Section Info: ENGL-350AT-01

Course Title: Topics in African American Literature: 'Race and the Aesthetics of Taste'
Start Date: 01/27/2026 End Date: 05/12/2026
Term: Spring Semester 2026
Description: This 300-level seminar will examine race and taste in the literatures of slavery and colonialism. We will analyze taste as a mode of racial perception and a practice of racial discrimination. To do this, taste will be interpreted as a metaphor for aesthetic discernment ('you have great taste!') and at the register of gustatory perception ('what does it taste like?') to reveal that taste does not name a neutral operation of judgment; rather it names a field of interaction with the world that produces and extends social values, cultural commonsense, and racial categories. Together we will trace how subjectively experienced affects associated with the consumption of food and drink recapitulate arrangements of racial and epistemic power.
Distribution(s): I - Humanities , MP - Multicultural Perspectives , TP - Topics Course
Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate     Credits:4.00    

Faculty         Phone         Email address        
Kristen Maye             kmaye@mtholyoke.edu  

Meeting Dates         Method         Meeting days         Meeting times         Building name         Room     Frequency    
01/27/2026 - 05/12/2026   Seminar   Tuesday   01:30PM - 04:20PM   TBA   TBA   Weekly

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Requisite Courses        
None                    

Comments        
Additional Comments        
Course Tags        
CRPE0001   CRPE-1: CRPE - Major Pathway/Minor   This course has been approved to count towards the CRPE major pathway and the CRPE minor.  
CRPE0003   CRPE-3: Critical Social Thought - Major Pathway   This course has been approved to count towards the CRPE Critical Social Thought major pathway.  
CRPE0002   CRPE-2: Africana Studies - Major Pathway/Minor   This course has been approved to count towards the CRPE Africana Studies major pathway and the CRPE Africana Studies minor.  

Cross-listed Sections        
None  

Course Availability
Section status: Waitlisted     Capacity: 18     Enrollment: 18     Available: 0     Waitlist: 1
Please note: The "Available" count will equal 0 in a Waitlisted course where spaces in the course have recently opened and students have not yet been moved into them from the waitlist.

BOOK INFORMATION

Book List         Required         Publisher Full Price        
To be determined.                    

Additional Book Comments        
This is NOT the complete book list for this class.