Race, Colonialism, and Empire

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Colonial empires ruled over much of the modern world for a large part of the 18th, 19th, and 20th century. Colonizers expropriated land, extracted labor and resources, and sought to ‘civilize’ peoples from contexts as seemingly disparate as Martinique, India, and the United States. But has colonialism really ended? If not, what are its lasting legacies? This course asks us to take seriously the lasting impact of colonialism on our present, what some call the ongoing coloniality of power, paying particular attention to questions of race and capitalism. By looking at a series of different colonial encounters – such as the first contacts made between British traders and Chinese rulers, or the brutal dispossession of indigenous peoples from their land by American settlers, or the interactions between Belgian missionaries and violent colonial officials in the Congo in the 19th century, or the racialized caste and religious stratifications imposed upon British colonial subjects by British officials in India, or the late-20th century rise of American imperial power and its perpetual war on terror – we examine how race became and continues to be an integral colonial technology to maintain social hierarchy and control while also setting the foundation for unequal accumulation. We trace the colonial institutionalization of racism in the creation of nation-states, in governance, in law, in development projects, in the enshrining of gendered and sexual norms, and in economic relations. Readings and course materials will be drawn from foundational theoretical texts along with primary sources, including newspapers, novels, photographs, artwork, oral histories, and films.