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Course Description

Though the academy can never lay claim to social movements, this course seeks in part to answer the call of students and young activists around the country to take the opportunity to raise questions about, offer studied reflection upon, and allocate dedicated institutional space to the failures of democracy, capitalism, and leadership and to make #BlackLivesMatter. Developed through a group effort, this course brings to bear collective thinking, teaching, research, and focus on questions around race, structural inequality, and violence. Through this course, we examine the particular historical, geographical, cultural, social, and political ways in which race is configured and deployed in the United States and beyond in the past and present. In Part One, the course offers a context, both past and present, for the events in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. In Part Two, it then places those events in a broader context of race and racism in the United States. Finally, in Part Three, it examines the entanglements of trauma and violence for individuals, communities, and society as a whole. Rather than a single instructor or a pair of instructors, this course is taught by a collective of more than 20 faculty. As such, it straddles several disciplines and approaches with readings and discussions that draw from that diversity of disciplines. In addition, guests and speakers represent a key component of our learning, offering even more perspectives on the ongoing events in Ferguson. By beginning our analysis in Ferguson and moving out from there, this course offers a way to place these very important current events in broader national and international contexts. Developing a course that strikes a balance between this complexity and the need for collective inquiry and action is exactly what this course is designed to do. Your participation as students is central to this collective endeavor as we read, think, and learn together.

 

SCHEDULE

Week

Topic

Professors

1 #blacklivesmatter and The Ivory Tower Aimee Bahng, Abigail Neely
2 Placing Ferguson: Understanding St. Louis And Its Racial History Reena Goldthree, Julia Rabig, Annelise Orleck
3 Racial Violence, (In)Visibility, And The Visual Field Michael Chaney, Mary Coffey
4 Systemic And Unconscious Racism, Intersections With The Law And Criminal Justice System Sonu Bedi, Emily Walton
5 Race and Class Denise Anthony, Richard Wright
6 Racialized Risk Christian Haines, Craig Sutton
7 Racial Mythologies And The Violence Of The Universal Colleen Boggs, Alysia Garrison
8 Responding to Racial Violence Robert Baum, Ivy Schweitzer
9 Ferguson’s Global Context Patricia Lopez, Annabel Martin, Chelsea Kivland
10 From Hip Hop to Hashtags Derrick White

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