PHIL 129 - Race, Power, and Privilege

Institution:

Westminster College (Salt Lake City)

Subject:

Philosophy

Description:

No one lives as just an individual but rather all of us live within and interact with systems of identity, oppression, and privilege. Many people find solidarity, belonging, and pride in our relationships with categories such as race but these categories are also sites of oppression and privilege. In this course we will look at how systems of racism and privilege contribute to how we define ourselves, how we are defined by society, and how the world we know is defined. We will do this from a philosophical perspective. This means that while we will occasionally discuss concrete issues such as affirmative action and equal pay laws we will concentrate on theories of oppression, privilege, intersectionality, and resistance. This means that we will do a lot of abstract thinking in this course. While the topics that we will investigate in this class are different than what you would find in most philosophy courses we will be learning how to think philosophically about important issues that are part of who we are. We will read a wide variety of sources written by living philosophers of race, some sources from philosophers working in the early twentieth century, as well as quite a bit of work from theorists working in literature and sociology. Looking at sources from different time periods and disciplines will highlight how concepts related to race and power change significantly over time, as well as reflecting that "Philosophy of Race" as a subfield is always interdisciplinary. Assignments and discussions will encourage students to complicate the ways they view their own identity, question the simplified accounts of power that they encounter from the media, engage in social justice work, and reflect upon that work in meaningful ways. (WCore: WCFAH, DE)

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.westminstercollege.edu

Phone Number:

(801) 484-7651

Regional Accreditation:

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

Calendar System:

Four-one-four plan

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