??This course focuses on contemporary issues around the critical philosophy of race, broadly construed. There are three parts to the course. First, we will explore the history whereby the concept of race emerged in the aftermath of the invasion of the Americas and in the context of the subsequent transatlantic slave trade. We shall scrutinize how philosophers have historically thought about race, during the Enlightenment and beyond. Secondly, we will turn our attention to the political role that race and racism currently serve in the context of neoliberalism. Our focus in this part will be on issues around citizenship, globalization, immigration, national security, and the borders of the nation-state. Finally, in the third part, we will focus on the phenomenology of race as it emerges in whiteness studies, alongside issues surrounding identity, class, and privilege.

There are various methodologies being used within the critical philosophy of race in which the students will become well-versed. By focusing on some of the most recently published works in the critical philosophy of race, our goal is to both become familiar with the history whereby the concept of race emerged and the ways in which it is operative and descriptive of sets of power relations at play in the political field today. Another objective of the course is to become more attentive to the material and symbolic conditions that ground power relations around race on a global scale through an engagement with this multi- and interdisciplinary field.