This course will compare the cultures, histories and literatures of the African and Jewish diasporas. We will seek to understand how and under what circumstances the notion of diaspora has evolved and changed over time within both the black and Jewish communities. In both cases, we will examine how communal memories of oppression have shaped national identities and cultures, and how the vision of a homeland has been used as a tool of political liberation. We will examine literature, film, and visual arts as expressions of collective consciousness and compare the implications of a diasporic consciousness in the evolution of culture among of Africans and Jews over time.