Course Schedule and Catalog
Course Schedule - Spring Semester 2022
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
ENGL 279 001 (CRN: 25627)
BLACK SCI-FI
Long Title: BLACK SCI-FI & SPECULATIVE FICTIONS
Department: English
Instructor: Waligora-Davis, Nicole
Meeting: 1:00PM - 2:15PM TR (10-JAN-2022 - 22-APR-2022)
Part of Term: Full Term
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Lecture
Language of Instruction: Taught in English
Distribution Group: Distribution Group I
Method of Instruction: Face to Face
Credit Hours: 3
Course Syllabus:
Course Materials: Rice Campus Store
Restrictions:
Must be enrolled in one of the following Level(s):
Undergraduate Professional
Visiting Undergraduate
Undergraduate
Section Max Enrollment: 20
Section Enrolled: 18
Enrollment data as of: 25-APR-2024 6:53PM
Final Exam: No Final Exam
Final Exam Time:
3-MAY-2022
2:00PM - 5:00PM T
Description: This course examines how black science and speculative fiction worries the division between reality and fantasy; challenges the fictions embedded in our national histories; and underscores the social, economic, and political inequities short-circuiting the lives of brown and black peoples around the world. Focusing on works from Octavia Butler to Victor Levalle, from George Schuyler to Mat Johnson, from John Williams to Colson Whitehead among others, the course engages the ways in which these authors represent the monstrous and grotesque; pandemics, environmental and technological degradation and catastrophe; urbanization, gentrification, and immigration; and (biological/technological) warfare, in order to recalibrate our understanding of the central role race plays in determining both access to, and allocation of, necessary resources. We will track the histories and afterlives of slavery and colonialism that continue to transfigure our society, while also studying varied blueprints for, and critiques of, alternative, more egalitarian societies imagined by these artists.