Black Studies in/from the Southern Hemisphere, towards a Global Frame

In a chapter entitled “Fanonian Futures,” David Scott points to the difference between the (Frantz) Fanon text that has resonated the most in the Northern Hemisphere — Black Skin, White Masks — and that which seemed most widely read in the South — The Wretched of the Earth, most especially “The Pitfalls of National Consciousness.” The first centers the individual coming into awareness of themselves as a racialized being within a largely white society. The second points to the problem of the political elite and untransformed state in newly independent, majority Black countries. With Scott’s insight on the different Fanons, this seminar serves as a space for thinking through what it means to study Blackness within a global frame rather than a national one, given these divergences between the Global North and the South as spaces of Black Studies and lived experiences, as well as their points of connection.