Teaching the Veil: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Classical Theory Courses

Abstract

By documenting the erasure of W.E.B. Du Bois’s scientific contributions to sociology, Aldon Morris’s The Scholar Denied was a catalyst for scholars to rethink how we teach and understand social theory and a call to recognize the racialized origins of our discipline. How can we incorporate these insights into our teaching beyond a token addition of Du Bois to classical theory courses? Drawing on comments from anonymous student evaluations and completed assignments including essay exams, final papers, and end-of-year reflections from one classical theory course, the authors argue that teaching classical theory requires teaching about race, ethnicity, and gender and outline three pedagogical principles. First, we assert that it starts with the syllabus. Second, we demonstrate how incorporating theorists’ biographies situates them in their sociohistorical contexts. Finally, active learning observational assignments reveal how research is a scholarly conversation and demonstrate the enduring importance, and limitations, of classical theories and theorists. Together, these pedagogical tools show how the classical theory canon is racialized. By providing conceptual and logistical tools scholar-teachers can use to incorporate race, ethnicity, and gender in classical theory courses, we highlight how issues of race and gender should not be relegated to substantive courses. Instead, they are central to understanding and teaching the foundations of sociology.

So You’ve Provincialized the Canon. Now What?

“…Others have warned of the tokenizing effects that stem from merely adding individual thinkers, such as Du Bois. These scholars have focused on ways that theory curricula need to be significantly reformulated to incorporate substantive topics, like race and gender, that are central to the discipline of sociology yet largely absent from the classical canon (Reyes and Johnson 2020;Itzigsohn and Brown 2020) and to expose the historical conditions that created the (White/European) foundingfathers myth of sociology in the first place (Connell 1997;Fillingim and Rucks-Ahidiana 2021;Meghji 2021). Perhaps the most radical proposals call the very idea of a canon into question, arguing that it rests on "an untenable foundation story" (Connell 1997(Connell :1511 that obscures the discipline's true origins all the while narrowing what sorts of questions are deemed truly sociological (see also Connell 2007).…”

Empowering students to confront environmental injustice: Dialogue, theory, empathy, and partnership

“…By presenting theories that articulate the causes of racial and environmental inequality as complimentary than competing ideas, we invite students to remain critically engaged with these issues. Another approach is to define social theory “as a scholarly conversation” between theorists (Reyes and Johnson, 2020 :565). When presented in this light, three theories that can help to explain environmental inequality to students include (1) the rational choice model, (2) the sociopolitical model, and (3) the racial discrimination model (Mohai et al, 2009 ).…”

“…Theoretical explanations for environmental injustice can be further enriched by putting them into conversation with different voices, particularly with respect to historically marginalized standpoints (Lykes et al, 2018 ; Stapleton, 2020 ; Collins, 2019 ; Reyes and Johnson, 2020 ). This type of pedagogical practice can help students learn to weigh different types of empirical evidence, appreciate methodological diversity, identify ethical dilemmas, examine different policy options, and cultivate a deeper sense of empathy for others (Yoder et al 2013 ).…”

Teaching Social Theory as Cartography: Toward a Pedagogy of Radical Accessibility

“…Connell 2018; R. W. Connell 1997; Emigh, Hernández, and O’Malley 2020; Go 2020; Itzigsohn and Brown 2020; Krippner 2019; Reyes and Johnson 2020). While important and necessary, these discussions have been dominated by concerns over what and whom to teach, leaving a third, equally significant pedagogical question unanswered: How should we teach theory?…”

“…Social theories are sites of struggle and so, too, are the courses designed to help students consume and critique them. This has become especially clear in sociology, where debates over the "sociological canon" have intensified and calls to "decolonize" theory courses have increased (R. Connell 2018; R. W. Connell 1997;Emigh, Hernández, and O'Malley 2020;Go 2020;Itzigsohn and Brown 2020;Krippner 2019;Reyes and Johnson 2020). While important and necessary, these discussions have been dominated by concerns over what and whom to teach, leaving a third, equally significant pedagogical question unanswered: How should we teach theory?…”