COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course focuses on one central theme: European colonial domination, racial genocidal ideology and the making of the modern world system. It is not a traditional historical survey, nor a comprehensive outline of world history. Rather it has two conceptual and historical objectives. The first objective of this course is to introduce students to critical thinking about the production of knowledge and the cases of Eurocentrism, colonialism and genocide. The second objective is to make students globally aware of the hidden interconnections and linkages that have tied colonial genocide to the Holocaust and other cases of genocide in the 20thC.
We will accomplish our objectives by investigating the following sub themes: conceptualizing empire and genocide, roots of Colonial racism, and genocidal ideology, Conrad and the colonial Conquest of Congo, Black Athena and the Debate over Eurocentrism, and Arendt and the colonial roots of the Holocaust.
