SOC 295-01 - Special Topic: American Whiteness

4 credits (Fall)

This course examines whiteness as a specific racial formation with a distinct history, proactive and defensive politics, and institutional and personal investments. To give whiteness a specific content, we will study the historical expansion of the category, the formal and informal advantages that accrue to whiteness, the internal diversity of the category, and the continuous challenges to whiteness, both conceptual and material. We will use historical, economic and sociological studies of racial formation to “capture” whiteness in production and re-creation cycles. The course will make use of empirical and advances theoretical insights to gain leverage on studying whiteness.

Prerequisite: SOC 111.
Instructor: Erickson