Movement: Migration, songwriting, and multi-platform storytelling
Instructor: Meklit Hadero
Wednesdays TBD
Presented by the Institute for Diversity in the Arts (IDA), this course delves into the powerful intersection of migration, music and artistic practice, taught by renowned Ethiopian-American vocalist, songwriter, and composer Meklit Hadero, IDA’s 2025 Visiting Artist. Through intimate storytelling, collective study and creative practice, the course will cover migration as a critical, intersectional issue. Participants will engage with various storytelling mediums, including music production and recording, songwriting, podcasting and more to foster a deeper understanding of the role of art in conveying personal and collective histories, as well as shaping public narratives and discourse. The course will explore culture as a world building compass for the process of shaping a more equitable future. This course includes visits from guest artists.
EDUC 389C:Race, Ethnicity, and Language: Black Digital Cultures from BlackPlanet to AI (AFRICAAM 389C, CSRE 385, PWR 194AJB)
Instructor: Adam Banks
3-4 units
Tuesday, Thursday 3:00 PM - 4:20 PM
Letter or Credit / No Credit
This seminar explores the intersections of language and race/racism/racialization in the public schooling experiences of students of color. We will briefly trace the historical emergence of the related fields of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, explore how each of these scholarly traditions approaches the study of language, and identify key points of overlap and tension between the two fields before considering recent examples of inter-disciplinary scholarship on language and race in urban schools. Issues to be addressed include language variation and change, language and identity, bilingualism and multilingualism, language ideologies, and classroom discourse. We will pay particular attention to the implications of relevant literature for teaching and learning in urban classrooms.
DANCE 122:Moving the Message: Reading and Embodying the Works of Audre Lorde (AFRICAST 202, CSRE 202, ENGLISH 287, FEMGEN 201)
Instructor: amara tabor smith
2 units
Tuesday, Thursday 1:30 PM - 2:50 PM
Credit / No Credit
In this course, we will spend time reading, discussing and embodying the work of Black feminist theorist and teacher bell hooks. hook's work focuses on practices rooted in Black feminism, the role of love in revolutionary politics, rescuing ourselves and each other from hegemonic forces, and building the components necessary for a life of liberatory politics. Through a process grounded in movement improvisation, creative writing and expression we will explore how the words and theories of bell hooks can literally move us towards freedom and self recovery. This course is presented by the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, IDA.
In this course students will be introduced to a series of Afro-contemporary dance warm ups and dance combinations that are drawn from a broad range of dance traditions of the African diaspora with a particular focus on Afro Brazilian, Afro Cuban and Haitian dance forms, modern dance techniques, and somatic movement practices. Our study of these dance disciplines will inform the movement vocabulary, technical training, class discussions, and choreography we experience in this course. Students will learn more about the dances and rhythms for the Orishas of Brazil and Cuba, and the Loa of Haiti. Dance combinations will consist of dynamic movement patterns that condition the body for strength, flexibility, endurance, musicality and coordination. Through this approach to our warm ups and class choreography, we will deepen our analysis and understanding of how African diaspora movement traditions are inherently embedded in many expressions of the broadly termed form known as contemporary modern dance.
AFRICAAM 200N: Funkentelechy: Technologies, Social Justice and Black Vernacular Cultures (CSRE 314, EDUC 314, STS 200N)
Instructor: Adam Banks
4-5 units
Tuesday, Thursday 3:00 PM - 4:20 PM
Letter or Credit / No Credit
From texts to techne, from artifacts to discourses on science and technology, this course is an examination of how Black people in this society have engaged with the mutually consitutive relationships that endure between humans and technologies. We will focus on these engagements in vernacular cultural spaces, from storytelling traditions to music and move to ways academic and aesthetic movements have imagined these relationships. Finally, we will consider the implications for work with technologies in both school and community contexts for work in the pursuit of social and racial justice.
UG Reqs: Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 5
Spring
AFRICAAM 200X
Honors Thesis and Senior Thesis Seminar
Required for seniors. Weekly colloquia with AAAS Director and Associate Director to assist with refinement of research topic, advisor support, literature review, research, and thesis writing. Readings include foundational and cutting-edge scholarship in the interdisciplinary fields of African and African American studies and comparative race studies. Readings assist students situate their individual research interests and project within the larger. Students may also enroll in AFRICAAM 200Y in Winter and AFRICAAM 200Z in Spring for additional research units (up to 10 units total). UG Reqs: Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP) Units: 5
Autumn
Wallace, D.
COMPLIT 55N
Black Panther, Hamilton, Diaz, and Other Wondrous Lives (CSRE 55N)
This seminar concerns the design and analysis of imaginary (or constructed) worlds for narratives and media such as films, comics, and literary texts. The seminar's primary goal is to help participants understand the creation of better imaginary worlds - ultimately all our efforts should serve that higher purpose. Some of the things we will consider when taking on the analysis of a new world include: What are its primary features - spatial, cultural, biological, fantastic, cosmological? What is the world's ethos (the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize the world)? What are the precise strategies that are used by the artist to convey the world to us and us to the world? How are our characters connected to the world? And how are we - the viewer or reader or player - connected to the world? Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit. UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 3
Autumn
Saldivar, J.
CSRE 55N
Black Panther, Hamilton, Diaz, and Other Wondrous Lives (COMPLIT 55N)
This seminar concerns the design and analysis of imaginary (or constructed) worlds for narratives and media such as films, comics, and literary texts. The seminar's primary goal is to help participants understand the creation of better imaginary worlds - ultimately all our efforts should serve that higher purpose. Some of the things we will consider when taking on the analysis of a new world include: What are its primary features - spatial, cultural, biological, fantastic, cosmological? What is the world's ethos (the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize the world)? What are the precise strategies that are used by the artist to convey the world to us and us to the world? How are our characters connected to the world? And how are we - the viewer or reader or player - connected to the world? Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit. UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 3
Autumn
Saldivar, J.
DANCE 1
Contemporary Modern I: Liquid Flow
Students in Liquid Flow will participate in a dance and movement class that teaches the fundamentals of dance technique and addresses the way we already dance through the world. By discovering our own movement signatures, and becoming aware of other people's dance, motion, and energy in space, we will transform the way we inhabit flow states, from the dance studio, into everyday life, and ultimately onto the stage. Accompanied by a live DJ, students will develop technique, articulation, flexibility, and grace, to gain freedom while dancing, and mine dance's potential for social transformation and connection. We will draw from various movement traditions and practices, including contemporary modern, ballet, lyrical, Tai chi and yoga, with opportunities to remix other styles. Designed for all levels, we welcome beginners, student movers from diverse dance traditions, athletes, and advanced dancers, who desire more fluidity in their lives. UG Reqs: WAY-CE, way_ce Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 1
An interdisciplinary project-based course to develop dance technique, collaborative choreography, and associated visual and musical arts. The Autumn 24-25 project will draw upon Olympic imagery, contact improvisation, social dance, and other movement forms including martial arts, breakdancing, and track and field. By listening for dances that are yet to be embodied, we will play original games and design rituals that activate our collective strengths. How might we galvanize spontaneous cooperation? How do we leverage competition to raise the bar for creativity and amplify our artistic voice? What is the role of rhythm in physical collaboration? Through this process, we will craft a vision of embodied solidarity. The project will culminate in an intermedia event, performed as part of the Spring 2025 TAPS Dance Mainstage. Chocolate Heads is seeking dancers and movers from all styles and levels of experience; we also welcome creators from other disciplines, including poets, visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, and engineers. WEEK 1: TU 9/24--Intro to Project & CHs Band; THU 9/26--Audition Workshop. Attendance during Week 1 is mandatory; contact instructor, Aleta Hayes (ahayes1@stanford.edu), for further inquiry. UG Reqs: WAY-CE Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 2
Autumn
Hayes, A.
EDUC 389C
Race, Ethnicity, and Language: Anansi in the Machine: Black Oral Traditions and Digital Cultures (AFRICAAM 389C, CSRE 385, PWR 194AJB)
The Race, Ethnicity, and Language seminars explore the intersections of language and race/racism/racialization. This course will examine Black engagements with digital culture as sites for community building, social action and individual and collective identity formation, with a focus on how Black oral traditions are still alive and inform our digital lives. We'll explore Black technology and study phenomena like #BlackTwitter, memes, GIFs, Vine, TikTok, selfie culture, blogging and more. Full course description can be found here: https://pwrcourses.stanford.edu/advanced-elective-writing-and-rhetoric-courses/PWR194AJBanansi UG Reqs: Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 4
Winter
Banks, A.
COMPLIT 51Q
Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (AMSTUD 51Q, CSRE 51Q)
Explorations of how literature can represent in complex and compelling ways issues of difference--how they appear, are debated, or silenced. Specific attention on learning how to read critically in ways that lead one to appreciate the power of literary texts, and learning to formulate your ideas into arguments. Course is a Sophomore Seminar and satisfies Write2. By application only UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2 Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP) Units: 5
In this course students will be introduced to a series of Afro-contemporary dance warm ups and dance combinations that are drawn from a broad range of dance traditions of the African diaspora with a particular focus on Afro Brazilian, Afro Cuban and Haitian dance forms, modern dance techniques, and somatic movement practices. Our study of these dance disciplines will inform the movement vocabulary, technical training, class discussions, and choreography we experience in this course. Students will learn more about the dances and rhythms for the Orishas of Brazil and Cuba, and the Loa of Haiti. Dance combinations will consist of dynamic movement patterns that condition the body for strength, flexibility, endurance, musicality and coordination. Through this approach to our warm ups and class choreography, we will deepen our analysis and understanding of how African diaspora movement traditions are inherently embedded in many expressions of the broadly termed form known as contemporary modern dance. UG Reqs: way_ce Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 1
Spring
Smith, A.
ASNAMST 91A
Asian American Autobiography (AMSTUD 91A, ENGLISH 91A)
This is a dual purpose class: a writing workshop in which you will generate autobiographical vignettes/essays as well as a reading seminar featuring prose from a wide range of contemporary Asian-American writers. Some of the many questions we will consider are: What exactly is Asian-American memoir? Are there salient subjects and tropes that define the literature? And in what ways do our writerly interactions both resistant and assimilative with a predominantly non-Asian context in turn recreate that context? We'll be working/experimenting with various modes of telling, including personal essay, the epistolary form, verse, and even fictional scenarios. UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-EDP Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 5
Winter
Lee, C.
DANCE 108
Hip Hop Choreography: Hip Hop Meets Broadway
What happens when Hip Hop meets "Fosse", "Aida", "Dream Girls" and "In the Heights"?The most amazing collaboration of Hip Hop styles adapted to some of the most memorable Broadway Productions.This class will explore the realm between Hip Hop Dance and the Broadway Stage. Infusing Acting thru dance movement and exploring the Art of Lip Sync thru Hip Hop Dance styles. UG Reqs: WAY-CE, way_ce Grading: Satisfactory/No Credit Units: 1
Spring
Reddick, R.
COMPLIT 348
US-Mexico Border Fictions: Writing La Frontera, Tearing Down the Wall (ILAC 348)
A border is a force of containment that inspires dreams of being overcome, crossed, and cursed; motivates bodies to climb over walls; and threatens physical harm. This graduate seminar places into comparative dialogue a variety of perspectives from Chicana/o and Mexican/Latin American literary studies. Our seminar will examine fiction and cultural productions that range widely, from celebrated Mexican and Chicano authors such as Carlos Fuentes (La frontera de cristal), Yuri Herrera (Señales que precederan al fin del mundo), Willivaldo Delgaldillo (La Virgen del Barrio Árabe), Américo Paredes (George Washington Gómez: A Mexico-Texan Novel), Gloria Anzaldúa (Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza), and Sandra Cisneros (Carmelo: Puro Cuento), among others, to musicians whose contributions to border thinking and culture have not yet been fully appreciated such as Herb Albert, Ely Guerra, Los Tigres del Norte, and Café Tacvba. Last but not least, we will screen and analyze Orson Welles' iconic border films Touch of Evil and Rodrigo Dorfman's Los Sueños de Angélica. Proposing a diverse and geographically expansive view of the US-Mexico border literary and cultural studies, this seminar links the work of these authors and musicians to struggles for land and border-crossing rights, anti-imperialist forms of trans-nationalism, and to the decolonial turn in border thinking or pensamineto fronterizo. It forces us to take into account the ways in which shifts in the nature of global relations affect literary production and negative aesthetics especially in our age of (late) post-industrial capitalism. Taught in English. UG Reqs: Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP) Units: 5
Winter
Saldivar, J.
DANCE 160J
Conjure Art 101: Performances of Ritual, Spirituality and Decolonial Black Feminist Magic (CSRE 160J)
Conjure Art is a movement and embodied practice course looking at the work and techniques of artists of color who utilize spirituality and ritual practices in their art making and performance work to evoke social change. In this course we will discuss the work of artists who bring spiritual ritual in their art making while addressing issues of spiritual accountability and cultural appropriation. Throughout the quarter we will welcome guest artists who make work along these lines, while exploring movement, writing, singing and visual art making. This class will culminate in a performance ritual co-created by students and instructor. UG Reqs: WAY-CE Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 2
Autumn
Smith, A.
AMSTUD 91A
Asian American Autobiography (ASNAMST 91A, ENGLISH 91A)
This is a dual purpose class: a writing workshop in which you will generate autobiographical vignettes/essays as well as a reading seminar featuring prose from a wide range of contemporary Asian-American writers. Some of the many questions we will consider are: What exactly is Asian-American memoir? Are there salient subjects and tropes that define the literature? And in what ways do our writerly interactions both resistant and assimilative with a predominantly non-Asian context in turn recreate that context? We'll be working/experimenting with various modes of telling, including personal essay, the epistolary form, verse, and even fictional scenarios. UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-EDP Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 5
Winter
Lee, C.
AMSTUD 255D
Racial Identity in the American Imagination (AFRICAAM 255, CSRE 255D, HISTORY 255D, HISTORY 355D)
From Sally Hemings to Michelle Obama and Beyonce, this course explores the ways that racial identity has been experienced, represented, and contested throughout American history. Engaging historical, legal, and literary texts and films, this course examines major historical transformations that have shaped our understanding of racial identity. This course also draws on other imaginative modes including autobiography, memoir, photography, and music to consider the ways that racial identity has been represented in American culture. UG Reqs: Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP) Units: 5
Spring
Hobbs, A.
CSRE 255D
Racial Identity in the American Imagination (AFRICAAM 255, AMSTUD 255D, HISTORY 255D, HISTORY 355D)
From Sally Hemings to Michelle Obama and Beyonce, this course explores the ways that racial identity has been experienced, represented, and contested throughout American history. Engaging historical, legal, and literary texts and films, this course examines major historical transformations that have shaped our understanding of racial identity. This course also draws on other imaginative modes including autobiography, memoir, photography, and music to consider the ways that racial identity has been represented in American culture. UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP) Units: 5
Spring
Hobbs, A.
CSRE 201B
The Undocumented Migration Project Exhibition at Stanford (CHILATST 201B)
Are you an artist seeking a greater purpose for you art? Would you like to gain a sense of history and best practices for engaging your community in creative work? nnHuman Rights policy experts and activists, artists and scholars will participate in this (online via Zoom.us) student & community course on contemporary immigration policy and human rights issues.The course is structured around the ideas of art, activism and scholarship as they intersect with the subject of migration. Often considered distinct fields, we will explore the ways they merge together, and engage in dialogue with an array of guests from a multitude of backgrounds.nn In addition to learning about the Hostile Terrain94 project through tagging the identities of lives of those lost along the Sonoran desert and considering the U.S. policy of prevention through deterrence to crossing the U.S. Mexican Border, this class will explore art making with paper as the primary media. Paper with its material qualities can provide diverse and accessible entryways into the processes of inclusion, recordation, and mass participation. Through the interconnecting of the practical task of filling information onto toe tags to create the exhibition at the Anderson Collection, which documents the human remains of migrants identified for the exhibition (Fall 2020) with creating new objects in paper, the projects in this course will discover and recover identity through articulations of identity in paper. UG Reqs: Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP) Units: 3
Autumn
DANCE 45
Freestyle Lab: Improv Strategies from Contemporary to Club (AFRICAAM 45)
In this dance improvisation class, we will develop techniques and practices to cultivate an improvisational practice in dance and domains beyond. This class is an arena for physical and artistic exploration to fire the imagination of dance improvisers and to promote collaborative and interactive intelligence. We will draw upon dance styles and gestural vocabularies, including contemporary dance, hip-hop, vogue and more. Students will learn how to apply these improvisational dance ideas to generate and innovate across disciplines. Accompanied by a live DJ, students will practice listening with eyes, ears, and our whole bodies. Open to students from all dance, movement, and athletic backgrounds. Beginners welcome. UG Reqs: WAY-CE Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 2
Spring
Hayes, A.
CSRE 385
Race, Ethnicity, and Language: Anansi in the Machine: Black Oral Traditions and Digital Cultures (AFRICAAM 389C, EDUC 389C, PWR 194AJB)
The Race, Ethnicity, and Language seminars explore the intersections of language and race/racism/racialization. This course will examine Black engagements with digital culture as sites for community building, social action and individual and collective identity formation, with a focus on how Black oral traditions are still alive and inform our digital lives. We'll explore Black technology and study phenomena like #BlackTwitter, memes, GIFs, Vine, TikTok, selfie culture, blogging and more. Full course description can be found here: https://pwrcourses.stanford.edu/advanced-elective-writing-and-rhetoric-courses/PWR194AJBanansi UG Reqs: Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 4
Winter
Banks, A.
ASNAMST 31N
Behind the Big Drums: Exploring Taiko (MUSIC 31N)
Preference to Freshman. Since 1992 generations of Stanford students have heard, seen, and felt the power of taiko, big Japanese drums, at Admit Weekend, NSO, or Baccalaureate. Taiko is a relative newcomer to the American music scene. The contemporary ensemble drumming form, or kumidaiko, developed in Japan in the 1950s. The first North American taiko groups emerged from the Japanese American community shortly after and coincided with increased Asian American activism. In the intervening years, taiko has spread into communities in the UK, Europe, Australia, and South America. What drives the power of these drums? In this course, we explore the musical, cultural, historical, and political perspectives of taiko through readings and discussion, conversations with taiko artists, and learn the fundamentals of playing. With the taiko as our focal point, we find intersections of Japanese music, Japanese American history, and Asian American activism, and explore relations between performance, cultural expression, community, and identity. UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 3
What are the roles of sex, sexuality, intimacy, and relationships in my life? How do I tell a compelling story? In this class, you will learn about these topics from the inside out. We will explore various perspectives on sexuality, intimacy, and relationships and then dive into our own stories to discover the richness and vibrancy of our lived experience. Due to the personal nature of the topic, we will emphasize safety, trust, and confidentiality throughout. The class offers the structure and guidance to 1) mine your life for stories, 2) craft the structure and shape of your stories, and 3) perform with presence, authenticity, and connection. Students will be selected from this class to tell their stories in Beyond Sex Ed. IMPORTANT: We can only accept students who can commit to being available for NSO Sept 14-18, 2025. As such, priority will be given to underclassmen and students returning to campus in the fall. Please fill out this short application for enrollment: bit.ly/Spring2025StoryCraft. UG Reqs: WAY-CE Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 2
Spring
Booth, B.
FEMGEN 314
Performing Identities (TAPS 314)
This course examines claims and counter-claims of identity, a heated political and cultural concept over the past few decades. We will consider the ways in which theories of performance have offered generative discursive frameworks for the study of identities, variously shaped by vectors of race, gender, sexuality, religion, class, nation, ethnicity, among others. How is identity as a social category different from identity as a unique and personal attribute of selfhood? Throughout the course we will focus on the inter-locking ways in which certain dimensions of identity become salient at particular historical conjunctures. In addition, we will consider the complex discourses of identity within transnational and historical frameworks. Readings include Robin Bernstein, Ann Pellegrini, Tavia Nyong'o, Jose Munoz, Michael Taussig, Wendy Brown, Talal Asad, Jasbir Puar, among others. UG Reqs: Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 5
Spring
Brody, J.
STS 200N
Funkentelechy: Technologies, Social Justice and Black Vernacular Cultures (AFRICAAM 200N, CSRE 314, EDUC 314)
From texts to techne, from artifacts to discourses on science and technology, this course is an examination of how Black people in this society have engaged with the mutually consitutive relationships that endure between humans and technologies. We will focus on these engagements in vernacular cultural spaces, from storytelling traditions to music and move to ways academic and aesthetic movements have imagined these relationships. Finally, we will consider the implications for work with technologies in both school and community contexts for work in the pursuit of social and racial justice. UG Reqs: Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 5
What are the roles of sex, sexuality, intimacy, and relationships in my life? How do I tell a compelling story? In this class, you will learn about these topics from the inside out. We will explore various perspectives on sexuality, intimacy, and relationships and then dive into our own stories to discover the richness and vibrancy of our lived experience. Due to the personal nature of the topic, we will emphasize safety, trust, and confidentiality throughout. The class offers the structure and guidance to 1) mine your life for stories, 2) craft the structure and shape of your stories, and 3) perform with presence, authenticity, and connection. Students will be selected from this class to tell their stories in Beyond Sex Ed. IMPORTANT: We can only accept students who can commit to being available for NSO Sept 14-18, 2025. As such, priority will be given to underclassmen and students returning to campus in the fall. Please fill out this short application for enrollment: bit.ly/Spring2025StoryCraft. UG Reqs: WAY-CE Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 2
Spring
Booth, B.
ENGLISH 91A
Asian American Autobiography (AMSTUD 91A, ASNAMST 91A)
This is a dual purpose class: a writing workshop in which you will generate autobiographical vignettes/essays as well as a reading seminar featuring prose from a wide range of contemporary Asian-American writers. Some of the many questions we will consider are: What exactly is Asian-American memoir? Are there salient subjects and tropes that define the literature? And in what ways do our writerly interactions both resistant and assimilative with a predominantly non-Asian context in turn recreate that context? We'll be working/experimenting with various modes of telling, including personal essay, the epistolary form, verse, and even fictional scenarios. UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-EDP Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 5
Winter
Lee, C.
HISTORY 255D
Racial Identity in the American Imagination (AFRICAAM 255, AMSTUD 255D, CSRE 255D, HISTORY 355D)
From Sally Hemings to Michelle Obama and Beyonce, this course explores the ways that racial identity has been experienced, represented, and contested throughout American history. Engaging historical, legal, and literary texts and films, this course examines major historical transformations that have shaped our understanding of racial identity. This course also draws on other imaginative modes including autobiography, memoir, photography, and music to consider the ways that racial identity has been represented in American culture. UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP) Units: 5
Spring
Hobbs, A.
HISTORY 355D
Racial Identity in the American Imagination (AFRICAAM 255, AMSTUD 255D, CSRE 255D, HISTORY 255D)
From Sally Hemings to Michelle Obama and Beyonce, this course explores the ways that racial identity has been experienced, represented, and contested throughout American history. Engaging historical, legal, and literary texts and films, this course examines major historical transformations that have shaped our understanding of racial identity. This course also draws on other imaginative modes including autobiography, memoir, photography, and music to consider the ways that racial identity has been represented in American culture. UG Reqs: Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP) Units: 5
Spring
Hobbs, A.
ILAC 348
US-Mexico Border Fictions: Writing La Frontera, Tearing Down the Wall (COMPLIT 348)
A border is a force of containment that inspires dreams of being overcome, crossed, and cursed; motivates bodies to climb over walls; and threatens physical harm. This graduate seminar places into comparative dialogue a variety of perspectives from Chicana/o and Mexican/Latin American literary studies. Our seminar will examine fiction and cultural productions that range widely, from celebrated Mexican and Chicano authors such as Carlos Fuentes (La frontera de cristal), Yuri Herrera (Señales que precederan al fin del mundo), Willivaldo Delgaldillo (La Virgen del Barrio Árabe), Américo Paredes (George Washington Gómez: A Mexico-Texan Novel), Gloria Anzaldúa (Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza), and Sandra Cisneros (Carmelo: Puro Cuento), among others, to musicians whose contributions to border thinking and culture have not yet been fully appreciated such as Herb Albert, Ely Guerra, Los Tigres del Norte, and Café Tacvba. Last but not least, we will screen and analyze Orson Welles' iconic border films Touch of Evil and Rodrigo Dorfman's Los Sueños de Angélica. Proposing a diverse and geographically expansive view of the US-Mexico border literary and cultural studies, this seminar links the work of these authors and musicians to struggles for land and border-crossing rights, anti-imperialist forms of trans-nationalism, and to the decolonial turn in border thinking or pensamineto fronterizo. It forces us to take into account the ways in which shifts in the nature of global relations affect literary production and negative aesthetics especially in our age of (late) post-industrial capitalism. Taught in English. UG Reqs: Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP) Units: 5
Winter
Saldivar, J.
MUSIC 31N
Behind the Big Drums: Exploring Taiko (ASNAMST 31N)
Preference to Freshman. Since 1992 generations of Stanford students have heard, seen, and felt the power of taiko, big Japanese drums, at Admit Weekend, NSO, or Baccalaureate. Taiko is a relative newcomer to the American music scene. The contemporary ensemble drumming form, or kumidaiko, developed in Japan in the 1950s. The first North American taiko groups emerged from the Japanese American community shortly after and coincided with increased Asian American activism. In the intervening years, taiko has spread into communities in the UK, Europe, Australia, and South America. What drives the power of these drums? In this course, we explore the musical, cultural, historical, and political perspectives of taiko through readings and discussion, conversations with taiko artists, and learn the fundamentals of playing. With the taiko as our focal point, we find intersections of Japanese music, Japanese American history, and Asian American activism, and explore relations between performance, cultural expression, community, and identity. UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit Units: 3
