Black Cool: The Genealogy of an Idea

Margo Natalie Crawford
Professor of English; Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor for Faculty Excellence: and Director of the Center for Africana Studies

This course is an introduction to black cultural studies. We will focus on theories of the “cool” as black style, black mood, and black resistance to dominant structures. How does the idea of black coolness emerge? How is the style of the black cool shaped by the complex interiority of the black gaze and external, non-black gazes? The course will be an intensive introduction to the types of questions, close readings, and critical thinking that shape the humanities.