Module Content and Indicative Topics

This module examines the development of an African diaspora in the German lands from the Middle Ages to the present, with emphasis on the dramatic shifts in regimes of the past 200 years. Along with surveying contexts in which Africans and their descendants came to German-speaking lands, we will consider the diverse ways in which they have shaped and been shaped by a society that variously tolerated, rejected, or accepted them on specific terms. By paying due attention to transnational contexts, the module will complicate ideas of a single ‘Black’ experience as well as a monolithic and consistent idea of ‘Germanness’.

Teaching Delivery

This module will be delivered in weekly discussion seminars. It also includes online discussion groups that will bring students together with counterparts at American and German universities who are considering similar issues.

By the end of the module, you should be able to:

Discuss with sophistication concepts of race and nation as they apply in German and transnational contexts and in different historical periods.
	Develop and complete an independent research project.
	Present the results of academic research in a publicly accessible manner.
	Build a website according to generally accepted principles of web design.
Recommended Reading

In preparation for the module, we advise reading from the following core texts. These can be found in the UCL Library:

Ayim et al., Farben bekennen / Showing Our Colors
	Back and Solomos, Theories of Race and Racism
	BCESN, Black Central Europe, https://blackcentraleurope.com/
	Eggers et al. (eds.), Mythen Masken Subjekte
	Esuruoso and Koepsell (eds.), Arriving in the Future
	Florvil and Plumly (eds.), Rethinking Black German Studies
	Gilroy, The Black Atlantic
	Honeck et al. (eds.), Germany and the Black Diaspora
	Lennox (ed.), Remapping Black Germany
	Malik, The Meaning of Race
	Williams and Chrisman, Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory
	Wright, Becoming Black