image courtesy of S.Fosso AFRICA
REMIX
ANG 6930
sec. 9535
Seminar
in African Studies
Genealogies
of Contemporary Africanist Ethnography
Spring 2006
M per 8-10, CBD 338
Dr. Brenda Chalfin
Department
of Anthropology
441
Grinter, 392-2427
What are the prevailing
concerns of the anthropologies of the African present? How do they depart from
or draw upon earlier anthropological inquiries? What are the socio-cultural
preoccupations of these works and what interpretative and representational
strategies do they employ?
Drawing on an array of new ethnographies published
in the last few years as well as several works in progress, the seminar seeks
to chart the major theoretical turns and topical preoccupations of contemporary
ethnographic research in
Along with the substantive and theoretical claims
of the course reading, the class will attend to issues of ethnographic investigation,
writing and analysis—how authors work from theory to data to narrative claim. We
will likewise probe the histories of our chosen authors and texts to consider the
intellectual and interpersonal milieu from which they emerged. Course
assignments will require book reviews, intellectual genealogies, synthetic
essays and class presentations.
Required
Texts:
1.
J. Ferguson, Global Shadows:
2.
D. Smith, A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent
in
3.
H. West, Kupilikula;
Governance and the Invisible Realm in
4.
K. Geurts, Culture and the Senses, Culture and the Senses: Bodily Ways of
Knowing in an African Community,
5.
C. Bledsoe, Contingent Lives: Fertility, Time and Aging in West Africa,
6.
J. Elyachar, Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, Economic Development and the
State in
7. MF Plissart and F. de Boeck, Kinshasa:
Tales of the Invisible City Ludion, 2006
8.
Veit Erlmann, Nightsong: performance, power, and practice in
Please
purchase these texts on-line. Whenever possible, copies of the texts will also
be placed on course reserve at Library West. Additional reading material will
be made available in electronic format. If you have trouble accessing any of
the texts or supplementary reading please contact the instructor immediately.
Course
Requirements:
1
Bibliographic Brief (5%)
3
book reviews (10% each)
1
Intellectual Genealogy and Presentation (20%)
Review
Essay (2 @ 20% each or 1 @ 40%)
Participation
(5%)
Book
reviews are due on the date of class discussion. No late reviews will be
accepted. Students will prepare an intellectual genealogy of a chosen author
(s) to be presented and distributed to the class. This should include an
overview of the author’s education and occupational background, research interests
and field experience along with a list of their (or related) publications and
brief discussion of content.
Class
attendance and participation are required. The UF Academic Honesty policy
applies to all students (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/academic.htm).
Course Schedule
1. Jan 7 Introduction
2. Jan 14 Ethnographic
Departures
S.F.
Moore, Changing Perspectives on a Changing
C.
Geertz, Interpretation of Cultures, Basic, 1973. Ch.1 Thick Description,
p. 3-30.
Assignment:
Bibliographic Brief With
Jan 21 ML King Holiday NO
CLASS MEETING
3. Jan 28 Governance 1:
National and International Reconfigurations
J.
Ferguson, Global Shadows:
C.
Nordstrom, 2000, Shadows and Sovereigns, Theory,
Culture and Society, 17/4, 35-54. electronic.
A. Mbembe, At the Edge of the World: Boundaries,
Territoriality and Sovereignty in
J.
Roitman, Fiscal Disobedience,
Power
is not sovereign : the pluralisation of economic regularity authority in the
4. Feb 4 Governance 1: Culture,
Society and the Polity
D.
Smith, A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in
A.
Mbembe, 1992, Provisional Notes on the Post-colony,
G.
Anders, Corruption and the Law in
5. Feb 11Governance 2:
Intertwining Publicity and Secrecy
H. West, Kupilikula;
Governance and the Invisible Realm in
M. Ferme, Introduction, The Underneath of
Things,
UF Center for African
Studies CARTER CONFERENCE
New Perspectives on
Migration and Mobility in
Feb 18 Research Day NO
CLASS MEETING
6. Feb 25 Embodiment 1:
Cultural and Historical Logics
K.
Geurts, Culture and the Senses: Bodily Ways of Knowing in an African
Community,
P.
Stoller, 1994, Embodying Colonial Memories, American Anthropologist,
96/3, 634-648. electronic.
M.
Lambek, 1998, The Sakalave poiesis of history, American
Ethnologist, 25/2, 106-127. electronic.
7. Mar 3 Embodiment 2:
Agency and the Life-cycle
C.
Bledsoe, Contingent Lives: Fertility, Time and Aging in West Africa,
Mar 10 Spring Break NO
CLASS MEETING
8. Mar 17 Embodiment 3: Epidemics, Development and Dispossession
J.
Elyachar, Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, Economic Development and the State
in
V
K Nguyen,“Antiretroviral globalism, biopolitics, and therapeutic citizenship.”
In A Ong and S Collier, eds, Global Assemblage. Blackwell, 2005. electronic.
V.K.
Nguyen, “Uses and pleasures: sexual modernity, hiv/aids and confessional
technologies in a West African metropolis.” In Vincanne Adams and Stacey Leigh
Pigg, editors, The Moral Object of Sex. Duke, 2005. electronic.
K.
Peterson, AIDS policies for markets and warriors, unpublished paper. electronic.
9. Mar 25 Locations 1:
Urbanities
M.F.
Plissart, F. de boeck, 2006, Kinshasa: Tales of the Invisible City,
Ludion.
A.
Mbembe, 2004, Aesthetics of Superfluity, Public Culture. 16/3, 373-405.
electronic.
D. Hoffman, 2007, The City Barracks:
10. Mar 31 Locations 2:
Mobilities
Veit
Erlmann, Nightsong: performance, power, and practice in
J.
Shipley, Living the Hiplife, dvd
A.
Mohr, Pentecostal Performance in the Ghanaian Diaspora, unpublished paper. electronic.
11 Apr 7 Locations 3: Ecologies
M.
Leach and J. Fairhead, Misreading the African Landscape,
C.
Walley, Rough Waters: Nature and Development in an
David McDermott Hughes, From Enslavement to Environmentalism: Politics on a
Southern African Frontier,
April 14 Research Day NO
CLASS MEETING
DR.
CHALFIN AWAY
April 21 Presentations
and Wrap-up