James Counts Early offers a grad seminar on cultural policy

Tue, 18 Nov 2014 10:15:13 -0500

Spring 2015
AMST 630 Cultural Policy and the Politics of Culture in the 21st Century United States
W 7:10-9:40PM James Counts Early

This course, constructed around proactive student-participation, examines the historical backdrop and contemporary development of cultural policy in the United States, especially in relation to the practical problem of achieving cultural equity within the public and private institutions of a continuously-evolving multi-cultural political democracy and intersections with growing transnational cultural identities. Special attention is paid to the cultural democracy citizen-protagonists’ dynamics and policy projects of certain periods and to interactions between the official cultural institutions and various racial and ethnic groups, of cultural areas and regions and of socio-economic classes---including gender identity and sexual identity policies. Reading, lecture-discussion and illustrative cultural materials embrace intellectual and artistic strategies reflected in the graphic and plastic arts, dance, music, literature and various segments of popular culture. Analytical perspectives draw upon the disciplines of history, cultural heritage policy, anthropology, folklore, and political science/Participatory Democracy. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

About the instructor:

James Counts Early has served in various positions at the Smithsonian since first coming on board in 1972 as a researcher in Brazil and the Caribbean for the African Diaspora Folklife Festival program. He has served as assistant provost for educational and cultural programs, assistant secretary for education and public service, and interim director of the Anacostia Community Museum. A long-time advocate for cultural diversity and equity issues in cultural and educational institutions, he focuses his research on participatory museology, cultural democracy statecraft policy, capitalist and socialist discourses in cultural policy, and Afro-Latin politics, history, and cultural democracy. He has curated several Folklife Festival programs, including South Africa: Crafting the Economic Renaissance of the Rainbow Nation (1999) and Sacred Sounds: Belief and Society (1997). James holds a B.A. in Spanish from Morehouse College and completed graduate work (A.B.D.) in Latin American and Caribbean history, with a minor in African and African American history, at Howard University.

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