tg401@hunter.cuny.edu

Saturdays: 12:10PM-3:00PM EDT

Office Hours: Zoom, Fridays 2pm - 4pm, or (By Appointment in Central Park)

WGS Department Office Information: Hunter College West 17th Floor (68th and Lexington - 695 Park Avenue)

Contact Dept Admin: Lisa Steadwell

PRONOUNS:

Refer to the instructor as Professor Goffe or Prof. Goffe and by pronouns (she / her). Students are welcome and encouraged to share the name they prefer to be used and their pronouns on the first day of class.

Please see this Padlet and Brightspace announcements for changes. Email instructor with any questions.

Late work will be accepted, so students should not email the instructor to ask if they can submit work late. However, work submitted late without a documented excuse will automatically be assessed a 5% penalty and will be penalized 10% per class day late. Work submitted after three class days will not be penalized more than 30%, but 70% represents the highest amount of credit students can earn after three weeks.

The College suggests that students schedule or otherwise dedicate 5-9 class hours per week reading and studying for this course. The instructor expects students to complete all the assigned readings before they begin working on assignments. In addition to the readings listed on the course calendar, students are responsible for reading all supplemental materials, including the syllabus, the writing guide, and all prompts found on Brightspace.

• Understand the historical, cultural, and political contexts of Black and Indigenous literature

• Analyze the themes and methods used and developed by Black and Indigenous writers and scientists

• Critically evaluate the ways in which Black and Indigenous literature represents issues of identity, race, gender, and class

• Communicate their ideas effectively in writing and in class discussions

• Develop their critical thinking and analytical skills through close reading and interpretation of literary texts

• Write cultural criticism

• Develop a multimedia and digital humanities portfolio

• Attain proficiency in ecological studies and scientific analysis

GRADING SYSTEM

A+ = 97.5 – 100%                  

A   = 92.5 – 97.4%

A-  = 90.0 – 92.4%

B   = 82.5 – 87.4%

B+ = 87.5 – 89.9%                  

B-  = 80.0 – 82.4% 

C+ = 77.5 – 79.9%

C   = 70.0 – 77.4%                                       

F   = 0 – 69.9%

Extra Credit will be granted (to participation) for attending a session at the Writing Center on your midterm paper. Forward confirmation of visit to instructor.

Introduce Yourself

Sign-Up to Heylo

Whale + Dolphin Watching Cruise - Pier 11 [In-Person]

Lunch

Museum of the American Indian

September 13 - Introduction to Dark Lab @ Hunter - West Building [In-Person]

• Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark, 1993 (pg 1-39)

• Other Islands of New York - NYC Ferry assignment - to be explained in class

• Amiri Baraka, “Technology & Ethos,” 1965

• Nylah Iqbal Muhammad, People of Color Experience Climate Grief More Deeply than White People, Vice News, May 14, 2020. 

Chapter One, Dark Laboratory, 2025 (recommended)

1. Professor Goffe

2. she / her

3. London + NY (Queens / Manhattan)

4. Playing in the Dark

5. Wrote a book on climate crisis in the Caribbean and Afro-Asian ecologies.

For assistance after 5 pm, or in an emergency, please call Public Safety at 212-772-4444.

SIGN-UP - SEPTEMBER 13

a)     Joint presentations: 20 Slides x 20 Seconds

b)     These presentations are known for telling stories through images rather than text and are typically brief. They use the 20x20 rule, where each presentation consists of 20 slides, and each slide is displayed for only 20 seconds, automatically progressing to the next one. This results in a total presentation time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

c)     Explanation of Pechakucha : https://24slides.com/presentbetter/what-is-a-pecha-kucha-presentation

d)     Sign up by EOD September 13.

e) Select Tab at the Bottom of the Spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BF-KF0vI95GvPheuRPQGNcHWstVoQ_x2YTc8cY0nNHg/edit?usp=sharing

a)     each week you will be required to ask a question and answer a question posted on our course padlet. Using Kyla Wazana Tompkins’ guide “How to Ask a Good Question about Theory,” select a passage from the assigned reading, type it out, and formulate a question about the writer’s intent. Come to class prepared to answer a classmate’s question in discussion.  

https://avidly.org//wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Some-Notes-On-How-To-Ask-A-Good-Question-About-Theory-That-Will-Provoke-Conversation-And-Further-Discussion-From-Your-Colleagues-2-2.pdf

b)     In class be ready to read your answer to a classmate's question on padlet.

Writing is integral to thinking. It is also hard. Use of AI tools are NOT permitted in this course.

Use of AI, including AI-generated images in presentations is not permitted.

Appropriate use of writing tools when writing essays or discussion board entries:

• You are free to use spell check, grammar check, and synonym identification tools. You are encouraged to use MS Word Spell Check.

• You are not permitted to use Grammarly.

Inappropriate use of AI when writing essays or discussion board entries:

• You may not use entire sentences or paragraphs suggested by an app.

• You may not have an app write a draft (either rough or final) of an assignment for you.

• 
  

Evidence of inappropriate AI use will be grounds for submission of an Academic Integrity report. Sanctions will range from a zero for the assignment to an F for the course.

I’m assuming we won’t have a problem in this regard but want to make sure that the expectations are clear so that we can spend the semester learning things together—and not worrying about the origins of your work.

Be aware that other classes may have different policies and that some may permit it.

• Students are required to answer on a classmate's post before class begins on Saturday.

September 20 - Film Screening (Exterminate All the Brutes) - [Hybrid]

• Dienke Hondius, Dutch New York Histories: Connecting African, Native American and Slavery Heritage , 2017

• Eve Tuck and Wayne Yang, “Decolonization is not a Metaphor," 2012

• Indian Map of Brooklyn

• Grace Dillon, “Imagining Indigenous Futurism,” Walking the Clouds

• Skawanetti 

• Beth LaPensée on Games with Social Impact 

September 27 - Fieldwork - If We Don’t, Who Will? -Stephanie Dinkins - Brooklyn Public Library [In-Person]

• Ruha Benjamin, Race After Technology, 2019

• Clyde Woods, Development Arrested, 1998 

October 4 - Film Screening (Conscience Point, 2019) [Hybrid]

• Alex Callender, american lawn, night grass, 2024 (paintings)

Discussion: African Burial Grounds in NYC - National Park Service, CUNY architecture - African Burial Grounds, Cahokia, Shinnecock Hills Golf Course, Alligator Alcatraz, Mar-a-lago

October 11 - Fieldwork - Central Park - Dr. Leo Douglas (New York University)  [In-Person]

• Simone Browne, Dark Matters, 2015

• Roxanne Scott, “Black Birders Flock to the Rockaways,” New York Amsterdam News, June 6, 2024

• “Kerry James Marshall’s Black Birds Take Flight in a New Series,” New York Times, July 30, 2020. 

• Ebony Patterson, “things come to thrive…in shedding…in the motling…,” New York Botanical Garden, 2023

October 18 - Fieldwork - Governor’s Island - Ecuadorian Ecologies and Artmaking - Studio Visit with Artist Cecile Chong (Hunter College Alumna)  [In-Person]

Emily Raboteau, Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against “the Apocalypse,” 2024

October 25- Film Screening (Exterminate All the Brutes) [Hybrid]

• Nalo Hopkinson, "Midnight Robber,” ed. Grace Dillon, Walking the Clouds

• Discussion: Queen Nanny of the Maroons

Studio Visit: Dr. Nathaniel Telémaque (Kings College London)

November 1 - Community Engagement Day - Boys Club of New York - Bronx [In-Person] 

Imani Perry, Black in Blues, 2025

In groups of three, choose a color to tell the story of a Black / Indigenous ecology. 

November 8 - Film Screening (Exterminate the Brutes) [Hybrid]

• Emma Dabiri, Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair, 2020

  • Guest Lecture by the Author

November 15 - Guggenheim Museum - Rashid Johnson [In-Person]

A Poem for Deep Thinkers 

• Desiree Bailey, What Noise Against the Cane, 2021

• Julian Aguon, No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies, 2022

• bell hooks, Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place, 2012

Saretta Morgan, Alt-Nature, 2023

December 6 - SPECULATIVE DESIGN FINAL SHOWCASE  [In-Person]

[Dark Lab - 16th Floor - Hunter West]

November 22 – Art and Technology Skill Share [Dark Lab - 16th Floor - Hunter West]  [Hybrid]

LinkedIn Learning

• adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy, 2017

• Saya Woolfalk, Field Notes from the Empathetic Universe, Newark Museum, 2020. (virtual tour).

• Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, I Have withheld much more than I have written, 2022.

• Andrea Chung, We Was Girls Together, 2021. 

• Wifredo Lam, When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream, Museum of Modern Art, 2025. 

December 6 - SPECULATIVE DESIGN FINAL SHOWCASE  [In-Person]

[Dark Lab - 16th Floor - Hunter West]

Late work

Late work will be accepted, so students should not email the instructor to ask if they can submit work late. However, work submitted late without a documented excuse will automatically be assessed a 5% penalty and will be penalized 10% per class day late. Work submitted after three class days will not be penalized more than 30%, but 70% represents the highest amount of credit students can earn after three weeks.

The College suggests that students schedule or otherwise dedicate 5-9 class hours per week reading and studying for this course. The instructor expects students to complete all the assigned readings before they begin working on assignments. In addition to the readings listed on the course calendar, students are responsible for reading all supplemental materials, including the syllabus, the writing guide, and all prompts found on Brightspace.