Race, Activism, and Global Citizenship in the Age of Paul Robeson

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course examines the life and times of one of this nation’s most famous yet understudied figures during the middle decades of the twentieth-century. Over the course of the semester, our readings and discussions will revisit Robeson’s accomplishments as a preeminent college athlete, intellectual, and cultural icon, to better understand the social and political history of the U.S. prior to the legal dismantling of racial segregation. Robeson illuminates the history of race and political activism in modern America. We will also trace how Robeson became one of America’s most internationally recognized entertainers and political activists, despite formal and informal efforts to undermine his commitments to the civil rights movement at home, and human rights abroad. This course includes sports, popular culture, and politics. Drawing on scholarly tools that are central to the discipline of American Studies—the critical analysis of social categories, citizenship and imperial politics—our readings, lectures, and conversations will investigate and unpack how Robeson reshaped the meaning and geographic scope of modern freedom. Required texts will range from primary documents preserved in archival collections to carefully-selected excerpts of secondary materials written by leading Robeson scholars and biographers.