COML 4353
Last Updated
- Schedule of Classes - January 5, 2026 3:59PM EST
Classes
COML 4353
Course Description
Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.
As a philosophical approach to culture and society emerging out of European contexts, critical theory has traditionally excluded questions about the history of racial difference. Yet critical theory’s insights into processes of subject formation, social relations, mass culture, and general emancipatory drive continue to inform and be of value to scholars of race concerned with the everyday production and transmission of ideas about normative humanity. At the same time, in their engagement with theory's blindspots, scholars of race demonstrate the racialized histories, contexts, and assumptions that make up that for which "theory" cannot account, as well as that from which it has unquestioningly emerged. This course explores contemporary critical scholarship on race, as defined by its relationship to anti-positivist epistemologies, theories of the subject, critiques of traditional ontology and aesthetics, and engagement with the Black radical tradition, environmental humanities, psychoanalysis, and more. Some familiarity with key figures and ideas in postcolonial theory and Black studies is desirable though not absolutely necessary. Readings may include Denise Ferreira da Silva, Sylvia Wynter, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, Rizvana Bradley, David Marriott, Rei Terada, Nahum Dmitri Chandler, Fred Moten, and others.
Distribution Requirements (CA-AG, LA-AG), (ALC-AS)
Last 1 Terms Offered 2020SP
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: COML 6353, GOVT 4356, GOVT 6356
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
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Class Number & Section Details
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Meeting Pattern
- T Rockefeller Hall B16
- Jan 20 - May 5, 2026
Instructors
Vaziri, P
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
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