I realized I haven’t told you about the classes I am taking this semester! Well here is a quick rundown.
I am taking a French class called Black Paris: ‘Postcolonializing ‘ the Seine. It explores the life of Black immigrants to Paris through readings and watching films. We discuss writers like Franz Fanon and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. It has been a very interesting class and one that has really delved into my interest in postcolonial studies. Best part, as part of the class, we get to go to Paris over Spring Break to study all the things we’ve been talking about.
The second class I am taking is called Conflict Transformation in Theory and Practice. This class is part of the core classes for the Peace and Justice Studies major. It seeks to deepen our understanding of conflict and using it to transform society. This class has made me question and understand more thoroughly how to create lasting change.
The third class is an Africana Studies seminar called Urban Development and Underclass. It explores how economic changes throughout the African Diaspora create cities and the so-called “underclass”. We will be doing a comparative case study between cities like Chicago, Sao Paulo in Brazil and Cape Town in South Africa.
The fourth and final class is a Political Theory class called Feminist from the Margins. This class explores feminist political theory specifically from people who are marginalized. In class, we’re reading works by people like Barbara Christian, Audre Lorde, and Chandra Mohanty to name a few.
I noticed while writing this post that at least three of my 4 classes are very theory based which requires a lot of reading. The fun part is that I actually enjoy the things that I am reading. They’re topics I have always wanted to explore in a classroom. Needless to say, I am very excited about this semester.