"A History of the Concept of Race"
Sunday September 18 at 3 PM

Peacham Library

William Edelglass will be speaking on The History of the Concept of Race. The first European to divide the peoples of the world into distinct races, in the seventeenth century, claimed that the Sami people of northern Scandinavia were one of four races on earth; Native Americans, Europeans, South Asians, and North Africans together were considered a second race while sub-Saharan Africans were the third, and East Asians were the fourth. How did such a bizarre distinction among groups of people develop into one of the most historically significant ideas of the modern world? Professor William Edelglass will trace the intellectual history of the concept of race in the West, from its prehistory to today.

William Edelglass is Director of Studies at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and Associate Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies at Emerson College. Recent projects include work on phenomenology and climate ethics; rethinking faith and reason in Indian Buddhism; Buddhism and human dignity; the limits of language; and critical reflections on the science of meditation.

This talk is free, open to the public, and accessible to those with disabilities. For more information, contact Peacham Library at (802) 592-3216 or peachamlibrary@gmail.com. Peacham Library is located at 656 Bayley Hazen Road, Peacham.

This program is hosted by Peacham Library. Supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the NEH, Vermont Humanities or Peacham Library.