Course Catalogue

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This course is an introduction to Black Geographies, exploring the different ways that Blackness interacts with space and place. It examines the ways that Black identities have been shaped by and shaped social, political and economic struggles across the world. Students will engage with the complex spatialities of Blackness, from oppression to resistance and radical futures, and encounter all the main theoretical and conceptual developments in contemporary Black Geographies. The course will examine a wide variety of important issues in current global life through the prism of Black spatialities, including the economics of inequality, policing and incarceration, the legacies of colonialism, environmentalism, urban politics and the politics of the future.

2 - 3 hours per week (lectures and seminars) for 10 weeks.

Students should have completed Level 2 Geography at minimum of grade D3

None

A 2500-word essay on a topic to be selected from a list circulated at the beginning of the semester and an unseen 90-minute exam.

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

■ To theorise the different ways that Blackness relates to space.

■ To explore the ways that Black Geographies has challenged the discipline of geography.

■ To develop a critical understanding of specific ways that race, and space are entangled in various socio-political and politico-economic situations across the world.

■ To show the ways that Black geographies opens new possibilities for research methodologies and approaches.

■ To illustrate these issues through reference to concrete examples drawn from the experience of Black people engaged in political, social and economic struggles.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Explain the key concepts and theories that that constitute Black geographies.

■ Understand the distinctive contribution of Black geographies to transforming our understanding of place and space in geography.

■ Be able to crucially discuss different ways of thinking about Blackness and space.

■ Understand the political significance of the entanglement of race and space in various contexts across, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Oceania.

■ Discuss how theories of Blackness relate to issues of epistemology, methodology and ontology in geography.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.