ABOUT THE CLASS

This First Year Seminar course introduces students to the world of anthropology and provides an opportunity to study the controversial topic of race through an anthropological lens. Using the four subfields of anthropology and recent trends in social justice movements, we will critically examine the concepts of race and racism from multiple perspectives. Looking to historical and present day case studies, students will learn the myriad ways that race continues to shape the lived experiences of those around us and especially those who continue to fight against anti-Black racism. Together we will explore the usefulness of anthropology to interrogate race, ranging from linguistic studies of African-American Vernacular English and the phenomenon known as code switching, to debates surrounding a possible biological basis for racial categories, to questions about the cause of differences in skin color. The focus of this course is to learn the double-edged power of anthropology, which can be used to either support institutional racism, white supremacy, and neo-colonial ideals or as a critical tool for social justice to tear down racism in all its forms.