Here you will find resources to help you plan individual lessons, themes, and even entire courses. And of course we’d love to hear what you’ve found valuable and what questions or suggestions you might have. Please get in touch with us to start a conversation at [email protected] or on Twitter @bcesn.
LESSON PLANS
Maybe you have an open week, class session, or 15 minutes and you want to insert a lesson. Here are some ready-made lesson plans covering the entire chronological period of the class and drawing mostly from material found on the site.
Lesson Plan – Medieval Germany: The Black Magus
In this activity students will survey a series of images of the Three Kings/Magi dating from the Middle Ages to the modern era. It challenges the presumption that depictions of Black people have always been determined chiefly by racist prejudices.
Lesson Plan – Introduction: Two Biographies
Students will watch two Black Germans talk about their experiences and identities. Used as an introduction to the topic, this lesson should serve to destabilize the notion of a single “Black German” identity.
COURSE SYLLABI
Maybe you have the option of introducing a new class, or you’d like some ideas for how to integrate material into an existing course structure. Here are some sample syllabi of classes specifically on the black diaspora in the German lands or related topics as well as some examples of how to enrich a general history or literature survey course.
Black Germany (Jeff Bowersox, UCL and Kristin Kopp, Missouri)
This upper-level seminar examines the development of an African diaspora in the German-speaking lands from the Middle Ages to the present-day, with emphasis on the dramatic shifts in regimes in the past 200 years.
Blackness in the German Imaginary, Germany in the Black Imaginary (Priscilla Layne, UNC)
This first-year seminar deals with how encounters between Germany and the African Diaspora have changed notions of race, nation, identity and belonging between the colonial era and the present.
Searching for a Rainbow: The Transnational Experiences of African Americans in Denmark (Ethelene Whitmire, Wisconsin-Madison)
This proposed study-abroad class, to be based in Copenhagen with tours of important sites there, examines the experiences of African Americans who lived, performed, studied, and visited in Copenhagen in the twentieth century.
Black Central Europe 