Viral Activism in Courses on Viral Media: #BlackLivesMatter

I’m teaching classes on Viral Media at both the undergraduate and graduate level this semester. I’ve not taught these classes in a few years and as would be the case with most digital topics, a lot has changed in the interim. The syllabi needed a bit of an overhaul.

It’s not much but I’m able to include one day on activism and viral media. We’re going to focus on the #BlackLivesMatter movement. I’ve done some preliminary selections of readings, but would be glad to hear suggestions. Readings after the jump.

Undergraduate readings:

• Read Castells, Networks of Outrage and Hope, “Opening”
  Link tbd
• Read Audre Lorde, “Learning from the 60s”
  http://www.blackpast.org/1982-audre-lorde-learning-60s
• Read Owens, “We Have to Make Them Feel Us: Open Letters and Black Mothers’ Grief”
  http://aaihs.org/we-have-to-make-them-feel-us-open-letters-and-black-mothers-grief/
• Watch Smooth, “The Illipsis: on Ferguson, riots, and human limits”
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v-Pd62hq0w
• Read Craven, “Please Stop Telling Me that All Lives Matter”
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julia-craven/please-stop-telling-me-th_b_6223072.html
• Watch Bland, “Sandy Speaks – April 8, 2015 (Black Lives Matter)”
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIKeZgC8lQ4
• Read Berger, “In Ferguson, Photographs as Powerful Agents”
  http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/in-ferguson-photographs-as-powerful-agents/?smid=tw-share&_r=0
• Read Johnson, “After Baltimore and Ferguson, Major Momentum for Criminal Justice System Reform”
  http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/05/14/406768355/after-baltimore-and-ferguson-major-momentum-for-criminal-justice-system-reform

Graduate readings:

• Read Castells, Networks of Outrage and Hope
  “Changing the World in Network Society” and “Beyond Outrage, Hope”
  Link TBD
• Read Audre Lorde, “Learning from the 60s”
  http://www.blackpast.org/1982-audre-lorde-learning-60s
• Read Owens, “We Have to Make Them Feel Us: Open Letters and Black Mothers’ Grief”
  http://aaihs.org/we-have-to-make-them-feel-us-open-letters-and-black-mothers-grief/
• Read Garza, “A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement”
  http://www.thefeministwire.com/2014/10/blacklivesmatter-2/
• Read Bennet, “I don’t know what to do with good white people”
  http://jezebel.com/i-dont-know-what-to-do-with-good-white-people-1671201391
• Read Berger, “In Ferguson, Photographs as Powerful Agents”
  http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/in-ferguson-photographs-as-powerful-agents/?smid=tw-share&_r=0
• Read Gould-Wartofsky, “When Rioting is Rational”
  https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/01/when-rioting-is-rational-ferguson
• Read Johnson, “After Baltimore and Ferguson, Major Momentum for Criminal Justice System Reform”
  http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/05/14/406768355/after-baltimore-and-ferguson-major-momentum-for-criminal-justice-system-reform
• Read Workneh, “#SayHerName: Why we should declare that black women and girls matter, too”
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/21/black-women-matter_n_7363064.html

Thoughts? Feel free to post suggestions here, tweet at me @purplekimchi, or email them to kim dot knight at utdallas dot edu.

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