This course will focus on the intersections, tensions, contradictions, and interconnections between race, class, gender, and sexuality as social identities. The readings, discussions, and activities of the course center on identities that appear to be “in between”/on the fault lines as well as those on the cultural margins or periphery of the social context. Hence we will follow the analytic approach of DuBois’ assertion that groups occupying these social locations see most clearly the structure and contractions of society. We will explore these unique social positions of being “the other brother” or the “outsider-within” to illuminate both the contemporary patterns of social structure and resources individuals engaged in such border crossing use to successfully navigate within such social systems. The course will used assigned readings, group discussions and planned activities to interrogate individual and group experiences using testimonies, biographies, family histories, community rituals and traditions. Each of these forms of information will be treated as data to investigate the determinants of contemporary borders in social identities and the skills that are useful in successfully crossing such borders.
- Teacher: Kesha Moore