This course investigates white supremacy through aesthetics, or the philosophy of embodied knowledge. We ask how white supremacy represents itself and engages in aesthetic world-making across long histories of colonialism and global racial capitalism. To what degree has it been unrepresented, or even become unrepresentable, in language, photography, moving images, and contemporary media environments? We will address these questions, and others, through close study, analysis, and critique of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophies of subjecthood; twentieth-century media theory, and psychoanalytic theory–all historical backgrounds for present white supremacist configurations. Engaging Black thought, postcolonial theory, indigeous theory, and feminist phenomenology, we will discuss and devise critical creative practices for disempowering and unmaking white supremacy. 

Course Requirements:

Attendance and participation, discussion posts, weekly readings, at-home screenings, presentations, final project or essay

Intended Audience:

Students interested in the intersections of racialization; theories of aesthetic and embodied experience; ethics; and media critique

Class Format:

Seminar - meets once weekly