DANC 025A. Dance and Diaspora

(Cross-listed as ANTH 020J)
How do we locate competing claims of globalization, place-ness, and hybridization of cultural identity in a single frame? Dance offers an unconventional but powerful frame for studying such competing claims of identity formation. This course will explore the interrelated themes of performance, gender, personhood, and migration in the context of diasporic experiences. By focusing on specific dance forms from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, we will examine the trajectories of the global and the local in constructing identity and difference. Students will engage with theories on nationalism, transnationalism, and globalization, as well as embodiment and experience. Broadly, the course will investigate the interlocking structures of aesthetics and politics, economics and culture, and history and power, all of which inform and continue to reshape these cultures and their dance forms.

The primary goal for this course is to develop an understanding of cross-cultural identity and difference through the study of dance in contemporary society. The readings will introduce students to the constructed nature of cultural traditions and the contested nature of cultural identities. The writing goals are to teach students how to read critically and write within the disciplines of Anthropology, Dance/Culture Studies, Black Studies, and Global Studies. This course is eligible for credit towards a major or minor in Black Studies.

This is a reading and writing intensive course.
Humanities.
Writing course.
1 credit.
Eligible for ASIA, BLST, GSST, GLBL-Core, ASAM
Fall 2023. Chakravorty.
Fall 2024. Chakravorty.
Catalog chapter: Music and Dance: Dance
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/dance-program

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