Kay Branagan  

CONTACT OPTIONS

OFFICE: 
Hawkins Hall 102 A

OFFICE HOURS: 
MW 2:00-2:50

F 9:00-10:00
TH  BY APPOINTMENT

FAX:  518-564-4226

TEL:  518-564-4249

E-MAIL:
kay.branagan@plattsburgh.edu

Who I Am

I have been teaching at Plattsburgh in the Africana Studies Program (previously known as Minority Studies/African American Studies) since Fall 1989.  In 1993 I began teaching in the Women's Studies Program.  Currently I have a joint appointment in Africana Studies/Women's Studies as a Lecturer.  My field of interest is southern Africa, primarily South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Over the years I have held many 'jobs' as a political activist.  Just prior to coming to PSUC I was a Human Rights Observer on the West Bank and Gaza, Palestine, living in  Palestinian towns and U.N. Palestinian Refugee Camps. Part of my work was documenting the destruction of Palestinian homes.  We produced a PBS program entitled Occupied Territory.  The next year I returned to the Middle East and  lived and worked on Kibbutz Gezer, Israel, a socialist kibbutz on the West Bank border dedicated to increasing communication between Israelis and Palestinians. During my stay I supervised the communal kitchen for preparation of breakfast and lunch Sunday through Friday.

In 1993 I was part of an International Violence Monitoring Program in South Africa documenting political violence during the period prior to the first non-racial elections in April 1994.  As a newspaper correspondent for the Canadian lesbian press, I also covered some of the negotiations at the Kempton Park Constitutional Convention that produced the first constitution in  the world that guaranteed constitutional rights for gay and lesbian people.

In 1999 I returned to South Africa as part of an International Delegation to Umtata, Eastern Cape Province, to participate in the celebration of National Women's Week (which commemorates the August 9, 1956 Women's Anti-Pass Protest) as a guest of then African National Congress Women's League President Winnie Mandela.  During our visit we met with grassroots women's groups working on the economic empowerment of poor women and youth throughout South Africa.

In 2005 I traveled to Afghanistan in order to learn more about women's issues in the post-Taliban nation.  On my return, I developed a course that looks at women's issues in Afghanistan and the region from the perspective of tradition, politics, and religion.

In 2006 I was part of a peace delegation to Jordan and Syria that focused on Iraqi refugees residing in those two countries. (See  Local Professor Returns from Peace Delegation to Middle East  http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/news/4174.html  ; http://www/cardinalpointsonline.com/2006/11/03/Life/Psuc-Professor.Encourages.Social.Justice-2436275.shtml ;

http://www.cardinalpointsonline.com/media/storage/paper1064/news/2006/09/22/Life/Professor.Learns.Foreign.Mindset-230440.shtml

I share my life with my partner Lukah Eileen Kavlock and my two teenage daughters, Fasharra and Akiva Branagan.

My family also consists of five older daughters (Rebeka, Niyonu, Marama, Ixchel, and Bridget), one son (John), two grand-daughters (Gabrielle and Isabella), and one grand-son (Zhander).

COURSES

AAS 103 Roots and Culture:  The African American Experience 
An introductory survey course that will provide students with an understanding of continuity and change within the African-American experience.  Students will explore key political and cultural events and ideas within the framework of American History.  Class, gender, caste, and sexual orientation issues are integrated throughout the course work.  Liberal arts. (3 cr.)

AAS 201 Afro-American Family Cultures:  Origin and Development
Origin and development of African American culture in American society.  Liberal arts. (3 cr.)

AAS 202 Great Afro-American Literature
An examination of  African American literature:  poetry, novels, the concept of Negritude as a manifestation of the consciousness of African Americans.  The course highlights the richness of African American literature in the 20th and 21st centuries.  Liberal arts.  (3 cr.)

AAS 203  Civilizations and Cultures of Southern Africa
A survey of southern African civilizations and cultures through the present.  Liberal arts.  (3 cr.)

AAS 303  Black Women:  Contemporary Social and Political Commentary
A survey of black women's writing dealing with contemporary social and political commentary.  Emphasis on the U.S., but will include writings from the African Diaspora (the Caribbean, South America, United Kingdom, Canada) and Africa.  Liberal arts.  (3 cr.)

AAS 306 Afro-American Cultures Since 1865:  From Reconstruction Until the Present
A general study of major social, political, cultural, and economic developments within the African American community.  Liberal arts.  (3 cr.)

AAS 496 Instructional Practicum (3 cr.)

WMS 101 Introduction to Women's Studies 
An interdisciplinary introduction to the study of women.  Provides links among traditional disciplines by using gendered analysis to explore the historical and global dimensions of women's lives.  Topics include women's political participation; voice and identity; intersections of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class and gender; gender socialization; violence; and social change.  Liberal arts.  (3 cr.)

WMS 204 Women of Color in U.S. Society
Historical and contemporary issues affecting African-, Asian-, Latina- and Native American women in the U.S.  special attention to the ways in which racism and sexism work together to challenge women's lives and to the ways in which women of color resist oppression and celebrate their many identities.  Liberal arts.  (3 cr.)

WMS 310 Women in Afghanistan: Tradition, Politics and Religion

WMS 360 Lesbian and Gay Studies 
An interdisciplinary introduction to the study of queer life--history, social institutions and their impact, social movements, the social construction and/or biology of sexuality, literature and arts by and about queer people--within the U.S. and internationally.  Liberal arts.  (3 cr.)

WMS 496 Teaching Internship in Women's Studies (3 cr.)