Intersections of Race and Culture in the West

This course will introduce students to ways in which knowledge, power and race have been interrelated in understandings of culture and in the writing and reception of literature. Beginning in antiquity, we will trace a history of political, ethnic, and social groups’ perceptions and categorizations of each other and of shifts in the definitions of “race” and “culture” as concepts. We will then consider changing ideas of alliance, belonging and power, in the context of contemporary American and global politics. The course will draw from readings across various languages, and from the work and lectures of several guest speakers.