This course will trace entanglements of race, gender and sexuality that animate critical discourse of the U.S. as an ongoing imperial project. With an eye for the historical contexts which produced them, we’ll look at the political emergence of coalitions like ‘Third World,’ ‘women of color,’ and ‘Asian American Pacific Islander’ and the different tactics they used to address white supremacy, colonialism, patriarchy, and other formations of power. How does the past inform us in the present? Can thinking about the U.S. as an empire, or a settler colony, help us understand how we came to believe that assimilation and belonging to the nation are modes of equality and justice?

We will look at academic texts in Black feminist theory, queer theory, critical trans theory, critical Indigenous studies, and American studies, as well as articles, poems, zines, blogs, and videos to explore these complex questions. My goal is to give you the tools to critically engage with power and draw connections between what we read and the people and structures you negotiate in everyday life.