I took this course the winter quarter of my sophomore year following the suggestion of one my friends to try a Comparative History of Ideas class. This course was my first exposure to the department and, upon completion of this particular course, I immediately declared my second major in CHID. This class had such an impact on me that I ended up Peer Facilitating with the professor of this course (Dr. Christina Wygant) nearly a year later when she taught this course for the Honors Program. To this day, Dr. Wygant and I talk frequently and she has been one of my earliest and most important mentors at the UW.

 

This class was on 18th century British concepts of race, via travel narratives and literature surrounding the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Our primary theoretical text (shown at the right) was Roxann Wheeler's "The Complexion of Race," and she argued, using interpretations of historical documents and logs, that the British explorers did not encounter difference through the same ideological lens that we do today. Wheeler argues that racism, as we understand it today, did not yet exist and that we are inappropriately reading a historical time period by projecting our views on a bygone time. She argues that there were many other markers of difference that were considered more important than skin color during this period and that by understanding the nuanced and historically-accurate account of racism and racial slavery, we can have a more thorough discussion of how these concepts appear in our culture today.

 

This course was one of the first of its kind for me: it was interdisciplinary, it was rigorous, it utilized a series of different mediums and texts (we engaged with primary documents, complex theory, and films), and was the first time I had seen a professor work so hard for her students. Dr. Wygant gave me such respect for educators, and I had the pleasure of working very closely with her in the autumn of the following year. To this day, I recognize this course as my serendipitous introduction to CHID and the beginning of a wonderful relationship with a truly spectacular faculty member!