3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

Race is a social construct – but how does society actually create that construct? “Crafting Race in 19th-Century British Culture” explores how the idea of race was developed, deployed, and reinforced through nineteenth-century British cultural objects. Students investigate how media like literature and art produce and replicate arguments about race that justified or fought against oppression. Alongside literary texts, students will also work with advertisements, paintings, and theatrical practice. We take an intersectional approach, thinking not only about race, but also the connections between gender, class, sexuality, and disability. What are the roots of problems we think of as exclusively modern, like whitewashing in media? How has racial thinking been passed down through time and across oceans? Ultimately, our investigation aims to provide insight to modern issues of race through a better understanding of social history.