Bruce Burgett edits a Keywords Now cluster of essays on “Critical/Race/Theory”

IAS faculty member Bruce Burgett co-edited (with Glenn Hendler, Fordham University) a Keywords Now cluster of essays on “Critical/Race/Theory.” Keywords Now is an extension of Burgett and Hendler’s co-edited Keywords for American Cultural Studies, Third Edition. It is designed to explore ongoing shifts in the meanings of key terms that shape research, teaching, and thinking about complex social and cultural issues.

The current cluster responds to right-wing attacks in the United States on a rich and diverse field of critical thought about race and racism, including legislative attempts to ban the teaching of “Critical Race Theory.” Individual essays by Shana L. Redmond (Columbia University) and Dylan Rodriguez (UC Riverside) on “Critical,” Rebecca Wanzo (Washington University) on “Race,” and Tavia Nyong’o (Yale University) on “Theory” are intended to unpack those terms in ways that support teachers seeking to open discussion of the history and politics of race and racism, as well as students who are encountering those teachings, perhaps for the first time.