INTL 382 - White Nationalism and Greco-Roman Antiquity

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as GRST 382) Ever since a mob chanted “Jews will not replace us” at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the resurgence of white nationalist politics in the United States has become increasingly difficult to ignore. This course investigates the intellectual foundations of this phenomenon by examining the inspiration this movement takes from the texts and symbols of ancient Greece and Rome. References that a casual observer might assume amount to nothing more than abuse of history turn out to be symptomatic of the long-standing and wide-ranging entanglement of white supremacy, the nation state, and the study of history. Beginning with a survey of examples of white nationalist classicism and the core tenets of white nationalist ideologies in the twenty-first century, the course then turns to an investigation of the rhetorical utility of Greco-Roman antiquity for white nationalist activists; the relationship between overt and mainstream white nationalism; the racial politics of the Enlightenment ideals that underpin modern concepts of nationhood; and the links between political theory and real-world violence. Curtis Dozier.

Prerequisite(s): One course in GRST or INTL 360/HIST 360, or permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS