ClassInfo

This course introduces students to the social, historical, political and theoretical contexts that shape our conceptions of race, gender, and class. Though the title of this course is free of spelling errors, there exists the potential for intersectional inaccuracies. The separation of race, class, and gender by commas implies that these parts of identity are uncooperative. Race, gender, class, sexuality and other dimensions of identity are relational and function within a broader, dynamic matrix comprised intersecting identities. Additive models of social difference do little to recognize the simultaneity of inequality. To "bring race into the conversation," is not license to silence other instruments (gender, sexuality, class) playing within an orchestra of oppression. Intersectional analyses of race, gender, and class require scholars to acknowledge how various forms of social difference work in concert with one another to produce and reproduce social inequalities and a multiplicative model of marginalization. Multiple forms of marginalization involve teamwork. Through such co-operation and cooperation, oppressions build off one another in cumulative,"multiplicative," and in some cases, exponential fashion. Hence, a more accurate title for this course could be racegenderclasssexualityindigeneityabilitycitizenship³.

In this course we will study the inextricable links between race, gender and class, as well as other dimensions of social difference, while ensuring that the other instruments playing in orchestras of oppression are not silenced. Students will explore both the stability and variability of race, gender, and class as dimensions of social difference. In addition to analyzing the role of race, gender, class, and other dimensions of social difference as independent conditioning forces, students will also examine the level of cooperation required between these social constructs to produce and reproduce inequality. The content of this course urges students to form a relational (as opposed to autonomous) conception of gender, race, and class to better grasp their existence as social constructs.

This course meets the following Council on Liberal Education requirements: Diversity and Social Justice in the U.S. theme, theSocial Sciences core, and the Writing Intensive core. This course contributes to the acquisition of a liberal education, helping students gain a broad understanding of the subject, including factual knowledge, the theoretical foundations of that knowledge, and its associated key modes of inquiry.