Slavery & Its Afterlives

This course examines what Saidiya Hartman calls the ‘afterlife of slavery.’ By drawing from readings in cultural studies, Black feminist theory, sociology, philosophy, and decolonial thought, the class explores questions surrounding the archive of transatlantic slavery and its afterlives. A crucial goal of the course is to engage critically the meaning of sexuality, intimacy, reproduction, labor, and domination in slaveholding societies. Throughout the course, students will discuss how the afterlives of slavery inform current ethical debates on issues like: sexual violence, reparations, surveillance, criminalization, incarceration, housing, militarism, imperialism, distribution of wealth, environmental racism, education, mental illness, political participation, and anti-colonial activism. The course is therefore structured less as a historical survey of slavery and more as an investigation as to how slavery is remembered and its rhetorical function when reasoning about today’s moral and political controversies. Special attention is paid to how a study of slavery’s afterlives challenges narratives of U.S. exceptionalism and innocence, as well as stories commonly told about freedom, emancipations, and racial progress.