UW-Milwaukee’s global studies department announced that it will offer a course studying the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. and globally as an online class for the Spring 2022 semester.
“Global Studies 391: Black Lives Matter, A Comparative Study” is an interdisciplinary course taught in three-week modules by five different instructors, all of whom are Black, focusing on different countries.
The class is meant to build on material from previous courses which study the foundations of race and racism. For this reason, students must be of at least junior standing to enroll, according to the schedule of classes.
“[This course focuses on] Not just the situation– the state of blackness globally– but what are people doing to make a difference, what are people doing to make a change,” Ermitte Jacques, one of the course’s instructors said. “I think that’s important. I think that’s empowering. We need to leave students with that.”
Students should expect the course to include more open-ended assignments, such as reflections and discussions, than homework assignments and tests, according to the syllabus.
The course will be broken into five modules, each taught by a different professor: First, Portia Cobb will focus on Australia, followed by Jennifer Kibicho on South Africa, Ermitte Saint Jacques on Spain, David Pate on the United Kingdom and, finally, Gladys Mitchell-Walthour will instruct on Brazil.
Topics covered will include Blackness and Black movements in cinema, the economics of racism, African migration and the social construction and social hierarchy of race and Black music.
“It’s a way of really helping students to understand how racism and anti-blackness operate in diverse regions of the world and how activists have worked to fight against those things,” said Caroline Seymour-Jorn, the director of the Global Studies Department.
Those involved with the course say that the university has been supportive.
“We did actually write to our chancellor and let him know we were going to teach the course, and we let him know that there could be some backlash, and he was very supportive of us,” said Seymour-Jorn, who assisted in the planning of the course. “He felt that the course is very much within the mission of the university to educate the public—to educate our students—about our society.”
This comes after the Wisconsin State Legislature passed a bill limiting how race and racism are taught in public schools.
Although the concept is not mentioned by name, Assembly Bill 411 is part of a national movement against critical race theory in schools
Jacques, who teaches in the department of African and African diaspora studies, said that students do not generally come to college with a good understanding of race and racism in America or globally.
“I think one of the issues is what is being taught in high school and elementary schools,” Jacques said. “In my class Psychological Effects of Racism (a 200-level course), I begin with the idea that people don’t know anything.”
Seymour-Jorn said that Global Studies 391 has a place within the university’s mission.
“It’s my personal and professional view that it’s part of the university’s role to have these sorts of hard discussions even when there may be cultural or social trends against them,” Seymour-Jorn said. “We have to be part of that larger, humanistic project – understanding all people regardless of their race or culture.”
The announcement of this course also comes after UWM held a forum following the circulation of a video where a UWM student made racist and homophobic statements and used slurs.
Jacques said that she believes in building a racial dialogue, and that this course, among others, does that.
“As an educator, I think people should have [the opportunity to learn and grow],” Jacques said. “At the same time, we need to recognize that what that person did was hurtful and say, ‘I’m sorry, what I did was hurtful’.”
The idea for the course originated in the study abroad department, inspired by conversations on campus about race and racial justice. A group of administrators applied for a state department grant called the IDEAS grant (Increasing Diversity in Education Abroad for American Students), according to Seymour-Jorn.
Following the course, there will be a study abroad opportunity in Bristol, U.K. The decision was driven by the city’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, as will be taught in the fourth section of the course by Pate.
“I look at this as an opportunity to get more students of color to study abroad,” Jacques said.
One section of the course will be offered online with 40 seats on Mondays from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Future sections of the course may be offered, depending on demand and faculty availability,” according to Christine Wolf, the assistant director of Global and International Studies.
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