Sponsored by Africana Studies Program and The Philosophy Department with the help of the English Department and the Provost’s Office.
This course centers on philosophy professor Dr. Lewis Gordon’s formulation, “Thinking While Black,” which is both a declaration and a question. Foregrounding the work of revolutionary/writer/philosopher/psychiatrist Franz Fanon, Dr. Gordon ponders whether it is indeed possible to think while black given that blackness is often associated with adolescence and/or criminality in dominant discourses. Prof. Gordon also deliberates over the political and aesthetic implications and consequences of such an action (thinking while black). Dr. Gordon’s journey takes him from existential thought established by Jean-Paul Sartre through the world of W.E.B. DuBois, Richard Wright, Hip Hop and the Blues. Course requirements include attendance and participation at a film viewing and discussion of the satirical mockumentary, Fear of a Black Hat, at which time we will respond to the query, “Can a rapper be a revolutionary,” followed by an open class with Dr. Gordon anchored by his three articles: “Must Revolutionaries Sing the Blues,” When I Was There, It Was Not,” and “The Problem of Maturity in Hip-Hop.” The day concludes with a lecture by Dr. Gordon. Participants must produce a five-page typed paper based on the readings and discussion by March 30, 2011.
Date: Thursday, February 24, 2011
Time: 1:30-7:30 PM
Place: H2LG
Events:
Film Viewing of Fear Of a Black Hat and Discussion (1:30-4)
Open Class featuring Dr. Gordon (4:30-5:15)
Lecture from Dr. Gordon (6-7:00)
Reception immediately following lecture
Contact: Professor Carol Allen, English Department x1053, 4th floor Humanities
Requirements: Attend each event, read and prepare three articles in advance, write a five-page paper based on readings and the discussion generated at the events.
Procedures:
Register
Pick up the articles from the Philosophy Dept. and read them before the event.
Pick up the guidelines for the five page essay from the Philosophy Dept.
Submit the essay by March 30, 2011.
Biography: Dr. Lewis Gordon holds a B.A. from Lehman College and an MA, M Phil and PhD from Yale. Currently he is Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy at Temple University and a visiting professor at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. He is also Temple’s Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought. He has written extensively on Africana Philosophy, highlighting especially the intellectual contributions of Franz Fanon, Richard Wright, The Blues, Jean-Paul Sartre, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Other major areas of expertise include black existentialism, theology, Afro-Jewish Studies and postcolonial phenomenology. Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism (1995/1999), Her Majesty’s Other Children: Sketches of Racism from a Neocolonial Age (1997), and Existence in Black: An Anthology of Black Existential Philosophy (ed, 1997) are but a few of his published works.
No comments:
Post a Comment