Please note that class will not take place on Monday, June 23 due to Orientation. This session will be rescheduled during the program. Faculty will provide specific information on make-up sessions.

Class Schedule:

Monday, Wednesday & Thursday, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm

Please note that the scheduling of this class conflicts with Migration, Displacement and Diaspora in the French and North African Context.

This course explores France’s complex racialized colonial history by encouraging students to examine the ways the country helped constitute a racialized colonial empire and the ways it created the conditions to challenge it. The course encourages students to contemplate how France has figured into the creation of the African Diaspora and how diasporic movements for freedom have shaped France. The course will build upon the concept of vernacular landscapes to encourage students to examine how these histories are memorialized, or not, in France today. Topics to be explored will include: the impact of slavery on France, including its port cities including Nantes; the intertwined character of the French and Haitian Revolutions; the convergence of anti-colonial movements in Paris during the interwar period and beyond, and the experiences of Black expatriates in the country during the twentieth century. The course’s location at Reid Hall in Paris will give students ample opportunities to examine the reciprocal impact between France and decolonization and freedom movements.

This course is approved for Global Core at Columbia.

France and the African Diaspora (Global Core)