East African Popular Culture

East African Popular Culture is a crosslisted Interdisciplinary Arts/Social Science course taught by George Gathigi.

Course Description
This course will examine the processes of producing popular culture and its outcomes. We will read and write about the presence of popular expression in East Africa by examining specific forms including East African hip-hop, radio and television drama, comics, and other forms of artistic expression from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. We will examine how new technologies have influenced the development of popular culture, the relationship between ?traditional? and ?modern? forms of expression, and how popular and serious texts intersect in nationalist and gender politics. This course will incorporate Swahili language materials leading to an indirect study of the language at all levels. Knowledge of Swahili is not a prerequisite.