Affect theory is a critical tool for examining how colonial legacies of racialization operate in the present. Yet the subfield of affect studies has not made “race” a central focus of scrutiny. This lecture builds on Fanon to propose that racialization is a paradigmatically affective process rooted in colonial histories, and proposes ‘affects of racialization’ as a useful frame for understanding that process today. The centrality of affect to racialization will be illustrated through cases of Native dispossession, environmental racism, and the struggle for Black life.

lecture series