Race, Policing, and Social Control in U.S. History

This course explores the history of race and policing in the United States from the colonial era to today. We will examine how Black, Indigenous, and immigrant communities have been differentially policed, as well as their strategies of resistance. Topics include slave patrols, settler colonialism, immigration enforcement, urban vice policing, and the regulation of intimacy and sexuality. By situating U.S. practices within global systems of social control, the course highlights how policing has shaped modern definitions of crime, order, and justice.