From the South to Mars!
How does one depart from the Global South and reach Mars in 12 weeks? Well, we had an answer! By ‘we’ I mean me and my 61 inquisitive and amazing students!
The second week of April marked the end of my module SO627 Sociology of the Global South. I designed this module as a reaction to Trump’s election to overcome my ‘mid-(academic)-life crisis’ (of course Brexit and a global reemergence of populism also played a part). The module ran for the first time in the week of Biden’s inauguration. As you can see from the syllabus below, all the students signed up to a pretty ambitious agenda. The module started with the classic question: ‘can the subaltern speak?’ I was so impressed by how engaged everyone was on this module, for through their seminar discussions, they’ve expanded the scope even further!
So it is only fitting to conclude this module with this Grammy-BRIT-AFRIMMA Awards worthy Spotify playlist – it’s a list of music they referred to in their seminar presentations. Each piece bears an investigation and/or response to epistemic injustice. The sheer diversity both in style and in substance is stunning. The album cover is a collage of their ‘graffiti’ on Teams during the week we discussed alternative political expressions.
Click on the image, and it will lead you to the playlist. Enjoy!
In the meantime, I’m going to start drafting ‘SO627 Season 2’…
Joy Zhang 