Syllabus

Class: Monday – 3:30-6:15
Office hours: Tuesday – 3:00-5:00 (and by appointment)
Teaching assistant: Annie Sansonetti (as10416@nyu.edu)

Emerging predominantly from Latin America, ‘decolonial’ studies call attention to the fact that coloniality is not only not over, not post, but that it permeates almost all aspects of our lives: subjectivity, race, gender, language, as well as our epistemologies and pedagogies. This course will examine some of the basic elements of coloniality and the theories and practices that scholars and artists have developed to contest ongoing practices of “epistemicide.” Readings start with Columbus’ First letter (1493) and the Requerimiento (1513) and fast forward to works by Quijano, Sousa Santos, Dussel, Mignolo, Rivera Cusicanqui, Juan López Inztin, Wynter and others. While the course focuses on decolonial struggles coming out of the Americas, students will be invited to question the geographies of thought that place Caribbean theorists (Fanon, Césaire, Hall etc) in debates about colonialism that all but exclude the Americas. This syllabus is a work in progress, to be fully developed in class by all of us. Groups will be asked to propose suggestions of texts, practices, and performance that engage their projects as the course proceeds (weeks 9, 10, 11).

WEEK 1. Monday September 10
Theories: Coming into Presence
Christopher Columbus, “First Letter”
Juan López de Palacios Rubios, “El Requerimiento/Spanish Requirement of 1513”
Enrique Dussel, The Invention of the Americas (pp. 1-72)
Diana Taylor, “Scenarios of Discovery: Reflections on Performance and Ethnography”
Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Coco Fusco, The Couple in the Cage (video)

Discussion topics: Race, Gender, Sexuality, Ethnicity

WEEK 2. Monday September 17
Theories: Coming into Presence (Ontology)
Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, “Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: An Introduction”
Mabel Moraña, Enrique D. Dussel, and Carlos A. Jáuregui, “Colonialism and Its Replicants”

Website overview and tutorial with Lex Taylor (alexeitaylor@gmail.com).

WEEK 3. Saturday September 22 (Make up class for Oct 8)
Practices
Boal workshop with George Emilio Sanchez
12-4pm, PS Studio

Please wear comfortable clothes.

See Boal explaining TOP at the Hemi Encuentro in Rio de Janeiro, 2000: https://hidvl.nyu.edu/video/000540819.html

WEEK 4. Monday September 24
Pedagogies/Practices
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed (NYU bookstore/Spanish version)
Aimé Césaire, “From Discourse on Colonialism”
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, “The Language of African Literature”

WEEK 5. Monday October 1
Theories
Aníbal Quijano, “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America”
Achille Mbembe, “Necropolitics”
Silvia Rivera Cuisicanqui, “The Potosí Principle: Another View of Totality”

WEEK 6. Monday October 8

NO CLASS/NYU HOLIDAY

Create class working groups and projects.

WEEK 7. Monday October 15
Theories: Epistemologies
Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, “Ch’ixinakax utxiwa: A Reflection on the Practices and Discourses of Decolonization”
Juan López Intzín, “Sp’ijilal O’tan: Knowledges and Epistemologies of the Heart”
Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Epistemologies from the South
Ramón Grosfoguel, “The Structure of Knowledge in Westernized Universities”
Walter Mignolo, “Delinking”
Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies (ch. 1-3)

Discuss working groups and projects. 1000 word collaborative research outline due. Each WG will design and lead a 40 minute class discussion/presentation on November 26 and December 3.

WEEK 8. Monday October 22
Pedagogies/Practices
Guest: Jesusa Rodríguez
Jesusa Rodríguez, 500 Years of Resistance and Pedagogy of Stones

Please wear comfortable clothes and bring a stone.

WEEK 9. Monday October 29
Theories: Necropolitics/Necroresistance—Decolonial Intersections—New Geographies of Knowledge
Diana Taylor, ¡Presente!
Octavio Paz, “Mexican Masks”(Ninguneo/unmaking the ‘self’)
Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
Tomson Highway, “The Place of the Indigenous Voice in the 21st Century”
Thomas Scheff, “Shame as the Master Emotion in Modern Societies”
Diana Taylor, “We Have Always Been Queer”

Discussion topic: Coming into Absence/Coming into Presence/Race, Gender, Sexuality

WEEK 10. Monday November 5
Theories: Epistemologies
Guest: Cathy Davidson
Cathy Davidson, The New Education (NYU bookstore)

WEEK 11. Monday November 12
Oswald de Andrade, “The Cannibalist Manifesto”
Eduardo Viveros de Castro, “CannibalMetaphysics”
Diana Taylor, “Dead Capital: Teatro da Vertigem, Bom Retiro”

WEEK 12. Monday November 19
Topics TBD—General class discussion

WEEK 13. Monday November 26
Class Presentations

WEEK 14. Monday December 3
Class Presentations

WEEK 15. Monday December 10
Finalize and present web project

Class expectations:
Students must attend all classes and do all the readings in advance of class. Short comments (150-250 words) to the assigned readings must be posted by Sunday at 3:00pm before the Monday class convenes to discuss them. Unexcused absences or failure to post the reading responses on time will result in a lower grade. One 1000 word group outline of the collaborative topic (along with a detailed breakdown of who will do what) will be due on Oct 15, and one collaborative digital final project will be due by December 10. Students will work in groups, and be responsible for a class presentation (40 minutes per group) on the topic of their final project for class feedback. Please feel free to meet or contact me to discuss final projects. Grading breakdown: Final presentation and project = 50% and weekly attendance, participation, and postings = 50%.

Assigned Texts will be online or on order at the NYU bookstore.

a. Departmental attendance policy
“Students are expected to comply with departmental attendance policy, which can be found here ”

b. Moses Center information
“The Henry and Lucy Moses Center for Students with Disabilities functions to determine qualified disability status and to assist students in obtaining appropriate accommodations and services. Services provided are designed to encourage independence and self-advocacy, backed by a comprehensive system of supports. Email: mosescsd@nyu.edu. Phone: (212) 998-4980.”

c. NYU Wellness exchange number/info
“The Wellness Exchange is your key to accessing the University’s extensive health and mental health resources designed to address your needs. You can call a private hotline (212-443-9999), available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which will put you in touch with a professional who can help to address day-to-day challenges as well as other health-related concerns. The hotline is also available if you just need to talk or want to call about a friend.”

d. NYU Bias response hotline
“The New York University Bias Response Line provides a mechanism through which members of our community can share or report experiences and concerns of bias, discrimination, or harassing behavior that may occur within our community. Email: bias.response@nyu.edu. Phone; (212) 998-2277.”