Semester:
Offered:
Instructor: Nicholas Bloom
Meeting time: Wednesday, 12:45-2:45 pm
In his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois famously wrote that “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” This course is a survey of the work of intellectuals, artists, and activists in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries who took this “problem” seriously, and who sought to understand its origins, its functions, and how it ought to be addressed. It will expose students to certain foundational ideas, problems, and debates in the study of race and ethnicity in twentieth century America. Readings may include works by C.L.R. James, Zora Neale Hurston, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gloria Anzaldua, James Baldwin, Cedric Robinson, bell hooks, William Faulkner, and Toni Morrison, among others. Most importantly, the course aims to provide students the opportunity to develop their own critical and historical acumen to study those aspects of race and ethnicity that they find most urgent or fascinating.