Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Virtual Seminars and Interviews on Poetry and African American Literature


Please join the Project onthe History of Black Writing for a virtual seminar (webinar) with poet NikkiGiovanni on Wednesday, October 16th, 2013 at 10AM CST. Moderator will be Professor Opal Moore (Spelman College) Click on the link for information on how to join the virtual seminar:


This event is the first in a series of virtual seminars to be held this fall as follow-up to the summer's NEH Institute  "Don't Deny My Voice: Reading and Teaching AfricanAmerican Literature."

Please mark your calendars and plan to attend ALL of the upcoming virtual seminars:

Wednesday, October 16th, 2013
11 AM EST 

Tuesday, October 22, 2013
1 PM EST 

Wednesday, November 6th, 2013
3 PM

Friday, November 15th, 2013
5 PM EST 

Tuesday, November 26, 2013
2 PM EST 

December 2013, Date and Time TBA

Monday, October 14, 2013

African Americans in the Appalachia Region




Greetings, Class Community.

I am so grateful that Dr. AnnKingsolver shared the history of African Americans and race relations in Eastern Kentucky and the Appalachian region of the United States with us.  We also benefitted from viewing the movie starring Evelyn Williams about property rights in the Appalachian region. 

Dr. Kingsolver would like to share the notes from the lecture with you. I will load them on Blackboard under course content. She also wanted to make sure that you were aware of the course offerings with the Appalachia Studies Program. The course descriptions will follow.

BUT FIRST, please describe how did Dr. Ann Kingsolver’s lecture affirm, complicate, or change your knowledge of African American life and culture?  Be specific. Consider what you believed about African American culture and slavery in Kentucky and the broader Appalachian region.

Yours truly,

Dr. Hill




A&S 500 (section_): NGOs & the Politics of Humanitarian Aid
Instructor: Sasikumar Balasundaram
Meets: Time, Date, and Classroom TBA
This course will use a critical approach to examine the political nature of humanitarian aid. This course will provide students with a foundation for understanding humanitarian crises, how the international aid communities function, and the role of NGOs in humanitarian crises. Using cross-cultural examples, students will compare and contrast the roles, power, and politics of states and NGOs in humanitarian interventions. This course will offer an opportunity for students to understand development discourses and international aid.  In addition, we will also examine the challenges faced, and damages caused, by humanitarian regimes in the Global South and how aid-receiving communities respond to them. Requirements for undergraduates and graduate students will be different.   



A&S 500 (section_): Global Appalachia
Instructor: Ann Kingsolver
Meets: Time, Date, and Classroom TBA
In this course, we will examine the ways in which Appalachia has always had strong global connections, environmentally, economically, and culturally. Instead of seeing mountain regions as isolated, we will focus on the shared histories and concerns of communities in Appalachia and other mountain regions, including social and economic marginalization, resource extraction, low-wage industries, migration, and environmental challenges. This course will also emphasize what can be learned from global mountain regions about sustainable livelihoods, community identity and action, and social capital at a time when the nation-states that have marginalized mountain communities now face some of the same challenges. There will be different requirements for graduate and undergraduate students in the course.  This semester, the course will focus on water issues in Global Mountain Regions, and students will have the opportunity to communicate directly with students in Global Mountain Regions around the world.


Friday, September 6, 2013

Defining African American Studies and Establishing Roles



Greetings. 

This past week focused on an introduction to African American Studies. 
Using information 
learned in our class community and your previous knowledge, please take a moment to define African American Studies.


Also take a moment to consider your role as a student and/or member of this community. Identify if you are an ally, a student, an advocate, a scholar, a documentarian, a poet, an artist, an activist, an educator and ect. 

Please post your thoughts in the comments section of this blog post. 

Dr. Hill

Friday, August 30, 2013

A Mercy by Toni Morrison: Chapter 1

Greetings, AAS 200.
We also read, reviewed and explored the first chapter of Toni Morrison's A Mercy.  The are several audio clips of the first chapters of A Mercy and an introduction of book on NPR's (National Public Radio)  website.  


Our class discussion considered four aspects of the reading. 
  •  Who is the protagonist of the novel, inclusive of a character description, thoughts and actions?
  •  What is her ancestry, nationality, ethnicity, cultural affiliations, and race?
  •  List three interesting observations about the protagonist.
  •  Consider how these observations confirm, challenge or complicate your previous conceptions of  and previous narratives concerning African Americans in the United States, particularly the colonial period. 
I enjoyed our brief discussion about how slavery may have impacted men and women differently. I also liked how many situated ideas of 'hope'. For example, mobility may have meant better opportunities for slaves.  Great job @ contributors!  

If you have further considerations about the reading or want to add to the discussion, please post.

Yours truly,
Dr. Hill









Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Welcome to the African American and Africana Studies




Greetings, AAS 200.


This course establishes the intellectual context for an examination of the African-American experience; it introduces students to the various approaches scholars use to analyze that experience. This course employs a topical framework which permits focus on issues reflecting the diversity and richness of African-American experience across geographic boundaries.

As we discussed in class, this course will challenge the student to learn in physical and digital environments. We are going to be using an anthology entitled: The African-American Odyssey,Combined Volume (5th Edition) by Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, and Stanley C Harrold in addition to blogs, videos, streamed lectures, archives, open access institutional resources and websites.

If you would like to contact me, I can be reached using the information on the syllabus or via email damaris.hill@uky.edu.  I am excited to learn with you!

Dr. Hill