Director: Waldo E. Johnson, Jr., 5733 S. University Ave., Rm. 201,

702-8063

Associate Director: Tracye A. Matthews, 5733 S. University Ave., Rm. 200,

834-2581

Administrative Assistant/Project Coordinator: Rolisa H. Tutwyler, 5733 S.

University Ave., Rm. 204, 702-8063

Web: csrpc.uchicago.edu

Through the Comparative Race Studies Program (CRPC), the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture (CSRPC) provides students interested in the study of race and racialized ethnic groups with the opportunity to take courses and participate in programs that illustrate how race and ethnicity and their structural manifestations impact and shape our lives on a daily basis. CSRPC is an interdisciplinary research institution dedicated to promoting engaged scholarship and debate around the topics of race and ethnicity, and the focus of CRPC is to expand the study of race and racialized ethnic groups beyond the black/white paradigm and promoting the study of race and processes of racialization in comparative and transnational frameworks.

Each year CRPC offers Colonizations I, II (a two-quarter sequence that meets the general education requirement in civilization studies) as well as a course related to race or ethnicity in the arts taught by the CSRPC artist-in-residence. Additional courses offered through the program will also provide students with an opportunity to explore the social and identity cleavages that exist within racialized communities, acknowledging the reality that race and ethnicity intersect with other primary identities such as gender, class, sexuality, and nationality.

Students interested in the study of race and ethnicity are also encouraged to attend the Reproduction of Race and Racial Ideologies workshop series, which meets four to five times each quarter. The workshop provides a forum for faculty and students to explore the problematics of race and racial ideologies in the modern era. Presenters from a variety of divisions and departments examine issues that cut across academic and policy divisions as well as across disciplinary and national boundaries. In particular, the workshop attracts students and faculty from the Division of the Social Sciences (e.g., history, sociology, political science); the Division of the Humanities (e.g., cinema and media studies, English, philosophy); and the professional schools (e.g., business, law, public policy, social service).

Faculty

D. Allen, P. Bohlman, C. Cohen, D. English, K. Fikes, J. Goldsby, M. Harris-Lacewell, T. Holt, D. Hopkins, T. Jackson, W. Johnson, A. Kalil, E. Kouri, O. McRoberts, T. Meares, G. Miranda, S. Mufwene, M. Ngai, E. Oliver, S. Palmié, D. Phillips, C. Raver, J. Saville, J. Stewart, D. Voisin, K. Warren

Courses: Comparative Race Studies (crpc)

For a list of CRPC courses and other University courses with substantial content on race or ethnicity, visit http://csrpc.uchicago.edu.

24001-24002. Colonizations I, II. (=HIST 18301-18302) Must be taken in sequence. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. This two-quarter sequence approaches the concept of "civilization" from an emphasis on cross-cultural/ societal connections. We explore the dynamics of conquest, slavery, colonialism, and their reciprocal relationships with concepts such as resistance, freedom, and independence with an eye toward understanding their interlocking role in the making of the modern world. Themes of slavery, colonization, and the making of the Atlantic world are covered in the first quarter. Colonization is the theme of the second quarter, with emphasis on Asia and the Pacific. We start with a consideration of the pre-modern Arab and Chinese empires and then turn to European and Japanese colonialism (and decolonization) in Asia. J. Saville, S. Palmie, Autumn; M. Ngai, M. Harris-Lacewell, Winter; K. Fikes, Spring.

24102. Refiguring the Nation: Race, Culture, and Revolution in Mexico. This course explores the debates regarding indigenism, whichi is the revaluation and fostering of native values and culture in pre- and post-revolutionary Mexico. We examine the development of indigenism in response to social Darwinist theories of race promoted by the pre-revolutionary regime of Porfirio Diaz and to the needs of the revolutionary state; the key research and writings of archeologist and ethnographer Manuel Gamio and writer and politician José Vasconcelos; the visual shaping of this discourse through the incorporation of indigenous and mestizo subjects in visual art, from caste and academic painting to the Mexican mural movement; and the numerous literary works associated with indigenism. D. Miliotes. Autumn.

24103. Performing Japaneseness: From 1868 to the Present. This course examines a wide range of representations of Japan, (the) Japanese, and Japanese Americans in Western (primarily American) media and popular culture from the late nineteenth century to the present, in a rough chronological order. The title of the course is descriptive of our learning process, using "performance" as a tool for investigating construction and deconstruction of Japaneseness. We use in-class performance events as means of embodied learning and research presentation. N. Onoda. Winter.

24104. Rooted: An Exploration into Asian-American Arts Practice and the Formation of Community in a Cross-Cultural Metropolitan Context. This course examines the cross-cultural work of Asian-American artists with a focus on the Chicago area. We address themes such as the forming of new cultural and artistic communities and their impact on the mainstream culture; collaboration between communities and cultures on local and transnational levels; and culture, community and economic development issues in the arts. T. Aoki. Spring.

24500. Dialect Voices in Literature. (=AFAM 24500, ENGL 14600/34600, LING 24500/34500) In this course, we use linguistic techniques to analyze literary texts, especially to assess how adequately and successfully dialect is represented, whether it matches the characters and cultural contexts in which it is used, and what effects it produces. Authors may include Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright. S. Mufwene. Autumn.

26951. Representing the Black Female Body in American Literary and Visual Culture. (=HUMA 26951) This course introduces the emerging interdisciplinary field of visual culture studies through an examination of dramatic, literary, and visual representations of the black female body. By critically reading the ways that categories of difference and identity have been inscribed onto the black female body, the course illuminates the significant relationship between the visual/embodied "signs" of identity we encounter every day, the meanings attached to those signs, and the social and institutional practices that derive from, and resist, this "fixing." K. Wimbley. Spring.

28000. U.S. Latinos: Origins and Histories. (=HIST 28000/38000) This course examines the diverse social, economic, political, and cultural histories of those who are now commonly identified as Latinos in the United States. Particular emphasis is placed on the formative historical experiences of Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans. Topics include cultural and geographic origins and ties; imperialism and colonization; the economics of migration and employment; work, women, and the family; and the politics of national identity. E. Kouri. Winter.

28100. Latino Identity. An introduction to Latino identity, this course covers the social and historical evidence of Latinos and Latin American populations. We explore issues of race, class, gender, immigration, pan-ethnicity, politics, language, and socio-economic experiences of various Latino groups (e.g., Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Central and South Americans). C. Gomez. Spring.

28105. Race and Nation in the Caribbean. (=INST 28105) This course considers the Caribbean as a historical and social formation, exploring the region's relationship to the West through a long history of colonial and post-colonial relations. Using Caribbean case studies, we explore key concepts and theoretical frameworks for understanding race and nation, treating both "race" and "nation" as kinds of social relationships and modes of constructing subjectivity. G. Beckett. Winter.

28107. Apartheid and Jim Crow: Racial Domination in Comparative Historical Perspective. (=AFAM 28107, HIST 27004) This course focuses on two of the most infamous and legally entrenched systems of racial domination in the last century and a half. Through historical and anthropological methodology and immersion in primary documents and sources, we analyze the social construction of race in these societies and seek to explain how racism became the central category of social and political life in these seemingly disparate geographic contexts. T. Adams, B. Dubbeld. Winter.

28701. American Orientalism: Race, Gender, and Desire in the American Imagination. (=GNDR 28702/38701, HIST 28701/38701) This course examines three central questions: how have Americans historically imagined the Orient; how have these fantasies in turn shaped American national identity; and how have these constructions of otherness and self influenced the perceptions of Asian Americans? We explore the historical development of Orientalism in the United States in the realms of material culture, the entertainment industry, politics, literature, art, science, and the academy. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which fantasies about the "East" reflect racial, gender, and sexual anxieties as well as desires. J. Wu. Winter.

28801. Self-Portraiture: Creative Expressions and Alternate Histories. This course looks at the concept of self-portraiture by examining how diverse histories and identities can be re-presented by individual experience. As a class, we engage in a collaborative process of inquiry, reflection, and creation by experimenting with different media in our own responses to these histories. Students are asked to write a political autobiography that traces the origin of their ideas and values. This is used as a way to reflect upon our own histories, identities, and evolving perceptions of the world and also as a way to articulate concepts that can then be translated into other forms for the final class project. C. Saenz. Spring.