This course introduces public and digital humanities through the life and work of noted journalist, food anthropologist, and public broadcaster Vertamae Grosvenor. Public Humanities is concerned with expanding academic discourse beyond academia and facilitating conversations on topics of humanistic inquiry with the community-at-large. Digital studies provide a plethora of unconventional ways to engage community in public dialogues for the greater good. Drawing from books, operas, NPR/audio segments, interviews, cookbooks and other artifacts of Grosvenor, the seminar will engage in ways to create and curate a digital archive. Themes to be discussed include Gullah Culture, African American migration, foodways, memoir, public memory and monuments. Leading theories and methods of black feminism, material culture, race, food studies, new media and digital humanities will be foregrounded.
The course is cross-listed with African American Studies, American Cultural Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Digital Computation Studies