Social Psychology of Race and Racism

Catalog description

The human mind has a fundamental need to create categories. In this course we will examine how historical, developmental, cognitive, and motivational factors give rise to the construction of the social category of race in the United States. We wll also consider how racial group membership - and its intersections with other group memberships - can profoundly influence one's experience of the world and each other. To understand the construct of race and its consequences we will perform close reading and critical analysis of theoretical and empirical work in social psychology.