The Mis-education of Empire: Colonial Education and Post-colonial Resistance
Instructors: Catherine H. Nguyen and Beatrice Wayne

This sophomore tutorial uses education to explore empire and post-colonialism in the comparative contexts of French Indochina and colonial Africa. Students will engage key theorists on colonialism and post-colonialism, read rich historical case studies of empire, and analyze literature and film that capture the lived experience of imperialism within these regions. While the course will consider aspects of empire that emphasized exploitation and resource extraction, our focus on education will allow us to consider the less examined, but no less potent ways in which colonial powers consolidated empire by way of language, colonial education, and the literary canon. We will also explore the surprising ways education as a form of imperial rule produced tools that people have used to resist and contest colonial power.