Critical Race Theory: Why it’s Banned and Why it Matters

Jennifer Roth-Gordon
Fall 2024
Monday |  
6 PM - 8 PM
October 7, 14, 21, 28, November 4, 2024
Course Format: Hybrid
Location: Main Campus
Tuition: $165.00

This course seeks to break down the controversies surrounding Critical Race Theory. We begin by defining the many terms that have moved out of scholarly circles and into the headlines, social media, and school board and legislative debates: critical race theory/studies, structural racism, white supremacy, white privilege, anti-blackness, settler colonialism, racial hierarchy, Islamophobia, etc. We then dig more deeply into the research and evidence for structural racism, examining case studies on the criminal justice system, drug policies, mass incarceration, police violence, health, education, the environment, housing, the economy, and the job market. Lectures and readings will focus on racial inequality and its impact on African Americans, Latinx peoples, Asian Americans, Indigenous people, and Arab Americans in the US context, but international examples will be discussed as well.

Current Arizona K-12 educators, especially those who teach US history or race related topics, are invited to join this class as part of a special educator cohort. The educator cohort experiences will include additional teaching resources, a designated online discussion group, and an extra zoom session with Professor Roth-Gordon on Monday, November 18, from 6-8pm. This session will allow time to discuss the challenges of talking about race with students, how to address current events without bringing in one’s personal political views, and how to navigate the emotional responses introduced in discussions of race and racism. Current Arizona educators may apply for a full tuition scholarship and enroll in this course online here.  

Required Reading

No textbook is required. All readings will be distributed to students electronically.

Meet Your Professor

Associate Professor

Jennifer Roth-Gordon is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona where she has taught racial and social justice classes to thousands of undergraduate and graduate students since 2004. Her first book, Race and the Brazilian Body: Blackness, Whiteness, and Everyday Language in Rio de Janeiro, interrogates racial inequality and common beliefs in the superiority of whiteness and has been taught in university classes around the country.

Location

POETRY CENTER
Dorothy Rubel Room
1508 E Helen
Tucson, AZ 85721
United States

Located on the SE corner of Helen Street and Vine Avenue, one block north of Speedway and three blocks west of Campbell Ave.

Street map image of Poetry Center

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