Race and Caste

Catalog description

Among the most consequential expressions of human social organization are caste and race. Each is a familiar part of the American landscape, caste construed as exotic ("Eastern") and race as homegrown ("Western"), yet both are objects of critique. The presumed differences between caste and race have drawn attention to certain forms of social inequality while discouraging understanding them beyond conventional categories that define certain geographies. Although caste and race are symbols that represent particular master narratives about country and culture, and create and project discrete images of "the other," on-the-ground distinctions between them always have been slippery, with long histories of interaction between them shaped by varying contexts. Geared for students who have had a basic course in anthropology, history, cultural studies, sociology, or diaspora, or an area studies course on the Atlantic World or South Asia, this course will engage in wide-ranging, comparative, and interdisciplinary exploration of caste and race, both as distinct categorical entities and as imbricated relations of power.