“How has Africa been made to mean?” For a long time, Africa has been depicted in the arts and media as a place of famine and dysfunction. More recently, the continent has been increasingly portrayed as the next frontier for business and artistic innovation. In this episode, we talk with MIT Professor of African Studies M. Amah Edoh about how Africa, as a concept, is produced through cultural practices--things like music, film, theatre, clothing, etc. She shares how she engages MIT students with this concept in 21G.026 Global Africa: Creative Cultures, a course she’s shared on MIT OpenCourseWare. Topics include how her own experiences with formal education shape how and why she tries to value students’ voices in the classroom, redefining students’ relationships to scholarly texts to make academia feel less alienating, giving students language to articulate relationships of power, encouraging students to experiment with creative cultural production, getting off campus to experience cultural performance in a social context, and living the life of a new faculty member (spoiler alert: it’s a lot like engaging in marathon improvisational theatre, and it’s exhausting!).
Relevant Resources:
MIT OpenCourseWare
The OCW Educator Portal
Professor Edoh’s course on OCW
“The Price of Love” [PDF] (Wedding Project) by Nwamaka Amobi and Gabrielle Ballard
Professor Edoh’s faculty page
Blog post on Professor’s Edoh’s approach to creating a supportive academic culture
Faculty profile: 3 Questions with M. Amah Edoh on Africa and Innovation
Spotify playlist
Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions
Connect with Us
If you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We’d love to hear from you!
On our site
On Facebook
On Twitter
On Instagram
Stay Current
Subscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter.
Connect with Us
If you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We’d love to hear from you!
Call us @ 617-715-2517
On our site
On Facebook
On X
On Instagram
On LinkedIn
Stay Current
Subscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter.
Support OCW
If you like Chalk Radio and OpenCourseware, donate to help keep these programs going!
Credits
Sarah Hansen, host and producer
Brett Paci, producer
Dave Lishansky, producer
Show notes by Peter Chipman
What’s Worth Making? with Prof. Hal Abelson
Everything Here Is Sacred (Terrascope Radio Replay)
The Power of Experience with Dr. Ari Epstein
Economics and Real-World Impact with Dr. Sara Ellison and Prof. Esther Duflo
The Lumpy Universe with Prof. David Kaiser
Reimagining Cities with Prof. David Hsu
The Kitchen Cloud Chamber with Prof. Anne White
Honoring Your Native Language with Prof. Michel DeGraff
Sustainability Education Across Learning Environments with Dr. Liz Potter-Nelson and Sarah Meyers
Teaching Teachers with Dr. Summer Morrill
Communication is the Whole Game with Paige Bright & Prof. Haynes Miller
Opening Computer Science to Everyone with Chancellor Eric Grimson
Seeing Green with Drs. Sandland and Chazot
Well-being is the Goal with Prof. Frank Schilbach
The Greatest Existential Threat with Prof. Robert Redwine and Dr. Jim Walsh
Visualizing Calculus with Professor Gigliola Staffilani
Finding Expertise Everywhere with Prof. M. Amah Edoh
AI Literacy for All with Prof. Cynthia Breazeal
Making Ethical Decisions in Software Design with Prof. Daniel Jackson & Serena Booth
The Human Element in Machine Learning with Prof. Catherine D’Ignazio, Prof. Jacob Andreas & Harini Suresh
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
EconTalk
Real English Conversations Podcast - Learn to Speak & Understand Real English with Confidence!
» Divine Intervention Podcasts
Psychiatry Boot Camp
Cram The Pance