| University of Utah |
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Fall 2002
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| Office: 308C MBH |
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mailbox in 307 MBH
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| Office Hours: |
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voicemail: 587-7803
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| M 3:00-4:30, W 11:00-12:30 |
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fax: 587-7801, recept. 587-7814
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| Th 1-2, and by appt. |
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email:
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| http://www.pauahtun.org/audrey.html |
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e-mail (h):
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Overview
Increasingly, progressive educators have taken up whiteness theory as a way to help white students recognize that racism is more than a matter of prejudice; it is also a question of how white privilege is normalized. Whiteness theory is intended to make white cultural assumptions and privileges visible so that whites do not assume that their own position is neutral or normal. Although in many ways consistent with the aims of multicultural theory, whiteness theory is also distinct from multiculturalism. Multicultural theory involves fostering an appreciation of cultures other than the dominant culture; in its more radical forms, multiculturalism also involves problematizing the assumptions of the dominant culture. But because multicultural approaches are concerned with displacing white culture from its position of dominance, they usually do not focus on whiteness as a distinctive culture or identity. Whiteness theory focuses specifically on whiteness as a cultural position — a position and an identity that, to a considerable extent, are gained at the expense of people of color.
Whiteness theory makes an important contribution to anti-racist inquiry in making white privilege visible — yet too often, professors approach the lessons of whiteness theory as lessons that they themselves have already learned, so that all that remains is for these lessons to be passed on to students. In other words, professors may fail to look at the whiteness of their own projects and relations. This course addresses the whiteness of academia itself, including the whiteness of particular intellectual values and practices.
Among the whiteness topics with which the course will be concerned will be the frameworks of analysis used in whiteness theory, and whiteness in relation to epistemology, writing practices, pedagogy, the canon and the curriculum, institutional policies and practices, and relationships.
Structure
The class will meet once a week, each time discussing the readings on the syllabus. To participate actively in class, it is essential that you read carefully, prepare questions, and jot down any issues you wish to discuss. I will make short presentations to provide necessary background information. My primary role, however, will be to ask questions, clarify points raised in our discussions, and summarize the important issues that we discuss.
Texts
The readings will be available as a bound packet from Empire Publishing. Additional articles will be available as handouts, on electronic reserve at the university library, or as links on the electronic version of the syllabus.
Course Requirements
In addition to the assigned reading, regular attendance, and participation grounded in the readings, course requirements include two mini-papers (2 pages each), one short midterm paper (5 pages), and a longer final paper (10-12 pages). All papers should be typed, double-spaced, and proofread. You will be required to turn in a good draft of the final paper two weeks before the final due date. There is no final exam.
Participation and attendance: 15% of grade Mini-papers: 20% of grade
Short Paper: 25% of grade Final paper: 40% of grade
Schedule of Class Topics and Reading
Th. 22 Aug. Introduction
Readings:
Electronic handout summarizing whiteness theory frameworks: http://www.pauahtun.org/Whiteness-Summary-1.html
Th. 29 Aug. Material White Privilege in the Academy
Readings:
Th. 12 Sept. Institutional Whiteness and the Academy
Readings:
Th. 19 Sept. Personal/Relational Whiteness in the Academy
Readings:
Th. 26 Sept. Policies and Procedures [class will not meet, but please
read the following]
Readings:
Th. 10 Oct. The Whiteness of the Disciplines
Readings:
Th. 17 Oct. The Whiteness of the Curriculum and the Canon
Readings:
Th. 24 Oct. Whiteness in Research Methods
Readings:
Th. 31 Oct. Whiteness and Academic Writing
Readings:
Th. 7 Nov. The Whiteness of Studying Whiteness
Readings:
Th. 21 Nov. Whiteness and Pedagogy
Readings:
Th. 28 Nov. Thanksgiving Break: No Class Meeting
Th. 5 Dec. Whiteness and Objective Knowledge
Readings:
Selected Bibliography
Whiteness in the Academy
William Aal, “Moving from Guilt to Action: Antiracist Organizing and the Concept of ‘Whiteness’ for Activism and the Academy,” in The Making and Unmaking of Whiteness, ed. Birgit Brander Rasmussen, Eric Klinenberg, Irene J. Nexica, and Matt Wray (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001), 294-310.
Rebecca Aanerud, “Fictions of Whiteness: Speaking the Names of Whiteness in U.S. Literature,” in Displacing Whiteness: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism, ed. Ruth Frankenberg (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997), 35-59.
John Alberti, “The Nigger Huck: Race, Identity, and the Teaching of Huckleberry Finn,” College English 57, no. 8 (December 1995): 919-37.
W. B. Allen, “Response to a ‘White Discourse on Racism,’” Educational Researcher 22, no. 8 (November 1993): 11-13.
Valerie Babb, Whiteness Visible: The Meaning of Whiteness in American Literature and Culture (New York: New York University Press, 1998).
Maxine Baca Zinn, Lynn Weber Cannon, Elizabeth Higginbotham, and Bonnie Thornton Dill, “The Costs of Exclusionary Practices in Women’s Studies,” Signs 11, no. 2 (Winter 1986): 290-303.
Alison Bailey, “Despising an Identity They Taught Me to Claim: Exploring a Dilemma of White Privilege Awareness,” in Whiteness: Feminist Philosophical Narratives, ed. Chris J. Cuomo and Kim Q. Hall (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), 85-104.
Alison Bailey, “Privilege: Expanding on Marilyn Frye’s ‘Oppression’,” Journal of Social Philosophy 29, no. 3 (Winter 1998): 104-19.
Robin M. Bennefield [interviewer], “Whiteness Studies: Deceptive or Welcome Discourse? [Karenga on Whiteness Studies],” Black Issues in Higher Education 16, no. 6 (May 13, 1999): 26-27.
Ann Berlak and Sekani Moyenda, Taking It Personally: Racism in the Classroom from Kindergarten to College (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001).
Lorraine Bethel, “What Chou Mean We, White Girl? Or, the Culled Lesbian Feminist Declaration of Independence (Dedicated to the Proposition that All Women Are Not Equal, i.e., Identical/ly Oppressed,” Conditions: Five 2, no. 2: The Black Women’s Issue (Autumn 1979): 86-92.
Thomas Biolsi, “The Anthropological Construction of ‘Indians’: Haviland Scudder Mekeel and the Search for the Primitive in Lakota Country,” in Indians and Anthropologists: Vine Deloria, Jr., and the Critique of Anthropology, ed. Thomas Biolsi and Larry J. Zimmerman (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997), 133-59.
Megan Boler, “All Speech Is Not Free: The Ethics of ‘Affirmative Action Pedagogy,’” in Philosophy of Education 2000, ed. Lynda Stone (Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society, 2001), 321-29.
Linda Brodkey, “Writing Permitted in Designated Areas Only,” in Higher Education under Fire: Politics, Economics, and the Crisis of the Humanities, ed. Michael Bérubé and Cary Nelson (New York: Routledge, 1995), 214-37.
Hazel V. Carby, “The Multicultural Wars,” in Black Popular Culture: A Project by Michele Wallace, ed. Gina Dent (Seattle: Bay Press, 1992), 187-99.
Angie Chabram-Dernersesian, “On the Social Construction of Whiteness within Selected Chicana/o Discourses,” in Displacing Whiteness: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism, ed. Ruth Frankenberg (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997), 107-164.
Kimberly Christensen, “‘With Whom Do You Believe Your Lot Is Cast?’: White Feminists and Racism,” Signs 22, no. 3 (Spring 1997): 617-48.
Ward Churchill, “White Studies: The Intellectual Imperialism of U. S. Higher Education,” in Beyond Comfort Zones in Multiculturalism: Confronting the Politics of Privilege, ed. Sandra Jackson and José Solís (Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1995), 17-35.
Reed Way Dasenbrock “English Department Geography: Interpreting the MLA Bibliography,” in Pedagogy Is Politics: Literary Theory and Critical Teaching, ed. Maria-Regina Kecht (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992), 193-214.
Richard Delgado, “Storytelling for Oppositionists and Others: A Plea for Narrative,” in The Latino/a Condition: A Critical Reader, ed. Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 259-70.
Vine Deloria, Jr., “Higher Education and Self-Determination,” Spirit and Reason: The Vine Deloria, Jr., Reader, ed. Barbara Deloria, Kristen Foehner, and Sam Scinta (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1999), 144-53.
Vine Deloria, Jr., “The Turmoil of Ethnic Studies,” Spirit and Reason: The Vine Deloria, Jr., Reader, ed. Barbara Deloria, Kristen Foehner, and Sam Scinta (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1999), 154-58.
Mary Dilg, “Response to Rosa Hernández Sheets’s Review of Race and Culture,” Educational Researcher, 29, no. 9 (December 2000), 24-26.
Ann duCille, “The Occult of True Black Womanhood: Critical Demeanor and Black Feminist Studies,” Signs 19, no. 3 (Spring 1994): 591-629.
Elizabeth Ellsworth, “Double Binds of Whiteness,” in Off White: Readings on Race, Power, and Society, ed. Michelle Fine, Lois Weis, Linda C. Powell, and L. Mun Wong (New York: Routledge, 1997), 259-69.
Marilyn Frye, “Oppression,” in The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1983), 1-16.
Charles A. Gallagher, “White Like Me? Methods, Meaning, and Manipulation in the Field of White Studies,” in Racing Research, Researching Race: Methodological Dilemmas in Critical Race Studies, ed. France Winddance Twine and Jonathan W. Warren (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 67-92.
Charles A. Gallagher, “White Reconstruction in the University,” Socialist Review 94, nos. 1 & 2 (1995): 165-87.
Perry Gilmore, David M. Smith, and Apacuar Larry Kairaiuak, “Resisting Diversity: An Alaskan Case of Institutional Struggle,” in Off White: Readings on Race, Power, and Society, ed. Michelle Fine, Lois Weis, Linda C. Powell, and L. Mun Wong (New York: Routledge, 1997), 90-99.
Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (New York: Norton, 1981). Revised edition: Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, rev. ed. (New York: Norton, 1996).
John Langston Gwaltney, Drylongso: A Self-Portrait of Black America (New York: Vintage, 1980).
Stephanie Houston Grey, “The Statistical War on Equality: Visions of American Virtuosity in The Bell Curve,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 85, no. 3 (August 1999): 303-29.
Robert V. Guthrie, Even the Rat Was White: A Historical View of Psychology, 2nd ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998). [Orig. 1976]
Gary R. Howard, “Reflections on the ‘White Movement’ in Multicultural Education,” Educational Researcher, 29, no. 9 (December 2000), 21-23.
Ronald L. Jackson II, “White Space, White Privilege: Mapping Discursive Inquiry into the Self,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 85, no. 1 (February 1999): 38-54.
Alison Jones, “The Limits of Cross-Cultural Dialogue: Pedagogy, Desire, and Absolution in the Classroom,” Educational Theory 49, no. 3 (Summer 1999): 299-316.
Joyce E. King, “Dysconscious Racism: Ideology, Identity, and the Miseducation of Teachers,” The Journal of Negro Education 60, no. 2 (Spring 1991): 133-46.
Joyce A. Ladner, ed., The Death of White Sociology (New York: Random House, 1973).
María Lugones, “Hablando cara a cara/Speaking Face to Face: An Exploration of Ethnocentric Racism,” in Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Women of Color, ed. Gloria Anzaldúa (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Foundation Books, 1990), 46-54.
María de la Luz Reyes and John J. Halcón, “Racism in Academia: The Old Wolf Revisited,” Harvard Educational Review 58, no. 3 (August 1988): 299-314.
Frances A. Maher and Mary Kay Thompson Tetreault, “‘They Got the Paradigm and Painted It White’: Whiteness and Pedagogies of Positionality,” in White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America, ed. Joe L. Kincheloe, Shirley R. Steinberg, Nelson M. Rodriguez, and Ronald E. Chennault (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998), 137-58.
Cameron McCarthy, Ed Buendía, Carol Mills, Shuaib Meacham, Heriberto Godina, Carrie Wilson-Brown, Maria Seferian, and Theresa Souchet, “The Last Rational Men: Citizenship, Morality, and the Pursuit of Human Perfection,” in Measured Lies: The Bell Curve Examined, ed. Joe L. Kincheloe, Shirley R. Steinberg, and Aaron D. Gresson III (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996), 251-64.
Alice McIntyre, “Exploring Whiteness and Multicultural Education with Prospective Teachers,” Curriculum Inquiry 32, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 31-49.
Alice McIntyre, “A Response to Rosa Hernández Sheets,” Educational Researcher, 29, no. 9 (December 2000), 26-27.
Jackson B. Miller, “‘Indians,’ ‘Braves,’ and ‘Redskins’: A Performative Struggle for Control of an Image,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 85, no. 2 (May 1999): 188-202.
Charles W. Mills, “Revisionist Ontologies: Theorizing White Supremacy,” Blackness Visible: Essays on Philosophy and Race (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998), 97-118.
Christopher Newfield, “What Was Political Correctness? Race, the Right, and Managerial Democracy in the Humanities,” Critical Inquiry 19, no. 2 (Winter 1993): 308-36.
Roberto Rodriguez, “The Study of Whiteness,” Black Issues in Higher Education 16, no. 6 (May 13, 1999): 20-25.
Lloyd H. Rogler, “Methodological Sources of Cultural Insensitivity in Mental Health Research,” American Psychologist 54, no. 6 (June 1999): 424-33.
Gloria J. Romero, “Some Thoughts on Being Promoted and Tenured in the Academy,” California Sociologist, special issue: Culture and Conflict in the Academy: Testimonies from a War Zone, ed. Gloria Romero and Lourdes Arguelles 14, nos. 1-2 (Winter/Summer 1991), 189-201.
James Joseph Scheurich, “A Difficult, Confusing, Painful Problem that Requires Many Voices, Many Perspectives,” Educational Researcher 22, no. 8 (November 1993): 15-16.
James Joseph Scheurich, “Toward a White Discourse on White Racism,” Educational Researcher 22, no. 8 (November 1993): 5-10.
James Joseph Scheurich and Michelle D. Young, “Coloring Epistemologies: Are Our Research Epistemologies Racially Biased?” Educational Researcher 26, no. 4 (May 1997): 4-16.
James Joseph Scheurich and Michelle D. Young, “White Racism among White Faculty: From Critical Understanding to Antiracist Activism,” in The Racial Crisis in American Higher Education: Continuing Challenges for the Twenty-First Century, rev. ed., ed. William A. Smith, Philip G. Altbach, and Kofi Lomotey (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002), 221-42.
Carol Schick, “‘By Virtue of Being White’: Resistance in Anti-Racist Pedagogy,” Race Ethnicity and Education 3, no. 1 (February 2000): 83-102.
Carol Schick, “Keeping the Ivory Tower White: Discourses of Racial Domination,” in Race, Space, and the Law: Unmapping a White Settler Society, ed. Sherene H. Razack (Toronto: Between the Lines Press, 2002), 99-119.
John Robert Schmitz, “Offsetting the Exclusive Use of English in International Journals,” Discourse and Society 11, no. 2 (April 2000): 283-85.
Ofelia Schutte, “Cultural Alterity: Cross-Cultural Communication and Feminist Theory in North-South Contexts,” Hypatia 13, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 53-72.
Rosa Hernández Sheets, “Advancing the Field or Taking Center Stage: The White Movement in Multicultural Education,” Educational Researcher, 29, no. 9 (December 2000), 15-21.
Christine E. Sleeter, “Advancing a White Discourse: Response to Scheurich,” Educational Researcher 22, no. 8 (November 1993): 13-15.
Barbara Smith, “‘Feisty Characters’ and ‘Other People’s Causes’: Memories of White Racism and U.S. Feminism,” in The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women’s Liberation, ed. Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Ann Snitow (New York: Three Rivers Press/Crown, 1998), 477-81.
Audrey Thompson, “Entertaining Doubts: Enjoyment and Ambiguity in White, Antiracist Classrooms.” in Passion and Pedagogy: Relation, Creation, and Transformation in Teaching, ed. Elijah Mirochnik and Debora C. Sherman (New York: Peter Lang, 2002), 431-52.
Audrey Thompson, “Gentlemanly Orthodoxy: Critical Race Feminism and the Whiteness of the APA Guidelines,” paper presented at the annual Midwest Society for Women in Philosophy meeting in Normal, IL (October 2001).
Audrey Thompson, “Who Thinks Like This?” in Randall Curren, ed., Philosophy of Education 1999 (Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society, 1999), 15-18.
Barry Troyna, “‘The Whites of My Eyes, Nose, Ears . . .’: A Reflexive Account of ‘Whiteness’ in Race-Related Research,” in Researching Racism in Education: Politics, Theory, and Practice, ed. Paul Connolly and Barry Troyna (Buckingham, England: Open University Press, 1998), 95-108.
France Winddance Twine, “Racial Ideologies and Racial Methodologies,” in Racing Research, Researching Race: Methodological Dilemmas in Critical Race Studies, ed. France Winddance Twine and Jonathan W. Warren (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 1-34.
France Winddance Twine and Jonathan W. Warren, eds., Racing Research, Researching Race: Methodological Dilemmas in Critical Race Studies (New York: New York University Press, 2000).
Lynet Uttal, “Inclusion without Influence: The Continuing Tokenism of Women of Color,” in Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Women of Color, ed. Gloria Anzaldúa (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Foundation Books, 1990), 42-45.
Octavio Villalpando and Dolores Delgado Bernal, “A Critical Race Theory Analysis of Barriers that Impede the Success of Faculty of Color,” in The Racial Crisis in American Higher Education: Continuing Challenges for the Twenty-First Century, rev. ed., ed. William A. Smith, Philip G. Altbach, and Kofi Lomotey (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002), 243-69.
Sofia Villenas, “The Colonizer/Colonized Chicana Ethnographer: Identity, Marginalization, and Co-optation in the Field,” Harvard Educational Review 66, no. 4 (Winter 1996): 711-31.
Kathryn B. Ward, “‘Lifting as We Climb’: How Scholarship by and about Women of Color Has Shaped My Life as a White Feminist,” in Color, Class and Country: Experiences of Gender, ed. Gay Young and Bette J. Dickerson (London: Zed Books, 1994), 199-217.
John Warren, “Whiteness and Cultural Theory: Perspectives on Research and Education,” The Urban Review 31, no. 2 (June 1999): 185-203.
Robyn Wiegman, “Whiteness Studies and the Paradox of Particularity,” Boundary 2 vol. 26, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 115-50.
Stephanie M. Wildman, “Reflections on Whiteness: The Case of Latinos(as)” in Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror, ed. Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997), 323-26.
Michelle D. Young and Julie Laible, “White Racism, Antiracism, and School Leadership Preparation,” Journal of School Leadership 10, no. 4 (September 2000): 374-415.
Michelle Young and Jerry Rosiek, “Interrogating Whiteness,” Educational Researcher 29, no. 2 (March 2000): 39-44. [Review of White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America]
Robert Young, White Mythologies: Writing History and the West (London: Routledge, 1990).