2020-21 Academic Catalog

Contrary to popular imaginaries in the Global North that posit African cultural production in the tradition versus modernity debate, contemporary African popular culture is part and parcel of cosmopolitan, transnational, and diasporic exchanges of rhythms, sounds, images, and movement. In this class, we will engage several different forms of popular culture in Africa to ask how social worlds are made and remade in the public sphere. The anthropologists we will read in this class have tackled topics ranging from Egyptian soap operas to Ghanaian rap music to South African rugby to understand how people produce shared forms of meaning-making in their everyday lives. Prerequisite: The department strongly recommends that Sociology/Anthropology 110 or 111 be taken prior to enrolling in courses numbered 200 or above