David Jefferess
Teaching
COURSES 2011-2012
ENGL 341 / CULT 341 – Globalization, Literature, and Culture (Term I)
This course examines literary and cultural theories of globalization and the impact of material and cultural globalization on literary and cultural production. Specifically, the course provides an introduction to postcolonial approaches to culture and globalization. The course is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, but focuses on works of literature and film from Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean, and North America.
Required Texts:
Chris Abani. Graceland (2005)
Sahar Khalifeh. The End of Spring (2008)
Rita Wong. Forage (2007)
Manfred Steger. Globalization: A Very Short Introduction (2nd Edition; 2009)
ENGL 437A / CULT 437A Postcolonial Studies (Term II)
Topic: Cosmopolitanism and Race
This course examines contemporary constructions of (post)nationalism and globalized identities specifically in relation to cultural theories of race, racism, and (post)racialism. Global citizenship, humanitarianism, and global ethics are of contemporary significance within literary and cultural studies, as well as academic and popular political discourses. This cross-cultural study will be shaped by a critical approach informed by postcolonial literary and cultural studies, and specifically critical race studies. Course readings will include works of theory and criticism as well as a variety of forms of creative and documentary representation, including: poetry, fiction, memoir, documentary film, and pedagogical tools.
UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING
ENGL 224/CULT 230 – World Literatures in English – 2010/11Term I
It has only been in the last 25 years or so that Canadian university English programs have recognized, and engaged with, literature written in English but produced outside of Great Britain and the United States. Initially, these literatures were defined as “Commonwealth literature” focusing upon the work of writers in former British colonies. More often today, in the academy, these literatures are defined as “postcolonial.” In popular discourse, however, these literatures are often homogenized under the terms “world” or “international” literature in a similar way as the notions of “world music” or “international film.” This course introduces students to selected texts from Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia, as well as critical approaches to reading these literatures. What does the term “world” mean in ideas like world literature, world music, or world film? What responsibilities does a reader have when they read literatures produced in or for other cultural communities or historical moments? How does the history of European colonialism and contemporary global political, economic, and cultural relationships (i.e. globalization) shape the content and form of literatures written by people in states or regions that were colonized?
ENGL 379 / CULT 340 Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies – 2010/11 Term II
This course introduces students to the field of postcolonial studies: the study of literature, the arts, and culture produced in the regions of Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia, North American and the Pacific (including Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand), specifically in relation to the experience of colonialism, resistance, decolonization, and globalization. Students will read and discuss theoretical and critical readings on such issues as identity, race, gender, nation, resistance, decolonization, and globalization, and apply these ideas and concerns to a wide variety of examples of cultural production, including literature, film, advertising, music, and cultural practices.
ENGL 341/CULT 341 Globalization, Literature, and Culture – 2010/11 NOT OFFERED
This course examines literary and cultural theories of globalization and the impact of material and cultural globalization on literary and cultural production. Specifically, the course provides an introduction to postcolonial approaches to culture and globalization, including issues of Americanization, cultural homogenization, hybridity, development and humanitarianism, and global conflict. The course is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, but focuses on works of literature and film from Africa, South Asia, North America, and the Caribbean.
ENGL 435 / CULT 435 African Studies – 20010/11 Term I
An examination of African literature and other forms of cultural production using a postcolonial approach. Topics will vary and will focus on a particular theme, period, or region.
2010/11 Topic: Apartheid, Reconciliation and the “New” South Africa
This course examines the role of literature, film, and song in representing the experience of apartheid, imagining alternatives, and contributing to the formation of a new South African national identity, particularly through the project of “reconciliation.” In the course, we draw upon postcolonial theories of resistance and liberation as well as theories of narrative, story-telling, and colonial discourse to examine cultural responses to colonial oppression in South Africa and cultural articulations of socio-economic and cultural transformation.
ENGL 436 / CULT 436 Narrative & Conflict in Global Context – 2010/11 NOT OFFERED
This course examines conflict in relation to the way in which violence, oppression, and struggles for social justice, function, or are memorialized, through narrative and discourse. Utilizing theories of conflict, violence, justice and culture drawn from postcolonial studies, peace and conflict studies, and globalization studies, the course examines the representation of conflict, violence, and struggle in a variety of texts including works of fiction, film, theory and criticism.
ENGL 437/CULT 437 – Postcolonial Studies – 2010/11 NOT OFFERED
Examines colonialism, decolonization, and globalization, as they relate to literature and other modes of cultural production, using a cross-cultural framework. Topics vary from year to year. Possible topics include: Global Justice Movements; Gandhi in the Indian and Global Cultural Imaginaries, Race and Racism.
GRADUATE TEACHING
I have taught graduate courses in Postcolonial Theory, Cosmopolitanism and Global Responsibility, and Indigenous Conflict Theories. I welcome IGS graduate students in any of my 400 level courses; courses will be modified for graduate students.
I also welcome inquiries from students about the English and IGS MA programs at UBC Okanagan. In 2010/11 and 2011/12 I will have research funding that will support graduate student research assistantships. Students who are contemplating doing a Master of Arts degree at UBC Okanagan, and are interested in working with me as a supervisor, should contact me about these funding support possibilities.
Current MA students who are working with me are studying:
- Representations of evil and suffering within the “War on Terror”
- Self-Writing of former child soldiers in West Africa
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Please e-mail David for course outlines/readings.
Last reviewed 
5/31/2011 11:21:27 AM
