Humanities Faculty Work-in-Progress Series: Huaping Lu-Adler, “Scholarship and (Anti-)Racism—Lessons from Studying Immanuel Kant’s Raciology”

In her presentation, Professor Lu-Adler (Department of Philosophy) focuses on Kant’s place in the formation of modern racist ideology. As a scholar who had a lifelong interest in natural sciences, he developed a self-consciously groundbreaking scientific theory of race, which came with a rigid racial classification. As an educator who spent decades designing and teaching courses on anthropology and geography, he transmitted denigrating depictions of the racialized others and imbued them with normative relevance. In both roles, he presented a worldview that excluded nonwhites from such goods as recognitional respect and candidacy for cultural and moral achievements.

Professor Adam Roth (Department of History) will be the discussant.