2020-21 Academic Catalog

This class examines the history of colleges and universities and their connections to the political economy of Atlantic slavery and colonialism. Students will examine how the inception and evolution of American higher education was inextricably tied to the pocketbooks of enslavers as well as how colleges and universities directly benefited from the labor of enslaved people and the dispossession of Native Americans. Students will consider questions such as what is the role of the university in society. Central to the course will be studying this history’s impact in our own time. We will examine how scholars, activists, and university communities are grappling with these histories and their legacies today.