Instructor: Chris Kovats-Bernat, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Africana Studies
Schedule: Preferred modality: In-person. Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 to 12:15 from July 21 to August 13
Many people assume race is a biological fact—something encoded in our DNA that allows the sorting of humanity into natural categories. It is not. Race is a relatively recent idea and one that is the product of human invention. This course traces the evolution of the race concept from its origins in ancient philosophy, to the colonial encounter and the Atlantic slave trade, through scientific racism, eugenics, and IQ testing, to the way racial categories continue to organize access to resources, wealth, security, and dignity today. Participants in the course will engage with critical and timely questions: Where did racial categories come from? Who made them, and why? If race isn’t biologically real, why does it have such real consequences? How did science get recruited to make racial categories look natural and inevitable? If racial categories were invented, why can’t we uninvent them? This is a course about one of the most consequential ideas in human history, and we will examine where it came from, how it has been used, and why it persists long after the science that invented it has been thoroughly discredited. By the end of the course, participants will have a clear, evidence-based account of the race concept. No academic background is required—only a willingness to question what you thought you knew about race.
Week 1 — Before Race: How the Ancient World Organized Human Difference
Week 2 — Colonialism, Slavery, and the Need for a Cover Story
Week 3 — Scientific Racism: From Linnaeus to The Bell Curve
Week 4 — The Racial Contract: White Supremacy as a Social System
Week 5 — Unmaking Race: Toward and Anti-Racist Society
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