Black Lives Matter (006GR)
Black Lives Matter: Postcolonial and Decolonial Representations
Module 006GR
Module details for 2021/22.
15 credits
FHEQ Level 5
Module Outline
This module uses postcolonial and decolonial theory to consider visual and material cultures in historical and contemporary settings. Inspired by the legacy of Stuart Hall, it investigates how Black Lives Matter and how the value of black lives and culture has been undermined by prevailing race and racisms through time. The course includes an engagement with ‘Black Theory’, a set of authors that address postcolonial and decolonial politics and outline the costs of Imperial and Colonial values of black lives. Using theories and examples in cultural studies, each lecture will include cultural texts as a means of understanding critical analysis of Eurocentric accounts of (after Edward Said) other worlds, peoples and places. Attention will focus on the visual, material and narrative cultures through which race and ethnicity are negotiated in everyday social spaces, their historical roots and how these pervade everyday encounters and discourses. Using specific historical and contemporary examples students are encouraged to seeing representations of ‘race’ and accompanying ‘racisms’ as dynamic and shifting through spatial and temporal contexts, and how ‘difference’ is always socially constructed in specific spaces, places and times.
Full Module Description
This module uses postcolonial and decolonial theory to consider visual and material cultures in historical and contemporary settings. Inspired by the legacy of Stuart Hall, it investigates how Black Lives Matter and how the value of black lives and culture has been undermined by prevailing race and racisms through time. The course includes an engagement with ‘Black Theory’, a set of authors that address postcolonial and decolonial politics and outline the costs of Imperial and Colonial values of black lives. Using theories and examples in cultural studies, each lecture will include cultural texts as a means of understanding critical analysis of Eurocentric accounts of (after Edward Said) other worlds, peoples and places. Attention will focus on the visual, material and narrative cultures through which race and ethnicity are negotiated in everyday social spaces, their historical roots and how these pervade everyday encounters and discourses. Using specific historical and contemporary examples students are encouraged to seeing representations of ‘race’ and accompanying ‘racisms’ as dynamic
and shifting through spatial and temporal contexts, and how ‘difference’ is always socially constructed in specific spaces, places and times.
Module learning outcomes
Demonstrate a critical understanding of black, postcolonial and decolonial theory.
Demonstrate an understanding of how ‘race’ is an unscientific concept and
mythology
Demonstrate understandings of decolonial and postcolonial critiques of visual cultures at museums, art galleries and everyday life
Demonstrate understandings of decolonial and postcolonial critiques of
material cultures at museums, art galleries and everyday life
| Type | Timing | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Essay (3000 words) | Semester 2 Assessment Week 2 Tue 16:00 | 100.00% |
Timing
Submission deadlines may vary for different types of assignment/groups of students.
Weighting
Coursework components (if listed) total 100% of the overall coursework weighting value.
| Term | Method | Duration | Week pattern |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring Semester | Workshop | 3 hours | 11111110111 |
How to read the week pattern
The numbers indicate the weeks of the term and how many events take place each week.
Dr Simon Rycroft
Assess convenor
/profiles/8703
Prof Divya Tolia-Kelly
Convenor
/profiles/204951
Prof Carl Griffin
Assess convenor
/profiles/235155
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