Racial Frontier in South African History

This seminar will focus on racial categories in South Africa. We will explore dynamic categories of race from the 17th through 20th centuries. Topics include the relationship of race and class; racial violence; the transmission of culture and knowledge across racial boundaries; intimate relations over racial boundaries; segregation; and race and nation. We will give attention to critiquing the ways that historians have represented race and the ways that conceptions of the category have evolved within the discipline, but the emphasis will be on recent scholarship. Students will be expected to participate actively in the seminar, to write one book review, and one research paper. Enrollment limited to 20.