TASS Anti-Oppressive Studies offer a “Race and the Limits of Law in America” course, that examines law and its limits within six sites of racial contest in the United States: slavery, segregation, indigenous rights, immigrant rights, mass incarceration, and affirmative action. For each topic, students will analyze a key decision by the US Supreme Court and explore the way legal arguments work.

Non-credit

Residential

Accepts International Students

Financial Aid

What is TASS-AOS?
This summer, high school sophomores and juniors (“rising juniors” and “rising seniors”) will participate in six-week educational programs on topics in the humanities and social sciences, geared towards exploring the ways in which white supremacy and other oppressive powers have shaped social structures.

Telluride works with faculty to create exciting courses designed to inspire young people to explore the histories, politics, literature, art, and other areas within the humanities and social sciences through anti-racist and anti-oppressive frameworks.

Race and the Limits of Law in America
Seminar Description: The struggle with racial difference has defined the United States. From slavery and segregation to settlers’ relations with Native Americans and the racialization of immigrants, questions of racial identity and American identity have been deeply interwoven.

The way Americans argue about these issues is often through law: laws that define racial categories, lawsuits that contest discrimination, and appeals to a law of nature higher than the law of the land. Law would seem to manage conflict; justice would seem to be colorblind. But lawmakers and even judges can be motivated by personal or cultural biases. Law can create and perpetuate racial injustices.

This course examines how law has served as a primary battleground in struggles for racial justice in the United States, and how law sometimes turns out to be inadequate. The stories of lives defined by race often cannot be contained in the law.

To examine law and its limits, we will explore six sites of racial contest in the United States: slavery, segregation, indigenous rights, immigrant rights, mass incarceration, and affirmative action. For each topic, we will read a key decision by the US Supreme Court: an attempt to make law speak to racialized lives. For each topic, we will also read a literary work that grapples with the same questions of race addressed in the law.

Reading law and literature together, we will hone our skills at critically analyzing each. We will explore the way legal arguments work, and the way that they depend on modes of understanding beyond the law. We will also explore how literature can highlight the injustices of law, questioning the apparent truths of racial experience.

What will I get out of TASS-AOS?
At TASS-AOS, you will improve your reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills as you explore your interests in and out of the classroom. In order to encourage students in their love of learning, the program does not assign grades. You will also learn about and explore topics and ideas within the humanities and social sciences through an anti-racist, anti-oppressive lens. Finally, you will gain experience with community living and democratic decision-making.

Telluride Association Summer Seminars in Anti-Oppressive Studies (TASS-AOS). Race and the Limits of Law in America

Jun 26 - Aug 06

6 weeks

Residential

0 USD

TASS Is Completely Free!
We cover all of the program costs—tuition, books, room and board, and field trips—for every student. If you need, we can help pay for all or part of your travel costs to and from the program.

Financial Aid

We understand that you may normally spend time in the summer working at a job, taking care of family members, or supporting your family in other ways. If this is the situation for you, we can provide additional financial aid to help replace earnings from your summer job. Financial aid decisions are made separately from decisions about program admission, so needing financial aid won’t affect whether you are accepted to the program.