Isaac

    Curtis

History from below. To turn the world upside-down.

"You are all together, in the same boat, sailing on the same uncertain sea… "

TEACHING

BABYLON SYSTEM

is a creative, readings-based, writing-intensive course in world history from an Africana Studies perspective. It focuses on how African people and their descendants experienced and resisted slavery, colonialism, and their legacies in Africa and around the world. Topics include the underdevelopment of Africa, slave rebellion in Latin America, the struggle for racial equality in the United States, African liberation movements, class conflict in independent Africa, and the feminist, communist, and surrealist dimensions of Black intellectuals in the twentieth century. Students each write a Guide to the Black Atlantic that includes descriptions of important places and a narrative history of the African diaspora. By synthesizing historical research to narrate Black social and intellectual history, this course will empower students to join in the labor of recovering and sharing the hidden histories of the Black Atlantic, and to learn from scholars who struggled not merely to understand the world, but to change it.

  1. C. L. R. James, A History of Pan-African Revolt
  2. Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
  3. John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800
  4. C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
  5. João José Reis, Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia
  6. W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America: A History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880
  7. Carole Boyce Davies, Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones

THIS WEBSITE

is part of my effort to connect with a community of intellectuals and activists committed to recovering the forgotten histories of common people like our selves. It includes information ABOUT ME, including a brief BIO, an up-to-date CV, and CONTACT information. It also includes more information about my RESEARCH and TEACHING interests. To keep up with my recent & forthcoming publications and presentations, I encourage you to FOLLOW ME to receive updates about my work.