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INSPIRED: Black Lives Matter

AS PART of the new MA in Literature and Culture at the University of Hertfordshire, students can now learn about the significance and contexts of the internationally recognised movement, Black Lives Matter, in an exciting new module. This is one of its kind in the United Kingdom.

The module—'U.S. Culture and #BlackLivesMatter’—will give prospective students the opportunity to examine contemporary cultural texts which are in dialogue with the movement, including music by Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar and the recent films Get Out, 13th and Moonlight, alongside prize-winning authors Colson Whitehead and Jesmyn Ward.

Black Lives Matter began as a hashtag in 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the murder of seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida. What began on social media took to the streets, and the Black Lives Matter movement has been protesting in the United States, and around the world, ever since.

In a programme designed to allow students to develop real world social and global perspectives, the ‘U.S. Culture and #BlackLivesMatter’ module will engage with various cultural texts on topics such as identity, violence, politics, love and queerness among others. These themes are also explored in the other modules on the MA: Literature and Culture, such as ‘Reading the Vampire’ and ‘Networks of Modernism.’

Christopher Lloyd, Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Hertfordshire said: ‘This module is significant because learning about black culture, rights and social justice is vital to our understanding of the contemporary world. The University is committed to both international perspectives and addressing the BME attainment gap in higher education. We see this module as part of that larger project.’

This course will be available from September 2018 from the University of Hertfordshire. A taster session is being held at the University of Hertfordshire’s de Havilland campus in the afternoon of Wednesday 9 May.

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