Teaching & Learning
Welcome TikTok Students!
The following document includes the schedule and course information for the 2025 TikTok Semester of Black Digital Studies. View the syllabus below to learn more!
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Tuesday, January 28th, 2025: Welcome & Introduction to Black Digital Studies
Thursday, January 30th, 2025: Introducing Authorship in the TikTok Era
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Tuesday, February 4th, 2025: Introducing Keywords in Black Digital Studies
Thursday, February 6th, 2025: The Origins of e-Black Studies
Saturday, February 8th, 2025: The Politics of Platforms
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Tuesday, February 11th, 2025: "Wild Seed in the Machine" - Defining Black Code Studies
Thursday, February 13th, 2025: 21st Century Challenges to Abolition and Activism
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Tuesday, February 18th, 2025: Speculation and Storytelling
Thursday, February 20th, 2025: Black Queer and Femme Digital Praxis
But what would it mean if teaching or rather what we might call the “beyond of teaching” is precisely what one is asked to get beyond, to stop taking sustenance?”
— Fred Moten and Stefano Harney “The University and the Undercommons” p.102
African American Studies 371: Black Digital Studies
In the essay “The University and the Undercommons”, Fred Moten and Stefano Harney discuss disrupting the labor practices of the university and redistributing its resources. In using this space to build a community of teaching and learning, I share these workshops and lectures as a way to get beyond an understanding of the classroom and learning materials as something which only exists within the university or behind a paywall.
To move towards an understanding of the classroom as a space that can exist anywhere and is open to all, each of these videos can be used as an introduction to some of the most prominent research and methods within Black Digital Studies. Use these workshops and lectures within or outside of the classroom to teach, to learn, and to enjoy.
Week 9: Quare Shared Recognition
Interested in performing research on video-sharing platforms such as YouTube and TikTok? This workshop walked the students of “Black Digital Studies” through this process by analyzing the way that I analyze audiences and web series.
As an example of Remix Culture and Remediation, check out the blog to learn more about the in-class discussion and lecture portion of Week 9!
Week 10: Analyzing Video Game Content and Community
By unpacking the article “Replaying Video Game History as a Mixtape of Black Feminist Thought" by TreaAndrea M. Russworm and Samantha Blackmon, this workshop walks students through the role of Black women in video game culture and community, as well as creating their own Mixtape on Gaming. Read more about Race & Identity in Games in the blog section of the site.
Week 11: #transformDH to #BlackDH
In this workshop we learn about the various critiques of the Digital Humanities and what Black Studies offers to research and writing on the digital realm. Specifically, this workshop discusses the digital humanities, the responses to DH work from #transformDH to #BlackDH and how each of these areas can be used to understand the past, present, and future through a discussion of Black Digital Studies. Check out all of the synchronicities in the Week 11: Black to the Future blog post.
Week 12: Digital Research Methods with Hashtags
Through unpacking the report "Beyond the hashtags: #Ferguson, #Blacklivesmatter, and the online struggle for offline justice" by Deen Freelon, Charlton D. McIlwain, and Meredith Clark, as well as the site Documenting the Now, this workshop offers information on the type of research being done on hashtags and social justice. Visit the blog titled “Fight the Power” for more information about this week’s discussion of Hashtag Activism and Black Twitter.
Week 13: Speculative Futures Workshop
Through an analysis of art, media, and activism, this workshop asks the overarching question for the course: What is a Black Digital Future? Building on Casey Fieslers “Black Mirror” Exercise this workshop offers multiple exercises to walk students through imagining Black digital futures, including, but not limited to, creating Vision Boards and Collage, Short Fiction and Essays, Satire and Political Commentary. Visit the blog on Afrofuturism for more information about this week in the course.