Wed, February 13, 2013 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM LIU INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL ISSUES. Free. In this talk I argue that the white gaze is a site of violence and caricature vis-a-vis the Black body. I theorize the white gaze within the context of an elevator encounter between a Black man and a white woman, and demonstrate the impact of the white gaze on the phenomenological or lived experience of the Black body. I show just how problematic the white gaze can be. My contention is that whiteness, as a site of privilege, power, and normativity, may need to be thrown into a state of crisis as a prelude to a greater sense of humanity, of seeing differently. I argue that the condition for white fragmentation is, perhaps, the need for a feeling of loss.
Bio: George Yancy is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University and Coordinator of the Critical Race Theory Speaker Series. He is the author of Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), which received an Honorable Mention from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. He is also the author of Look, a White!: Philosophical Essays on Whiteness (Temple University Press, 2012). He has authored numerous articles in scholarly journals. He has also edited over 12 influential books, three of which have received Choice Awards. He is currently working on two edited volumes and an authored book that will explore the intersection between philosophy and various significant cultural themes. He was also recently nominated for the Duquesne University Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship.
Contact: EDST 604-822-5374
Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 05:30