2018-19 Academic Catalog

In an effort to gain a perspective on the power of ideas, this class will trace the development of several ideas of race. We will look at attempts to define and create the concept of ‘race,’  and we will ultimately attempt to answer questions as to whether ‘ideas of race’ have improved our lives to date. We will address the topic of this course by progressing through four parts: 1. Race: Creating Socially Significant Difference, 2. Race: In the Interest of Science, 3. Race: Human Types and Being Human, 4. Race: Racial Identity?. We will draw on a range of significant texts representing several disciplinary perspectives, including philosophy, literature, film, and history. The overall goal of the course is to offer students a chance to learn, think, write, and discuss an idea that has been one of the forces engineering societal value and behavior in the U.S. for, at least, the past 400 years.