AADS 5532 A Place for Us: Geographies of the African Diaspora

This class introduces students to Black Geographies, an interdisciplinary field that examines how Black communities produce, contest, and transform space across the African diaspora. Drawing from geography, African American Studies, anthropology, and performance studies, the course explores how race and space are mutually constituted and how Black communities have generated alternative spatial imaginaries amid slavery, colonialism, segregation, displacement, and racial capitalism. Centering what Katherine McKittrick calls a Black sense of place, the seminar asks two related questions: How do spatial arrangements shape Black life? And how have Black communities remade space through cultural production, political struggle, environmental stewardship, migration, and everyday practices of world-making? Topics include racial capitalism, plantation futures, carcerality, urban transformation, environmental justice, health, performance, memory, and diaspora. The course also examines Black Geographies beyond North America and considers points of connection with Indigenous Studies, Latinx Studies, and other critical approaches to space, power, and place.