Co-ordinator Of Centre :
Professor Epsita Halder,Coordinator || Professor Debashree Dattaray, Deputy Coordinator.
Ph: 2414-6690 (D), 2414-6666 (O)
Extn:2457-2149
Address: Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University

Major objectives

• A forum for the study of African cultures in the state, and later across the country.
• Facilitate South-South linkages by establishing academic relationships with African nations in terms of exchange, research and other modes of cooperation.
• Conducting research on literatures and cultures of Africa, within Africa and across the world.
• Establishing institutional and inter-departmental links for research.
• Building resources for African literary and cultural studies.

Courses offered:

• The Centre is housed in the Department of Comparative Literature and offers a course in Literatures of Africa as an optional in the third and fourth semesters of the MA programme.
• Four Extra Departmental courses in the cultures of the African Diaspora, including North America, Latin America and the Caribbeans, entitled African Cultures across the World to Undergraduate students of the Arts Faculty. In the four semesters, the Centre offers courses in Music, Poetry, Drama and Narrative respectively.
• Syllabi for two more Extra Departmental courses in African Cultures across the World have been approved by the academic committee of the Centre for Studies in African Literatures and Cultures, and has been passed by the Faculty Council of Arts, which includes:

(1) African Cultures : A History of Dissemination
This course seeks to trace the historical processes by which individuals and communities from Africa were taken across the world to the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean Islands etc. through the Slave Trade and were in subsequent years assimilated into the societies of these countries. The course will mainly focus on the narratives/biographies/autobiographies/memoirs of slaves and first-generation emancipates also giving due accord to other forms of popular black cultural movements and references to treatises, policies and declarations dealing with the education of Slaves.
As a governing logic the course will emphasize the process by which the slaves came to learn the culture and specifically the language of their masters in which they later chose to express and assert themselves.

(2) Africa in the Modern World
This course will focus on the various aspects of culture influenced directly and indirectly by African roots and residues, across the world. The course will be geared towards the understanding the generation and consumption of the African-Some Nationality identity in global media and culture. The course will focus on the impact of Africa in the modern world in fields like cuisine, film, fashion, sports and other spheres of popular culture. Though approved by the academic committee, introduction has been held up due to lack of infrastructure and faculty.

International Conference on African Literatures and Cultures – 23-24 March 2017

PG Syllabus

ED Syllabus