RELG 2155 - Whiteness & Religion: Religious Foundations of a Racial Category

This class examines the role religion plays in defining a racial category known as whiteness. By reading cultural histories and ethnographies of the religious practices of various communities, we will examine how groups now classified as white (Irish, Italians, Poles, Jews, etc.) and religious images (depictions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary) “became white” and the role that religious practice played in this shift in racial classification.

Credits: 3