Geographies of Black Sound
SOC 330
Spring 2027
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01
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This course examines the relationship between sound and space, exploring how geography can be understood not only through what is visible, but also through what is felt and heard. Taking Black sound as our focus, we will consider how sounds such as Black music, the chatter of Black people gathering, Black laughter, and religious praise transform, contest, and (re) produce space in ways that exceed simple cartographic representation. We will explore how Black sound has been used to challenge dominant spatial regimes, from slow jam nights at queer nightclubs in Chicago to go-go music in Washington, D.C., and Fela Kuti¿s New Afrika Shrine in Lagos. We will trace how sound travels across Black diasporic geographies, bringing distant places and people closer together. Through films such as Babylon (1980), Do the Right Thing (1989), and Rewind & Play (2022), we will explore how sound shapes our understanding of power and possibility in space. We will also examine how music evokes and gives form to Black space through a reading of Caleb Azumah Nelson¿s novel Small Worlds. This class will get loud; we¿ll vibe out, rock out, and allow sound to make physical contact with us. By the end of the course, students will understand how Black sound operates as a geographic praxis that opens up ways of knowing and inhabiting space beyond the dominant colonial and capitalist logics. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS SOC |
| Course Format: Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (Sociology) |
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