Anthropology 590W - Whiteness, Power, Ontology

This class explores and interrogates whiteness as a political object, subjective-relational force, and ontological category. We begin by reviewing liberal notions of white privilege and intersectionality. We explore the cultural construction of whiteness in relation to capitalism and cultural hegemony. And we examine white supremacy at the level of every day cultural practices and in relation to state reproduction and violence. The second half of the class investigates whiteness as a constitutive feature of modernity and a modality of being human that aligns with notions of property, commodity, individualism, and progress. We end with a consideration of a stance towards politics and becoming that involves a letting go of and detachment from white capitalist modernity.

Open to Grad students and advanced undergraduates with instructor permission.