Spring 2024

21L.706
Studies in Film: Aesthetics, Ethics, and White Supremacy
Lecture
MW
1-2:30P
4-253
Screening
W
7-10P
3-270

Same Subject As: CMS.830
Prereq: 21L.011, one subject in Literature or Comparative Media Studies; or permission of instructor
Units: 3-3-6 HASS-H, CI-M; Can be repeated for credit

This course investigates white supremacy through aesthetics, or the philosophy of embodied knowledge. We approach white supremacy not only as an ideology or system but an aesthetic environment that shapes, as Sara Ahmed writes, which bodies get to “be at home.”We ask how white supremacy represents itself and engages in aesthetic world-making across Enlightenment ethico-political accounts of the“sublime”and “beautiful,” historical imaginaries, and media regimes past and present. Engaging Black thought; intersectional approaches to racialized experience, and a diverse array of cinematic works, built environments, and visual art, we will discuss and devise critical creative practices for disempowering and unmaking white supremacist futures.