Taught in conjunction with University College London and the University of Missouri, this course explores global Black histories in an unlikely place: German-speaking Europe. This course is timely, too: as African migrants make the dangerous passage by ship to Europe to plead asylum in Germany and more neo-Nazi hate crimes take place, more public conversations in Central Europe are addressing what it means to have Black people on German lands. But students in this class will learn that people of African descent have always been a part of Central European history. From Black saint iconography in medieval churches to entertainers such as Josephine Baker or Beyoncé in Berlin, Germans have long engaged with and responded to Black figures in European history. In so doing, they have participated in global conversations on nationalism, colonialism, race, and gender. Students in this class will learn to think about Germany’s Black pasts in general and Afro-German history specifically while also developing their skills as digital humanists: together we will use blogs, learn digital mapping technologies, and curate an online digital museum exhibit to think about the humanities in the 21st centuries. Students will also collaborate closely with students at University College London and the University of Missouri on these projects. By working with peers on two continents and on three different campuses, students will engage deeply with questions of national identity, race, culture, and diaspora in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Highlights of the semester include: visiting UMMA and attending a UMS concert.
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