Hello everyone,
I'm excited to announce that the American Studies Workshop is co-sponsoring
a Social & Cultural Theory Reading Group with the History Grad Student
Association (HGSA), led by Emma Herman and myself. The reading group will
hold two meetings per theme;the first theme will be *Racial Formation,
Capitalism, Power, & the State*. The first meeting is on *Friday, February
24th*, and the second on *Friday, March 3rd, from 4-6 pm in the Robinson
basement seminar room*.
Readings will be accessible via a shared Google Drive here
<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QfMMUokDsx3WcWLiFhChhAHJv4z764oF?us…>
. The readings + schedule for the first two meetings are as follows:
Week 1 (Feb. 24th)
1. Karl Marx, Grundrisse (Penguin), Introduction, p. 83-111
2. Ellen M Woods, ‘The Separation of the Economic and the Political in
Capitalism”
3. Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”
4. Jackson Lears, “The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and
Possibilities”
5. Foucault, “Two Lectures” (in *Power/Knowledge*)
Week 2 (March 3rd):
1. Nancy Fraser (2016), ‘Expropriation and Exploitation in Racialized
Capitalism’, Critical Historical Studies, 3,1, pp. 163-178.
2. Stuart Hall, ‘Race, Articulation, and Societies Structured in
Dominance’, 42p
3. Gargi Bhattacharyya (2018), “Introduction: Ten Theses on Racial
Capitalism”
4. Cedric J. Robinson (2000), ‘Introduction’, and ‘Chapter One: Racial
Capitalism’, in *Black Marxism*
5. Stuart Hall et al. *Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law
and Order*, Chs. 3, 7, 8
6. Ruth Wilson Gilmore, *Golden Gulag*, Introduction
7. Paul Gilroy, *There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack. The Cultural
Politics of Race and Nation* (1987), chs.3-4.
We hope to hold another paired set of meetings on a different theme in
April/May, depending on interest. If you’d like to propose a theme, please
feel free to reach out and let us know—we can be reached at
eherman(a)fas.harvard.edu and asuarez(a)g.harvard.edu.
Also, please feel free to attend the first meeting even if you don't have
time to read all of the selections (as I know the first meeting is coming
up soon)! We're as interested in creating a shared community at Harvard for
reading critical theory as we are doing the actual reading. You can RSVP
here <https://forms.gle/hhhyXXmWzZ9o95WL8>.
Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope to see many of you
there!
All the best,
Andrew Suárez
Dear all,
We’re excited to announce a new reading group on social and political theory for the spring semester. The theme for our first set of readings is Racial formation, capitalism, power and the state and our first meetings will be held on Friday, February 24th and Friday, March 3rd, from 4-6 PM (location to be confirmed—probably the Robinson basement seminar room).
The selected readings for these meetings are as follows—for ease of access, all chapters and essays will be uploaded to a Google Drive folder here<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QfMMUokDsx3WcWLiFhChhAHJv4z764oF?us…>.
Week 1 (Feb 24):
1. Karl Marx, Grundrisse (Penguin), Introduction, p. 83-111
2. Ellen M Woods, ‘The Separation of the Economic and the Political in Capitalism”
3. Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”
4. Jackson Lears, “The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities”
5. Foucault, “Two Lectures” (in Power/Knowledge)
Week 2 (Mar 3):
1. Nancy Fraser (2016), ‘Expropriation and Exploitation in Racialized Capitalism’, Critical Historical Studies, 3,1, pp. 163-178.
2. Stuart Hall, ‘Race, Articulation, and Societies Structured in Dominance’, 42p
3. Gargi Bhattacharyya (2018), “Introduction: Ten Theses on Racial Capitalism”
4. Cedric J. Robinson (2000), ‘Introduction’, and ‘Chapter One: Racial Capitalism’, in Black Marxism
5. Stuart Hall et al. Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order
6. Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Golden Gulag, Introduction
7. Paul Gilroy, There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack. The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation (1987), chs.3-4.
We hope to hold another paired set of meetings on a different theme in April/May, depending on interest. If you’d like to propose a theme, please feel free to reach out and let us know—we can be reached at eherman(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:eherman@fas.harvard.edu> and asuarez(a)g.harvard.edu<mailto:asuarez@g.harvard.edu>.
Best,
Emma and Andrew
