Black Expatriate Writers in France Syllabus

Matthew Teutsch
5 min readFeb 18, 2023
James Baldwin in St. Paul de Vence

Last year, a colleague and I proposed a study travel to Poland to study the intersections between Jim Crow and the Holocaust. Sadly, that trip failed to materialize, for a few reasons. This year, another colleague and I proposed a trip to the South of France, specifically Marseille and Nice. She will teach an environmental science course and my course will focus on African American expatriate writers in France outside of Paris. My “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” course this semester arose out of the study travel course and really serves as a sort of extension of the study travel course.

Today, I want to provide the syllabus for the study travel course. The course is a 2000 level course, and some students have already taken the 2000 level course. So, the students who have done that will take the course as a 4000 level class with more requirements. The syllabus will incorporate both the 2000 and 4000 level course requirements.

Vieux Port Marseille

Course Description and Objectives:

In his memoir A Long Way from Home, Claude McKay writes about Marseille’s importance to him as a writer. He says, “It was relief to get to Marseilles, to live in among a…

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Matthew Teutsch

Here, you will find reflections on African American, American, and Southern Literature, American popular culture and politics, and pedagogy.