This course introduces students to critical studies of race and racism, including white innocence and bio- and
necropolitics and their significance also in Central Europe. How are racialised distinctions being made, and
wilfully ignored? Is race socially constructed and how? What innovative methods to study race and racism have
been proposed, in particular in the absence of archives that include testimonies of marginalised people? How can
racialised legacies become the ground for racial utopias and future imaginings?
Last update: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (13.06.2023)
This course introduces students to critical studies of race and racism, including white innocence and bio- and
necropolitics and their significance also in Central Europe. How are racialised distinctions being made, and
wilfully ignored? Is race socially constructed and how? What innovative methods to study race and racism have
been proposed, in particular in the absence of archives that include testimonies of marginalised people? How can
racialised legacies become the ground for racial utopias and future imaginings?
Syllabus -
Last update: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (13.06.2023)
1. White Innocence
2. Racialized Schemas and the Performativity of Race
3. Racial Bio- and Necropolitics
4. Environmental racism
5. Racial Melancholia
6. Transgenerational trauma
7. Blackness and animality
8. Listening to racial aspiration
9. Researching racial absences in the archive
10. Black utopias
11. Indigenous Futurism
Last update: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (13.06.2023)
1. White Innocence
2. Racialized Schemas and the Performativity of Race
3. Racial Bio- and Necropolitics
4. Environmental racism
5. Racial Melancholia
6. Transgenerational trauma
7. Blackness and animality
8. Listening to racial aspiration
9. Researching racial absences in the archive
10. Black utopias
11. Indigenous Futurism
Course completion requirements -
Last update: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (13.06.2023)
Ø Active participation in weekly class discussions: 25 %
Ø Short concept paper (700 words): write about a concept from the course readings that you find interesting: where does it come from, how is it defined? Illustrate by way of a referenced example what the concept allows us to sense and do. 25%
Ø Short abstract for final paper: 10%
Ø Final paper: analyse and expand a subject from the course readings, drawing on two further readings and at least two main readings (2500 words individually or 3500 words in pairs): 40%
Last update: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (13.06.2023)
Ø Active participation in weekly class discussions: 25 %
Ø Short concept paper (700 words): write about a concept from the course readings that you find interesting: where does it come from, how is it defined? Illustrate by way of a referenced example what the concept allows us to sense and do. 25%
Ø Short abstract for final paper: 10%
Ø Final paper: analyse and expand a subject from the course readings, drawing on two further readings and at least two main readings (2500 words individually or 3500 words in pairs): 40%
Learning resources -
Last update: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (13.06.2023)
Eng, David L and Shinhee Han (2003) ‘A dialogue on racial melancholia’, in D. Eng and D. Kazanjian (eds) Loss: The Politics of Mourning, pp. 343-371, Berkely: University of California Press.
Fanon, Frantz (1967/1952) ‘The fact of blackness’, in A. Haddour (Ed.) The Fanon Reader, [extract pp. 127-131], London: Pluto Press.
Gunaratnam, Yasmin (2003) Researching ‘Race’ and Ethnicity. Methods, Knowledge and Power, pp. 136-156, London: Sage.
Lewis, Gail (2017) ‘Questions of Presence’, Feminist Review 117:1-19.
Wekker, Gloria (2016) White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race, Durham: Duke University Press.
Last update: Bc. Veronika Kučabová (13.06.2023)
Eng, David L and Shinhee Han (2003) ‘A dialogue on racial melancholia’, in D. Eng and D. Kazanjian (eds) Loss: The Politics of Mourning, pp. 343-371, Berkely: University of California Press.
Fanon, Frantz (1967/1952) ‘The fact of blackness’, in A. Haddour (Ed.) The Fanon Reader, [extract pp. 127-131], London: Pluto Press.
Gunaratnam, Yasmin (2003) Researching ‘Race’ and Ethnicity. Methods, Knowledge and Power, pp. 136-156, London: Sage.
Lewis, Gail (2017) ‘Questions of Presence’, Feminist Review 117:1-19.
Wekker, Gloria (2016) White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race, Durham: Duke University Press.
