Critical Thought on Race and Ethnicity (235-0-20)
Instructors
Jennifer A Jones
Jennifer Jones is an Associate Professor of Sociology and a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. Her research lies at the intersection of the sociology of race, immigration, and politics. Throughout her scholarship, she examines how race “works”, exploring the relationship between categorical ascription (e.g., checking a box, or how one is perceived) and meaning-making (e.g., identity, or feeling a sense of group belonging).
Meeting Info
Harris Hall 107: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
In 2006, Henry Louis Gates popularized the practice of DNA ancestry testing through his PBS series "African American Lives". In it, he uses DNA testing to uncover ancestral connections to ethnic groups in Africa, as well as Europe and elsewhere. Since then, interest in DNA ancestry testing has exploded. Despite the various controversies surrounding the reliability of industry practices, as well as the limitations of applying statistical analysis to DNA results, as of 2020, over 30 million people had taken such tests. And yet, scholarly consensus is that race and ethnicity are socially constructed concepts that have real consequences but are not biological in nature. Moreover, we see the consequences of this classification all around us—race shapes our communities, our families, and our daily lives. What is it about race that makes us believe it is constitutive of some essential, biological self, and yet racial categories and meanings are constantly in flux? How should we understand race as a concept when racial meanings, practices, and identities are both deeply embedded in our governments and institutions, and yet also specific to place and space?
In this course, we will pay close attention to the classification of groups and the naturalization of racial categories. Throughout the course, we will examine the invention, production, and reproduction of race from a social constructionist perspective, focusing on the work that race does, as well as how it is constantly being remade. We will consider various theoretical perspectives on race and race-making, both in the U.S. and globally. We will also consider the construction of race in relation to historical processes like colonialism and slavery, and how race structures inequality in everyday life.
Learning Objectives
Learning Goals:
-Interpret and evaluate what it means for race to be a social construction;
-Recognize how and why it matters for race to be biologized and naturalized;
-Engage with key theories of racial formation and race-making;
-Recognize key issues in categorizing and constructing racial groups;
-Develop critical assessments of sociological texts;
-Put racial constructions and practices in historical and comparative perspective;
-Recognize how race has real social effects in terms of social relations and stratification.
Teaching Method
Discussion and Lecture
Evaluation Method
class participation and discussion, short critical reflection memos, class presentations, final paper
Class Materials (Required)
This course will have required books/other materials.
This course will have required books/other materials. Please contact the instructor for further information.
Class Attributes
Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl
U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area