Photography, Race, Genocide

Catalog description

This course explores the role of photography in the context of the racialized politics of genocides and their aftermaths. The course aims to critically examine photographic evidence of genocidal violence, revealing the long shadow of modern genocides from colonialism, to the Holocaust, the Armenian, Cambodian, Rwandan genocides, to the present. At the intersection of modern constructs of race as they culminate in genocidal violence, the course investigates the political and ethical potential of photography. Topics include: definitions of genocide; modern genocides; colonialism and the concept of race; the origins of photography; photography in literature and film; the civil contract of photography; the ethics of testimonies; atomic light; commemoration and the aftermath of genocides; race after technology.