POLI 267 - Transits of US Empire Transits through US Empire

1 unit(s)

In Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto, Vine Deloria Jr. wrote: ”The Indian wars of the past should rightly be regarded as the first foreign wars of American history”. Beginning with Deloria’s statement, in this class, we will consider the politics of U.S. colonialism and empire, critically reflecting on the spatial and temporal lines that are often drawn between these processes. We will examine how historical and ongoing violence against indigenous nations and African-Americans, in particular, reverberates through U.S. “overseas” warfare (and vice versa), but will also consider how these reverberations have opened up spaces for different global affiliations and solidarities. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which law and geography are implicated in processes of U.S. colonialism and empire, considering the multiple and often-unstable ways in which legal and geographical practices make possible violent dispossessions (of land, labor and more).

Two 75-minute periods.

Not offered in 2023/24.

Course Format: CLS