Few technologies of domination have been wielded with more sweeping and devastating global consequence than race. The research and teaching taxonomies of predominantly White institutions such as Princeton bear witness both to this history and to the intricacy of those mechanisms that work to conceal it. Taking our cue from Achille Mbembe – “racial thinking… has been the ever-present shadow hovering over Western political thought and practice” – we’ll examine the role of race and racialization in the formation of the intellectual disciplines around which universities like ours are organized, with a particular emphasis on the humanities.
