SCA-UA 368 - Reading Race and Representation

Institution:

New York University

Subject:

Description:

Much contemporary public discourse characterizes race as a problem that some individuals "have," or, even, a "card" that some people "play." It is rarely recognized as a structural or material dimension that comprises everyday experience and knowledge. In this course, we ask what it means to "read" race in objects, spaces, and events that for the most part do not seem to be "about" race per se. The course is organized around a series of such topics, which we consider from an interdisciplinary perspective, engaging historical and legal texts, literature, and film, as well as scholarship from anthropology, sociology, and history. Over the course of the semester, we address concepts and themes related to U.S. ethnic studies and critical race theory, including citizenship, rights, segregation, whiteness, colonialism, labor, migration, and alienness. The course provides an introduction to critical American studies as a field of scholarship that challenges our sense of the nation as socially and politically exceptional by asking what is forgotten or excluded in such a self-image. "Chinatown" and the American Imagination:

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nyu.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 998-1212

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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