Race, Religion, and Coloniality
Race is a social construct. In this course, students will be asked to go beyond this accurate, yet inadequate statement to ask precisely how, why, and by whom race was/is socially constructed. Focusing primarily on French imperial and ‘post’-imperial contexts, we will attend to how race intersects with other social categories such as class, gender, sexuality, and religion within an overarching logic of coloniality to produce and maintain the unequal hierarchies that underpin labor exploitation and land and resource expropriation at local, national, and international levels. In doing so, this course will introduce students to a range of writing on race and coloniality, from Critical Race Theory and Critical Muslim Studies to postcolonial studies and decolonial thought to help us collectively envision antiracist and decolonial futures.
Adi Saleem Bharat, Ph.D. 