AFST 333 - Mapping the Black Pacific(s): Afro-Asian Encounters

Prerequisite, AFST 101 or consent of instructor. This seminar investigates the emergent concept of the Black Pacific(s), an area that scholars across multiple disciplines in recent years have begun to shed new light on. It seeks to examine the histories of African descendants to Asia via the Pacific rim and consider the ways in which Black internationalism, settler colonialism, militarism, interracial encounters and varying concepts of Blackness itself, may look different if scholars center their gaze on the trans-Pacific world. The term “Mapping” in the course title is in response to the often-overlooked encounters between peoples of African and Asian descent and the lengthy presence of African descendants in this region. It also suggests a different kind of trajectory that might alter one’s understanding of the Black Diaspora, Pacific indigeneity, and Asian identity in a global age. The course begins by focusing on the trans-Pacific world, but then delves into Afro-Asian encounters in the United States and in international settings. The course will consider how the meeting of Afro-Asia has given rise to an innovative field of study, which examines relationships across borders and allows for the expansion of both the conceptual meaning of a map and the knowledge that it charts. Letter grade. (Offered as needed.) 3 credits