Visualizing Race

Catalog description

This seminar examines cultural depictions of race and racial otherness in visual images, primarily in the late-19thand 20th century U.S. Drawing on theories of visual culture and racial constructions, we look at the uses of racialized images as political speech, as cultural expression, and as entertainment. To study race through this lens highlights the inherent tension of using race as a category of analysis: what does it mean to visualize race? How does the project of “seeing” race fit into our understanding of the highly flawed scientific and popular definitions of race and racial differences? Students will become familiar with a variety of approaches to visual analysis, as well as with the historical development of visual images of racial others and race itself in the U.S. As always, we will pay close attention to the intersections of race with gender as well as other categories of identity.