Topics in Culture and Globalization: Reggae as Transnational Culture
Jamaican popular music, from ska and rocksteady to roots and dancehall, is the subject of this MIT course, which treats reggae as a product of transnational exchange rather than a purely national art form. Readings pair scholarly texts on reggae with the music itself, songs, films, videos, and images, so students can weigh competing interpretations of what the music means and whose story it tells. The syllabus traces the genre's emergence from cross-border exchange, then follows its spread through diasporic networks into the wider Anglo Caribbean, the United Kingdom (including jungle, grime, and dubstep), the United States (reggae and hip-hop), Panama, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Japan, Australia, and parts of West, South, and East Africa. Course materials include readings and assignments as published by MIT OpenCourseWare, free to access with no certificate offered.