ONLINE: What is classical theory? What is Du Boisian theory? And why does it matter? Classical theory takes the perspective of 19th- and 20th-century theorists — most of them male, most of them white — to understand social life. In contrast, Du Boisian theory takes the perspective of W.E.B. Du Bois and others who understand the modern era as “racialized modernity,” fundamentally shaped by white Europeans’ and Americans’ violent displacement and enslavement of Black African peoples and the genocide and dispossession of Indigenous peoples and lands. These scholars also take into account the social identities and histories of the people experiencing and analyzing different social forces. In this course, we will reimagine classical theory from a Du Boisian perspective by reading, evaluating, contrasting and applying these works. In doing so, we will develop effective explanations for how and why societies work (or don’t work), and the extent to which individuals control the terms of their lives. | Facilitated discussion.
Max enrollment: 24.
