FSEM 117   Senegal

Faculty Profile for Professor Swanson

Senegal is at once a vibrant location, where young urban artists have effected real political change, and an impoverished country, where legacies of colonialism continue to debilitate the economy and harm marginalized communities. Students grapple with the paradoxes of this postcolonial African nation. Through engagement with both scholarly texts and works of cultural production, including novels and films, light is shed on the lived experiences of Senegalese citizens in Senegal and the diaspora. Students study the history and present of major phenomena that shape Senegalese lives, including the rise of Islam, French colonialism, women’s liberation, and increasing migration and homophobia in the twenty-first-century. The objectives are to unpack how Senegalese people of various identities are positioned in the world, to understand how global power asymmetries affect individual lives, and to encounter the ways in which communities creatively express themselves. Students who successfully complete this seminar receive credit for CORE C147 and satisfy the Communities core requirement.

Amy Swanson is an assistant professor of dance in the Department of Theater. Her current research focuses on contemporary dance in Senegal, particularly the art form's queer aesthetics and its transnational entanglements. She is also a dancer and choreographer who has trained extensively in Senegal and the United States. She is currently working on a collaboration with a Congolese choreographer based in Senegal while finishing her first book.