Politics of Racial Knowledge (304-0-20)

Instructors

Vilna Bashi
Vilna Bashi is the William and Cathy Osborn Professor of Sociology, and Faculty Fellow of the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. She is also a visual artist. She specializes in global inequality, race and ethnicity, and international migration. Bashi is the 2020 recipient of the Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award from the American Sociological Association for scholarship in service to social justice. Her book The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction into Ethnic Factions was honored by placement on the Zora Canon, a list of the top 100 books ever written by an African American woman.

Meeting Info

University Hall 102: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

This course examines historical and contemporary manifestations of racism/ethnocentrism and anti-racism, and xenophobia/nationalism, concepts that harken to ideas of ancestry and difference. We will explore together theoretical approaches to understanding the social, cultural, political, and economic aspects of racial social hierarchy. The course centers on racialization (how individuals/groups are sorted into races), global and local racial paradigms (the rules of race-making and racial assignment), and why these denigrating mechanisms are so difficult to eradicate. We also touch on histories of racialized chattel slavery and colonialism, and learn what antiracism looks like and how it might be achieved.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this class, students should be able to explain the sociology behind the phrase "race is a social construction," naming some of the fallacious justifications for racial differences among humans, and why they are fallacious. Students will also understand how ethnicity is tied up in the US racial hierarchy and our mobilized racial knowledge. Students should also develop an reasoned opinion on what role racial knowledge should play in addressing racial inequality and exclusion.

Teaching Method

Lecture and group discussion

Evaluation Method

Participation, quizzes, memos, final paper

Class Materials (Required)

This course will have required books/other materials.

(Note: the NU Library has digital versions of these books.)

Bashi Treitler, Vilna. 2013. The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction into Ethnic Factions. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
ISBN13: 9780804757720

Mills, Charles. 1999. The Racial Contract. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
ISBN13: 9781501764288

Class Attributes

Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area