Educators and studentsFormat
Open teaching guideUpdated
September 2025
This guide offers a flexible starting point for educators who want to teach American literature through a wider African and diasporic frame. It brings primary texts, discussion prompts, and contextual materials together for undergraduate and graduate classrooms.
Why this guide matters
African literary traditions and African American literary traditions have always been in dialogue. The guide helps instructors make those connections visible while leaving room for local context, student questions, and different disciplinary approaches.
What you will find
The collection includes suggested reading pathways, short contextual notes, seminar questions, and ideas for assignments. Materials can be used as a complete unit or adapted into existing courses on literature, history, cultural studies, or American Studies.
Teaching with relation
The strongest learning happens when texts are placed in relation rather than treated as isolated objects. Use the guide to invite comparison, close reading, research, and reflection on the movement of ideas across the Atlantic.