New MALAS Seminar, Spring 2023 with Professor Taharka Adé, AFRICAN CIVILIZATION II

Art by Bruce Onobrakpeya

AFRICAN CIVILIZATION II 

(AFRAS 521 & MALAS 600C)

Mondays + Wednesdays, 1:00-1:50 PM

Professor Taharka Adé

 

This course serves as an intensive investigation into the rise and fall of several major African Civilizations. Civilizations and periods will normally include the Sudanic empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, as well as the histories of more modern societies such as the Yoruba, Xhosa, and Asante. Emphasis will be placed on African agency, showing the evolution of the peoples, nations, and their civilizations at different places and times within the long history of Africa.

 

Bio: Dr. Taharka Adé is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies. Adé obtained both his M.A. and Ph.D in Africology from Temple University. His research interest is primarily the development of comparative analyses between various African and African diaspora cultural phenomena. 

 

New Spring 2023 MALAS 585 Class Open to Juniors, Seniors, and Graduate Students! "Seminar in the Histories and Cultures of Skateboarding" with Professor David Kamper

MALAS  585 - Seminar in the Histories 

and Cultures of Skateboarding 
Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30PM - 4:45PM in HH 146 
Professor David Kamper 

Skateboarding is one of the most popular sports/activities in the United States (and beyond) and is a billion dollar industry with millions of participants globally. What makes skateboarding unique and so worthy of study if the way it straddles the line between sports and art, with an electric improvisation of body, space, and style. Moreover, it constitutes a sub-culture, the examination of which teaches us about social interaction, fanaticism, and unwritten ethical codes and cultural values. 

This course will discuss a broad range of phenomenological questions about how skateboarders interact with space, urban built-environments, and aesthetics. It is far more than just a description or appreciation of skateboarding, but rather a course that combines critical analyses of social constructions of race, gender, and class with an advanced understanding of popular culture and how skateboarding relates to all of the above.

Cult[ural] Studies: Cars, California, Mark Dery, and the Ghost in the (Rolling) Machine Hepner Hall, 4pm, Monday December 5, 2022 Professor William Nericcio

MALAS Lecture Series - Fall 2022, A public lecture

"Cult[ural] Studies: Cars, California, Mark Dery, and the Ghost in the (Rolling) Machine"  

Hepner Hall 214, 4pm, Monday December 5, 2022  Professor William Nericcio, Director, MALAS 

 The lecture and discussion are open to the SDSU Community