MA/PGDip Gender, Sexuality and Culture / Course details

This course examines the origins, development and legitimisation of race and ‘whiteness’ – a powerful form of institutional power granting white men legal, social and psychological authority over blacks, Indians and women – in the American South, from first settlement in the seventeenth century to the establishment of Jim Crow segregation in the southern states in the late nineteenth century. It outlines the complex and contested process by which different groups of southerners, Native Americans, Europeans and Africans, internalised or sometimes challenged notions of racial identity and came to regard themselves, and those around them, as ‘white,’ ‘black’ or ‘red’. Students will consider the broad significance of race to the historical development of the South and to scholarly debates about the nature of southern society. The course will provide points of comparison, assessing southern race relations within a broader national and international framework. 

- Consider the origins, consolidation and enduring significance of race in the American South 

- Explore historiographical debates considering race and the development of the southern colonies that became the southern states after the American Revolution  

- Develop skills of critical thinking and close analysis through a detailed engagement with a range of primary and secondary sources  

- Hone students’ research, presentation, and writing skills as well as their capacity to construct a sustained and coherent argument of a standard appropriate to MA-level work  

By the end of this course, students should be able to: 

- to recognise that race has multiple and contested meanings;  

- to appreciate the interconnection of race, class, gender and other markers of status and identity; 

- to coherently evaluate the utility of race to the historical development of the American South, using primary and secondary sources 

The course will be taught by means of one 90 minute seminar per week; sessions will include lectures at times 

teaching, materials including lecture slides, bibliographies, & handouts (posted on Blackboard) 

Students will be encouraged to use Blackboard discussion boards  

By the end of this course, students should be able to: 

- to understand the ways in which race underpinned power relations and the southern social structure at particular historical moments; 

- to be familiar with the major contentions of the substantial scholarship, in different fields, exploring the social construction of identity 

- to confidently navigate historiographical debates concerning race and the American South over a long duration 

By the end of this course, students should be able to: 

- plan and execute independent research essay; 

- make good use of library, electronic, and online resources pertaining to the course; 

- speak and write clearly about the historical evolution of race and racism in the American South; 

- organise, synthesise and critically evaluate material from a range of different sources, including library, electronic, and online resources; 

- produce written work using appropriate language for an academic audience;  

- produce written work that collects and integrates primary and secondary sources to develop a critical argument; 

 - demonstrate good teamwork skills by acknowledging the views of others and working constructively with others 

David Brown and Clive Webb, Race in the American South: From Slavery to Civil Rights (Gainesville, 2007)  

Kathleen M. Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race and Power in Colonial Virginia (Chapel Hill, 2003) 

George M. Fredrickson, Racism: A Short History (Princeton, 2002)  

Stephen Kantrowitz, Ben Tillman and the Reconstruction of White Supremacy (Chapel Hill, 2000) 

Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (New York, 2016) 

Nell Irvin Painter, The History of White People (New York, 2010) 

Theda Perdue, Mixed Blood Indians: Racial Construction in the Early South (Athens, 2003) 

Joshua D. Rothman, Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Families Across the Color Line in Virginia (Chapel Hill, 2003)