HNRS 285-01: Race and Political Theory

Political theory asks the question what should be the means and ends of government. What kind of government should we create, and how will power be distributed? Political theory is a tool to engage debates about how to prioritize ideas like order, justice, liberty, and equality. Yet often these debates exist abstracted from the material realities created by our culture and our identities. This seminar will ask what the study of race can say to political theory and the theorizing and acting on normative arguments. We will analyze race and diversity as part of political theory’s commitment to train and engage citizens for participation in a pluralistic democracy.

Race is a means for classifying people. But unlike norm and value free biological classifications, racial classifications are cultural, historical, sociological and epistemological, often based on cultural norms and values that associate the "racial difference" with hierarchy, domination and inequality. Ultimately, racial classifications and differences create social conflict that raises multiple historical, empirical, as well as normative questions. How and why have these classifications come to be seen as natural and embedded differences? How has racial difference been embedded in culture, law, politics, and the economy? How ought we to analyze race given the constructed nature of these classifications? Are there other forms of theorizing that help address some of the problems of hierarchy, domination and inequality that racial differences have often generated?

Term: Fall 2009

Credits: 4

Fulfills: GE Requirement in Interdisciplinary Studies (I)

Cross-listed: BLST 370-02, POSC 370-01

Meeting times: 13:30-14:50 TR

Instructor: Eric Boehme