ADSO 3511 Captive Bodies: Race, Resistance, and the Archive

Archives are powerful tools that we use to document ideas and thoughts about the world around us. Most of what we know about race and other aspects of our social identity stem from the existing archives that we are often taught and encouraged to study in school. However, history has shown us that the archives were not entirely written from an objective perspective. Moreover, critical voices were left out of the pages in the archives. In this course, we will study the role and power of the Archive. We will identify and explore representations of Black identity as they are reproduced in archives including literary texts, films, and music. In addition, we will also examine responses to these images and how they have carved out opportunities to showcase their self-definition. We will discuss various topics including the legacies of slavery and colonialism as they are enacted on the Black body and the ways that Black people have forged a space to create their own narratives for themselves.