Last post, I shared the first journal entry for my “Black Expatriate Writers in France” class. Today, I’m going to share the second and third entries from May 12, 2023 and May 16, 2023. I wrote the first entry after we moved from Avignon to Marseille and the second on the train from Marseille to Nice. If you would like more information about Marseille and some … Read More Marseille and Humanity
+ african american art, african american literature, african americans, claude mckay, france, james baldwin, Pedagogy, syllabus, william gardner smith
I’m not sure when I started thinking about leading a study travel trip to France; I only know that I really started thinking about when I was on the job market following my graduation in 2014. In some of my cover letters, if I discussed study travel trips, I would always mention my desire construct a course on African American expatriate writers in France. … Read More Why Did I Want to Teach a Black Expatriate Writers Study Travel Course in France?
+ american history, civil rights, civil rights memorial, history, james baldwin, martin luther king, jr, memory
The illusion of history does not serve to move us towards progress; rather, the myths that the illusions construct hinder any forward movement and in many ways serve to repel and repeal any progress towards equity and equality. The James Baldwin documentary I Heard It Through the Grapevine (1982) makes this abundantly clear. Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley follow Baldwin as he returns to … Read More Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Illusion of History
+ african american literature, claude mckay, france, james baldwin, jessie fauset, syllabus, william gardner smith
Last year, a colleague and I proposed a study travel to Poland to study the intersections between Jim Crow and the Holocaust. Sadly, that trip failed to materialize, for a few reasons. This year, another colleague and I proposed a trip to the South of France, specifically Marseille and Nice. She will teach an environmental science course and my course will focus on African American … Read More Black Expatriate Writers in France Syllabus
+ christian fascism, christian nationalism, frederick douglass, james baldwin, lillian e smith, martin luther king, jr, religion
Each year I teach a Lillian E. Smith Studies Course, and each course, while using Smith as the center or the class, is extremely different. Since the course has a small enrollment, I let the students dictate what we will focus on in the course. One semester, the students wanted to look at mass incarceration and the legal system, so we read Michelle Alexander, … Read More Lillian E. Smith and Christian Nationalism Syllabus
Interminable Rambling 