This course seeks to better understand the multiple shifting meanings and uses of race in the United States. We will explore how race has been defined by whom and to what end.
Topics will include questions of identity and citizenship, immigration, art and popular culture science and medicine, and politics. We will discuss the content and method, themes, and debates in the literature on race in America and consider broadly what constitutes historical scholarly inquiry about this fraught and complex topic.
Through close reading and discussion of influential texts, we will explore a range of topics and approaches, examining their assumptions and goals, virtues, and shortcomings.
This is a split-level Undergraduate/Graduate course cross-listed with HIST 6045.
