HGS320

Description

Section information text: Why has the African Great Lakes region been the focus of so much global attention? This course's broad look at the region will seek to answer this question by focusing on its political conflicts and specificities. It will center on colonial and postcolonial developments of violence, identity, and space, using timelines of genocide and civil war to examine these themes. Learners will take an interdisciplinary historical and political view, analyzing the intersections of borders, political ideologies, and socially constructed spaces. Historical cases will be used to understand theories of development, genocide, civil war, and struggles for independence. For the purpose of this course, the Great Lakes region label covers: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The region encompasses various ethnic, religious, and political cultures, including both Francophone and Anglophone colonial legacies, and distinct postcolonial realities. This course is reading and writing intensive, and employs a decolonized approach to African Studies.