JRNL 520G Representations of Blackness in Media and Popular Culture

Course overview

When Black Lives Matter gained global momentum in 2020, the movement brought significant public attention to how Black people are dehumanized across the diaspora. But outside of this narrative’s circulation on social and traditional media, on what other terms are we cultured to understand Blackness as a form of racial categorization?

This course explores the manufacturing of and reaction to Blackness within public discourses: in digital memes and hashtags, film, university classrooms, news media, truth-based
discourses, music, and more. We will examine ways Blackness has been coded, (mis)represented, and documented across time and platforms. Taking a diasporic approach, our points of focus will emerge mainly from local and North American contexts, the Caribbean, and the African continent, but will also consider the intersections between race and color, gender, class, sexuality, nationality, (dis)ability in Asia and Europe as well.

Special note

This elective is open to both 1st and 2nd year students. It is cross-listed with WRDS 498G. Journalism students should enrol in the JRNL 520G section of the course