Faculty First Year Seminars 197THE6 - Whiteness & Performance in Con
Fall
2016
01
1.00
Megan Lewis
TU 2:30PM 3:20PM
UMass Amherst
81234
This course engages students in an exploration of the multi-dimensional nature of race in contemporary culture by focusing on the performance of whiteness. Involving a constant public presentation, or staging, whiteness is
maintained through its reiterated and stylized performance. In this course, we will unpack what whiteness (the racial category and the lived experience) is, and explore how whiteness functions in our contemporary society. We will explore its invisibility and ubiquity in popular culture, its power dynamics, and the way in which whiteness gets performed in personal and public life. Using examples from various cultures?American, Canadian, British and South
African?we will ask the following kinds of questions: What makes someone ?white?? How has whiteness come to be the default category of existence? Why can we see people of color as raced bodies and yet whiteness is an invisible default? How is whiteness part of (or the center of) a system of institutional and cultural privilege? What are the stakes, burdens, benefits, and pitfalls of being white? Not white? How might one perform ?ethically? as a white person?
maintained through its reiterated and stylized performance. In this course, we will unpack what whiteness (the racial category and the lived experience) is, and explore how whiteness functions in our contemporary society. We will explore its invisibility and ubiquity in popular culture, its power dynamics, and the way in which whiteness gets performed in personal and public life. Using examples from various cultures?American, Canadian, British and South
African?we will ask the following kinds of questions: What makes someone ?white?? How has whiteness come to be the default category of existence? Why can we see people of color as raced bodies and yet whiteness is an invisible default? How is whiteness part of (or the center of) a system of institutional and cultural privilege? What are the stakes, burdens, benefits, and pitfalls of being white? Not white? How might one perform ?ethically? as a white person?
Freshmen Only