HIST407 - Global Blackface, Minstrelsy, and Passing

Global Blackface, Minstrelsy and Passing is an undergraduate seminar that will explore the performance of blackface across the world. We will look at the practice of "blacking up" in theater, opera, vaudeville and film through the Middle East, Africa, Europe, India, the Caribbean and put these historical practices in dialogue with British and American blackface performance. We will also look at how performers enlisted themselves or were hired for minstrelsy shows and how these translated around the world. The seminar will also explore the concept of passing, and whether it is just a matter of skin color, but also of language. This is a cultural history course that will also investigate constructions of blackness and whiteness around the world.