Digital Diasporas 

Diaspora as a concept can be examined as a distinct community, a geographic positioning, and as a set of social movements and rhetorical practices around dispersion. How does globalization via information technology (mobile devices, Internet, smart-objects), trouble this form of identity-making?

This course explores digital experiences in the Africa Diaspora and discusses the intersection of race and new media. We examine black aesthetics in technology use (voice, mobile devices, Twitter), development of black virtual communities (Instagram, Black Blogosphere), and digital crises and racial panics (#blacklivesmatter, Jenna 6). We will also discuss and critique Africa's 'leap-frogging' into modernity via IT; and older traditions of science and technology emerging out the black experience. 

My students build Web sites and develop video essays for their mid-term and final projects.