Writing at the height of the Algerian War of Independence, Frantz Fanon declared that “decolonization is always a violent phenomenon.” By thinking through Fanon’s writings and interventions from postcolonial and critical memory studies such as Edward Said and Michael Rothberg this seminar offers a parallel reading of the histories of violence in Euro-America to that of the colonized world since World War II. We juxtapose the commemorations of violent events that are rarely read together: the Algerian War of Independence, the Holocaust, the Palestinian Nakba, and racist and settler colonial violence in the US.

With the aim to decolonize our reading of history we first read Orientalism, antisemitism, and global anti-black racism as part of the intertwined histories of white supremacy. Second, we juxtapose anticolonial struggles in Europe, North America, and the Middle East to map resistance and patterns of solidarity between racialized individuals and communities in colonial and postcolonial global settings. Finally, we situate Fanon's decolonial writings and global anti-colonial struggles in the 1950s and 60s from the vantage point of the pressing issues of today.

Registered scholars will visit UM Museum of Art for the "Art and Resistance" theme, the Holocaust Memorial Center, and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. This course is an approved credit for the Museum Studies Program.

Course Requirements:

Reflection papers and final project

Intended Audience:

Majors or non-majors, upper-class students, graduate students should contact the instructor.

Class Format:

Seminar