance traditional disciplinary approaches and be applied across a range of themes. The course will focus on four key traditions in Black Political Thought: Black liberal tradition, Black radical tradition, Black literary tradition, and the Black antifascist tradition.