Introduction to Black British Studies
Module title | Introduction to Black British Studies |
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Module code | HUM1006 |
Academic year | 2023/4 |
Credits | 15 |
Module staff | Dr Ryan Hanley (Convenor) |
Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
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Duration: Weeks | 10 |
Number students taking module (anticipated) | 30 |
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Module description
Taking an intersectional, creative, and community-led approach, this module explores how, when and why many different peoples of the global African diaspora came to call the British Isles home and how they contribute to its contemporary character. Taking an anti-hierarchical educational approach, you will engage with this topic through cultural, social and political lenses. This will complement a holistic chronological approach bringing to the fore themes of migration, empire, displacement, dignity, survival and resistance. Acting as an introduction to the histories, cultures and politics of Britain’s resident Afro-descendent communities, this module is designed to accommodate students with little prior knowledge on the subject.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The module aims to introduce students to the study of Britain’s Black communities through a collaborative approach involving community scholars, artists and activists. Lectures on this module are specially recorded by experts both within the university and further afield, while seminars are led by a teaching team of academics with diverse expertise and disciplinary backgrounds. In this way, it aims to address themes of migration, displacement, empire, dignity, survival and resistance that continue to shape these communities and the country which they inhabit. Breaking with the traditional teaching approach of the western ‘ivory tower’, the module operates along non-hierarchical lines with the aim to facilitate an open dialogue between Exeter academics, invited guest lecturers, student fellows, and students, in which you will be encouraged to participate. Employing alternative nodes of knowledge productions, you will learn to interpret and analyse artworks, fashion, music, writings, food, politics and worship among others, both as primary materials, and as a type of academic ‘literature’ emerging from and critiquing dominant and insurgent discourses around race, nation, and identity.
You will be introduced to, and be expected to critically engage with, academic debates from the disciplines of History, Art History, Literary Studies, Drama, Visual and Film Studies. Moreover, you will be encouraged to respond in creative ways to the dynamic interdisciplinary frameworks that have always characterised Black British Studies, either by producing a plan for a public-facing project such as a museum takeover or podcast pitch, or through a creative response such as a visual arts portfolio, short film script, or short story that engages with the intellectual and/or methodological issues raised by the course.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Critically and robustly engage with the study of Black British people, cultures, and communities, drawing from some of the methodological approaches introduced in this course
- 2. Recognise and understand the ethnic diversity and cultural and intellectual heterogeneity contained within the contested and historically-constructed descriptor Black British
- 3. Assess the roles played by intersecting concepts of class, race, gender, (dis)ability, and sexual identity in the construction, adoption and rejection of multiple Black British identities in their political, social, cultural, and religious dimensions
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 4. Begin to engage with different disciplinary methodologies relating to a thematically coherent subject area, evaluating and selecting the best approach(es) for a given intellectual, creative, or practical task
- 5. Answer a question clearly drawing from and/or adapting multiple disciplinary, including creative, approaches
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Conduct independent study and group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
- 7. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
- 8. Collaborate in a team and interact effectively with the seminar convenor and the wider group
- 9. Demonstrate flexibility and creativity in approaching intellectual problems and responding to specific briefs, developed through the mode of assessment
Syllabus plan
Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics as they relate to Britain’s Black communities:
- British Blackness
- The arts as cultural production
- Climate and Environment
- Decoloniality, Anti-Racism, and Social Justice
- Dignity, Survival, and resistance
- Gender, Sex and Sexuality
- Black Feminism
- Migration, Empire and Displacement
- Students, Families and Communities
- Allyship
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
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300 | 120 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
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Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 10 | 10 x 1 hour lectures, pre-recorded and watched together before the seminars. |
Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 20 | 10 x 2 hour seminars, to take place directly after each lecture delivery session. These seminars will consist of a variety of teaching methods, including some practitioner-led sessions. |
Guided Independent Study | 120 | Students to prepare for the session through reading, research, engagement with relevant cultural and creative activities, and collaborative formative assessment projects. |
Formative assessment
Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
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Group presentation (3-4 students) | 10-15 mins (3-4 minutes per student) | 1-9 | Oral feedback, Q&A |
Creative response or project outline | 500 words | 1-5, 8, 9 | Written Feedback |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
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100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
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Creative response or detailed project plan | 70 | 2000 words or equivalent (as per Humanities Assessment Recommendations) by agreement with tutor | 1-9 | Written feedback |
Annotated Bibliography | 20 | 1000 words (excluding book titles and references) describing how 7-12 pieces of scholarship have influenced the creative response or project plan | 1-9 | Written feedback |
Seminar participation | 10 | N/A | 4, 6, 8 | Written feedback |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
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Creative response or detailed project plan - 2000 words or equivalent (as per Humanities Assessment Recommendations) by agreement with tutor | 2000-word (or equivalent) creative response or detailed project plan | 1-9 | Referral/Deferral period |
Reflective Report (500 words) | 500 words reflecting on the coursework and seminar participation | 1-9 | Referral/Deferral period |
Seminar participation | Repeat study or Mitigation | 4, 6, 8 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Where you have been referred/deferred for one of the reflective blog posts you will be given a further practical exercise and required to write a 500 word reflective post.
Where you have been referred/deferred for the essay, you will have the opportunity to submit another essay from a list of approved topics.
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Primary reading and materials:
- Caryl Phillips, A Distant Shore (London: Secker and Warburg, 2003)
- Andrea Levy, Small Island (London: Headline, 2010)
- Web Archive of Ajamu X: https://www.ajamu-studio.com/
- Sons of Kemet, Your Queen is a Reptile (Impulse Records, 2018)
General secondary reading:
- Hakim Adi (ed.), Black British History: New Perspectives (London: Pluto, 2019)
- Kehinde Andrews and Lisa Amanda Palmer (eds.), Blackness in Britain (London: Routledge, 2016)
- David A. Bailey, Ian Baucom, Sonia Boyce, Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2005)
- Houston A. Baker, Manthia Diawara, and Ruth Lindeborg, Black British Cultural Studies: A Reader (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996)
- Chamion Caballero and Peter Aspinall, Mixed Race Britain in the Twentieth Century (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
- Paul Gilroy, There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, repr. 2015)
- Eva Ulrike Pirker, Narrative Projections of a Black British History (London: Routledge, 2012)
- John Solomos, Race and Racism in Britain (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1993)
- Mark Stein and Susheila Nasta, The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020)
Credit value | 15 |
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Module ECTS | 7.5 |
Module pre-requisites | None |
Module co-requisites | None |
NQF level (module) | 4 |
Available as distance learning? | No |
Origin date | 08/07/2021 |
Last revision date | 24/05/2023 |