LMC 3306
Spring 2020
Spring 2019

LMC 3306 Science, Race, and Technology is known across the GT campus as the "Outkast Class". The products used in the course to interrogate issues of race, class, and community - particularly as it relates to the city of Atlanta - is critically examined through storied "pedagogical performances" of rap duo Outkast. We use these musical artifacts as access points for investigating racial politics, social justice, and cultural innovation in post-Civil Rights Atlanta. This is an undergraduate humanities course. Paired with assigned readings, the course samples from a group of existing titles to produce original content as part of the ongoing HipHop2020 Curriculum Project (case studies, group presentations, blogs, podcasts). Music lyrics, along with digital media on platforms such as Netflix, YouTube, and Genius serve are modes for interrogating theoretical, linguistic, meta-linguistic, and cultural practices of the overall African American cultural aesthetic. Course Aims To exit the course with a fundamental understanding of the trap aesthetic as a contemporary form of the African American tradition of sociocultural expression. To use “trap” and “outkast” as speculative metaphors to understand Hip Hop’s history and its contemporary nature as a technology of sociocultural communication, representation, and education. The final aim is to understand the nativity of Hip Hop as grounded in advancing equality of civil and human rights, community activism, self-awareness, and social responsibility.

Partner Engagement
Core Curriculum Requirements