Hi All: This is a special topics course that may or may-not be offered again. If you have an interest it would be good to get on board now!
New Course Offering Fall 2011
Geography 495:
Geographies of Race and Ethnicity
Instructor:
Dr. Joshua Inwood
The eminent sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois famously observed in the
Souls of Black Folk that the problem of the 20th Century is: “the problem of the colorline.”
One century later Du Bois’ observations are more prescient then ever.
Indeed, as a nation, the United States is an inheritor of what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the ‘tenacious evil of racism,’ structures of which continue to divide communities and inhibit the ability of American society to address legacies of race
and ethnicity. In response, King argued that we must work toward “something positive and massive in order to get rid of all the effects of racism and ethnocentrism and the tragedies of racial injustice.” Consequently, understanding the way different groups
seek to address geographies of race and ethnicity in North America is important to combating long-standing divisions in U.S. society.
In this course we will examine how understandings of race and ethnicity turn on very specific geographic articulations.
In other words, to understand the role that race and ethnicity plays in U.S. society it to understand how these concepts are inseparable from geography. Though often understood as fixed categoriesrace and ethnicity are in fact dynamic, contested and
transformed through political, cultural, historic and geographic struggles.
As such this course focuses on the spatial construction of race and ethnicity in order to understand the profound sets of power relations that come to shape U.S. society and everyday experiences ofrace, ethnicity and class.
Drawing from a critical race studies approach that emphasizes social justice and geographic approaches to thinking about race and ethnicity this course will illuminate three broad themes:
1.) Territoriality, citizenship and the connection between race, ethnicity and the nation state; 2.) Privilege, oppression and difference; 3.) Geographies of power that are broadly related to notions of inclusion and exclusion.
The overall content of the course is focused around discussion of key readings and themes and will draw from cutting edge Geographic and Black Studies scholarship.
Questions about the course should be directed towards:
Dr. Josh Inwood ([log in to unmask]).