| The following links provide a short
description of the different courses I offer at Ithaca College.
In the future, some of these courses will be available through
the International Collaborative Classroom modules. Longer descriptions
and complete syllabi are available to course participants through
the WebCT Link.
Africa Through Film
Development and Social Transformation
Africa: Politics of Rights and Culture
Seminar: Politics of Memory/ South Africa
Minefields of Memory
Introduction to Global Studies
Africa in World Politics
African Legacies: Womanism, Feminism and
the Global Sister Act (Tutorial)
Politics, Culture and Society in Africa
Africa Through Film | top
Africa through Film is a shared cyber classroom space developed
by Dr Peyi Soyinka-Airewele, Assistant Professor, Ithaca College
and Director of the Alliance for Community Transformation, ACT
Africa. It will bring together students at Ithaca College, New
York and the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, to
study and discuss critical socio-cultural, economic and political
issues relevant to contemporary African societies and to Nigeria
in particular. The course will be based on shared text materials,
multimedia resources, film viewings and analyses, web-based discussions
and collaborative teaching. In the Fall/Harmattan 2004 semester,
the program participants will be comprised of students registered
for the “Africa through Film” course, (Politics Dept.)
at Ithaca College, and the “Human Rights” course (Dept.
of Int. Relations) at the Obafemi Awolowo University. It is anticipated
that this virtual international collaborative learning space will
lay the basis for more substantive faculty and student exchanges/
international extended study programs in the future.
Africa Through Film
Development and Social Transformation
(Tutorial) | top
Through international case studies, projects and engaged research,
students will problematize development discourse, humanize the
issues related to poverty and social injustice and discuss some
of the innovative and successful initiatives for political and
socio-economic change in various societies. Apart from a study
of the existing literature, the course will help students to rethink
their own point of entry into the subject matter, to divine their
areas of passion and to explore the question of complicities,
responsibilities and capacities. Participants should be interested
in developing their ability to: work as informed scholar-practitioners
on social advocacy and development issues; design context-aware
projects; write proposals; collaboratively execute and evaluate
projects that address issues such as peace-building, poverty alleviation,
and democratic engineering etc and; engage in a critical study
of traditional “development” theologies.
Africa: Politics of Rights and Culture
| top
We will be investigating the contradictory perspectives on ‘human
rights’ and ‘culture’ in the contemporary global
system. Participants will examine the interaction of power, privilege,
history, legal and religious values with the prevailing contestations
over rights and culture. The subject matter is well captured by
two questions posed by Professor Mahmood Mamdani, who has asked:
“Can a culture of individual rights coexist with the right
of every individual to practice one’s culture?”
“When do conflicts of interest translate into conflicts
between rights, and tensions within cultures, and when do languages
of culture and of rights become so many ways of handling conflicts
on interest?” While the course will take its bearing from
the study of material and issues from within the African continent,
it offers a challenging journey for anyone intrigued about these
unresolved debates in contemporary history and politics and an
opportunity to understand human rights dilemmas in societies across
the world - Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and North America.
Seminar: Politics of Memory/South Africa-Minefields
of Memory | top
“The Struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory
against forgetting” --- Czech writer, Milan Kundera
Across the global system, the tensions of addressing the past
and securing a “just peace” continues to haunt generations
that inherit the conflicted legacies of slavery, authoritarianism,
apartheid, state terrorism, genocidal and ethnocidal violence.
Post-apartheid South African society, for instance, has undertaken
one of the most ambitious projects in human history, in seeking
to weld a future of “reconciliation” out of the turbulent
memories and struggles of a country violently polarized by the
racial power structures of white “apartheid” rule.
Yet, the search for social justice, healing and transformative
social change does not appear to be fortuitous in such countries
in which the past is a political minefield. By studying the experiences
of transitional societies attempting to deal with the politics
of memory, we glean valuable lessons for other polarized societies
in North America, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Participants in this seminar will explore the dilemmas that surround
concepts such as collective memory, truth, justice, confession,
healing, forgiveness and reconciliation. How, for instance, will
pragmatic rapprochement and the erasure of memory vie for space
with the re-signification of the past and efforts to address the
systematization of unconscionable crimes against humanity? The
course will be facilitated by film, scholarly debate, comparative
studies of post-authoritarian and post-trauma societies, by narratives
of victims, perpetrators and those caught between multiple layers
of violence and impunity. It demands a complete engagement from
all participants.
Introduction to Global Studies |
top
We inhabit an increasingly complex and interconnected world that
is of strategic importance in the calculations of policymakers,
the corporate world and the myriad of professionals and organizations
concerned with socio-political and human wellbeing. Regardless
of your disciplinary orientation, an ability to understand critical
world issues is indispensable for navigating and engaging the
challenges of any contemporary society. This course has been designed
to allow students to investigate the nature, causes and impact
of systemic processes and institutions on different regions of
the world. It promises to be an exciting and difficult journey
because our task will be to integrate critical frames from political
science, history, sociology, and other fields in our exploration
of the global system.
Our central concerns will include the construction of power, identity
and hierarchy in the global system and the dilemma of human rights’
protection in a competitive marketplace. In seeking to understand
the gap between the rich and the impoverished of the earth, we
will examine the on-going debates on global history, ‘cultural
particularities’ and representations of the other. We will
also interrogate other complex analytical categories that are
often abused in explaining political systems and the socio-cultural
and economic systems that support or constrain them. Through our
study of selected regions and countries, we will deepen our awareness
of the realities, aspirations, processes and social structures
that affect diverse societies and groups on our planet.
Africa in World Politics | top
The course is designed to give participants a heightened awareness
and understanding of the international policy framework of the
countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and the many interfaces of Africa’s
interactions with the global community. Students will be encouraged
to explore how Africa is constructed in the international media
and in Western scholarship, against the backdrop of the historical
and contemporary global impact of African culture and resources.
By so doing, we can better interpret the role of perceptions in
international politics, policy formulation and transnational relations.
While we will study pressing concerns regarding Africa’s
position in world affairs, including the economic crisis and post
cold war politics of African countries, we will also investigate
some contemporary, less conventional and oft controversial issues
that have redefined the complexities of Africa’s marginalization
in the international community. These include the global politics
of AIDS discourse, African responses to gender diplomacy and politics
of the environment, the philosophical debate over international
vs. Afro-communal human rights, the vibrancy of politics and development
initiatives across the continent and the relevance of these diverse
issues to Africa’s external policy environment.
African Legacies: Womanisms, Feminisms
and the Global Sister Act (Tutorial) | top
“African Women’s self actualization predates the written
and electronic media. Their dynamic mobilization in some parts
of Africa predates colonialism, feminism and other “isms”
that are being held up as the norms for evaluating African women’s
awareness. Womanism then becomes is the totality of feminine self
expression, self retrieval, and self assertion in positive cultural
ways”……. Modupe Kolawole
One of our central goals will be to uncover the diverse heritage
and legacies of African women leaders and activists and the indigenous
philosophies and institutions that have created unique patterns
of solidarity, womanist identity and empowerment in both matriarchal
and patriarchal societies across the continent and in the communities
of the African Diaspora.
Participants will also investigate the historical, philosophical
and socio-political aspects of women's mobilization in Africa
and the ways in which these have altered the history of imperialist
encounters with Africa, the structures of local power and the
philosophy and direction of women's struggles internationally.
A part of the semester will be committed to conversations with
women of African heritage in the Diaspora on the complex intersectionality
of race, gender and class.
Politics, Culture and Society in Africa
| top
A fascinating journey for anyone intrigued about the continent
and ready to delve into the cornucopia of social, cultural and
political contexts containing the rhythm of Africa. This introduction
to Africa seeks out the authenticity of the continent from beneath
the avalanche of media images and traditional political science
approaches that prevent a true understanding of the vibrancy of
civil society and diversity in Africa.
Through instruments of sight and sound, participants will explore:
- The socio-cultural construction of politics based on Africa’s
“triple heritage”
- The use of music in protest, politics and community construction
and its influence in the Diaspora (“Mississippi to Mali”
of jazz)
- The enigma of African womanism,
- Oriki and the vibrancy of oral history and literature in contemporary
politics and the role of the African modern film industry and
pop culture within the political drama of opposition and democratization.
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