ANTH625

041730

This course investigates the construction of social difference through a focus on race and whiteness. How are we surrounded (and differentially impacted) by notions of whiteness? How do mundane practices such as brushing one's teeth or eating white bread generate (and become infused with) ideas of racial difference that come to justify structural racism, racial hierarchy, and white supremacy? This advanced graduate seminar draws on critical race and critical whiteness studies to investigate two main themes: whiteness/racial ideology and white supremacy/antiblackness. Drawing from the fields of cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, colonial studies, and history, this course investigates how social, political, economic, and historical factors contribute to the construction and naturalization of whiteness and white supremacy. A focus on whiteness will allow us to address broader questions of citizenship, globalization, consumption, modernity, power, and racial violence. Readings are drawn from across the globe (including the U.S., the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Africa). Students will benefit from some previous familiarity with the study of race, and they are encouraged to develop course papers from their own personal interests and research agendas (past, present, and future).

GRD - Regular Grades A, B, C, D, E

Graduate