Race has been at the center of American History since the first arrival of Europeans and Africans on the North American continent. Questions of how to tell this history, and in particular the role of racial practices and ideologies in that history, have always been political questions. This course will focus on recent debates over the role of race in American history and what the nation’s racial history tell us about the nature of American society. We will particular attention to debates over:
- the 1619 project and the role of slavery in the nation’s founding;
- Confederate Monuments and popular memory of the Civil War; and
- Critical Race Theory (CRT) and what, if anything, students should learn about the structural causes of racism and racial inequity
Students in this class will explore multiple viewpoints on these and other contentious historical debates, will learn to write to brief evidence-based opinion essays, and will work on a group project on an aspect of public debates over race and US history. The challenge of this course is for a group of people who do not know each other and who bring with them a range of political views to have civil and productive conversation about the political, economic, social and cultural issues that continue to divide the country. As the professor, my role is to work to insure that everyone in the class feels able to share their views in an honest and respectful fashion and that as a group we are able to learn from our different perspectives.
Course Requirements:
Students will write three (3) 500-word opinion essays and will work on a group project
Intended Audience:
First-year students
Class Format:
Seminar