This place-based course takes its points of departure from the University of Edinburgh’s direct involvement in enslavement and empire, as well as a commitment to the affirmation of Black life. The course begins from the global production of Blackness, Edinburgh’s Black history, and Black methodologies, and then focusses on key topics including racial capitalism, Black ecologies, Black feminist embodiment, Black spatial poetics, abolition and repair, and Black marronage.
To attend to the interdisciplinarity of Black life, students learn from a range of knowledge materials, including academic texts, music, poetry, artworks, archives, and a walking tour. Students’ produce two pieces of work: In the first assignment (assessment), students select a campus location and re-narrate the site-display through its connections to enslavement and empire. In the second assignment (assessment), students build on their previous work, responding to these histories through their original production of a practical project (a site-specific installation or performance) as a spatial intervention that is both critical (informed by Black geographic thought) and creative (informed by Black artistic and creative practices).
victoria ogoegbunam okoye 