In her groundbreaking book Race After Technology (2019), sociologist Ruha Benjamin asserts that we must understand "race as technology." That is, race and racism are tools specifically designed to divide, rank, and discriminate. To see race as technology is to expose how our social infrastructure has been built on anti-Black racism, a reality further reflected in emerging technologies that perpetuate racial biases and injustices, from predictive policing to computer-aided diagnosis systems. In this course, we will investigate the multifaceted relationship between race and technology as we analyze works of African American literature and film - ranging from Harriet Jacobs in the 19th century to Octavia Butler and Ryan Coogler in the 20th and 21st - through an Afrofuturist lens. How do we define "technology" in the context of the African American literary tradition? What are the various roles and functions of technology presented in these texts? Can we understand particular Black storytelling and filmic techniques as technologies themselves designed to decode social systems and structures? To what ends have contemporary Afrofuturist texts reinterpreted and reclaimed technology through a Black and/or African lens? Placing our primary texts in conversation with thinkers like W.E.B. Du Bois and Christina Sharpe, we will explore these questions and more throughout this course.(Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact farrahm@stanford.edu.)
5 units · Letter (ABCD/NP)
In her groundbreaking book Race After Technology (2019), sociologist Ruha Benjamin asserts that we must understand "race as technology." That is, race and racism are tools specifically designed to divide, rank, and discriminate. To see race as technology is to expose how our social infrastructure has been built on anti-Black racism, a reality further reflected in emerging technologies that perpetuate racial biases and injustices, from predictive policing to computer-aided diagnosis systems. In this course, we will investigate the multifaceted relationship between race and technology as we analyze works of African American literature and film - ranging from Harriet Jacobs in the 19th century to Octavia Butler and Ryan Coogler in the 20th and 21st - through an Afrofuturist lens. How do we define "technology" in the context of the African American literary tradition? What are the various roles and functions of technology presented in these texts? Can we understand particular Black storytelling and filmic techniques as technologies themselves designed to decode social systems and structures? To what ends have contemporary Afrofuturist texts reinterpreted and reclaimed technology through a Black and/or African lens? Placing our primary texts in conversation with thinkers like W.E.B. Du Bois and Christina Sharpe, we will explore these questions and more throughout this course.(Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact farrahm@stanford.edu.)