Teaching.
Black. Migration. Houston. responds to the current globalizing moment with intellectual work, curriculum and digital design which focuses on understanding how anti-blackness, transphobia and homophobia informs the experiences of migration, community and resource availability and scarcity.
We serve as a resource hub to educate emerging scholars, community leaders, and other members of the public. Teaching is one aspect of our project. It is part of a larger effort to develop open source curriculum and pedagogies tools around the broader topic of migration. As our site grows, this space will include syllabi, assignment prompts, and other materials that support instruction.
Image courtesy of BLMP
Photo by niharbb; creative commons license
Our teaching is informed by the study of migration, history, sexualities, antiblackness, and media.
Our teaching acknowledges the convergence of factors, such history of migrations in the Americas, the political and economic situations in the Americas, queer/trans gender experiences in the Americas and Caribbean, and myriad forms of antiblackness.
Our site teaches about:
Key factors driving forced migration of Black LGBTQ+ migrants
The depth and breadth of queer/trans Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latinidad histories, expressions, and cultural production
Structural racism and anti-blackness within the U.S. and impacts on Black LGBTQ+ migrants.
Mural on boarded up windows in Uptown, Minneapolis. By PiM Arts High School; Photo by Priscilla Gyamfi via Unsplash
Methodologies
We use research and teaching methods derived from the fields of digital humanities, ethnic studies, and gender studies. We are informed by a broad feminist approach which is grounded in the work of Black, Latinx, and transnational feminisms.
We draw on qualitative and quantitative data from the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP), review recorded videos, interviews, and questionnaires. Additionally, we engage with networks of Black LGBTQIA+ migrants who are essential collaborators in building a useful and accessible teaching and resource center.
Future Plans for Our Teaching
As our site grows, we will map the following concepts:
Africa and the African Diaspora as an imaginable region
The forced migration of Black people
Sex trafficking and labor migration
Foundations in LGBTQ+ Rights/Human Rights
African knowledges and cultures
Transnational networks
Digital Humanities as decolonial theory
Blackness and Afro-Latinx identities
Histories and expressions of queerness and gender-fluidity in the African diaspora.
Over time, through this effort we will build a compendium of local resources to support additional public education tools (including webinars, Twitter townhall, edit-a-thons, video PSA, etc.) as well as recorded events that we can share online (including panel discussions, forums, workshops), thereby making visible the experiences of Black LGBTQ+ migrants in Houston, in Texas, more broadly, and in the U.S. South.