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May 27, 2024
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POLS 4765 - Diaspora, Transnationalism and Post-Colonialism
This course introduces students to the theories, concepts and applications of the field of post-colonial, transnational and diaspora studies. As post-colonial studies is a wide field, we are engaged here in acquiring a working knowledge of its major ideas, conceptual platforms and methods of inquiry that are the bases of post-colonial studies. We will be examining some of the key themes in post-colonial studies, as well as reading some of the foundational texts on which the field of post-colonial studies is grounded.
The varied and multi-disciplinary fields of study that form our theoretical framework are founded on three premises: a) that whilst the era of formal colonialism is over, the social institutions, cultural practices and ideological formations produced by colonialism and other forms of oppression have left their legacy in the contemporary world; b) that mainstream ways of thought, interpretation and action have been informed and continue to be permeated by dominant conceptions from the West; and c) that race is a transnational phenomenon, tied to and imbued with the power of modernity.
These foundations provide some identifiable common denominators: a willingness to challenge the hegemonic assumptions of the West; a moral imperative to understand history and society from the point of view of those it has least benefited and who have been marginalized and even oppressed; an understanding that the current world system is the result of a world-historical racial project; and as a result, a theoretical commitment to developing new, more inclusive and more progressive ways of thinking and analyzing social, economical, political and historical forces that critically interrogate Western hegemonic forms of knowledge. Post-colonialism therefore includes studies of the formal colonial period and its aftermath. We are here mostly concerned with ¿late colonialism,¿ and the majority of this course will focus, although not exclusively, on the British colonial empire. This course is highly theoretical and interdisciplinary. Material will be chosen from a wide variety of geographical areas and from post-colonial thinkers from different disciplines.
Requisites: 6 Hours in AAS or 6 hours in POLS or 6 hours in WGS
Credit Hours: 3.0
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Eligible grades: A-F,WP,WF,FN,FS,AU,I
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