Reed College Pledges To Revise “Western Canon” Course After Protests Over Its “Caucasoid” and “Eurocentric” Focus

Reed College has reached an agreement to  revise a mandatory freshman humanities course focused on the Western Canon after protests that the course was . . . . well  . . .  to Western.  Students denounced the curriculum as “Caucasoid” and “Eurocentric.”  The decision of Reed College comes after the respected academic journal, American Historical Review announced that it was going to “decolonize” the publication.   In a new column, Alex Lichtenstein, professor of history at Indiana University at Bloomington and editor of American Historical Review declared “I have come to believe that the AHR should take the risk of confronting its own potential complicity in the inability of the profession to divest itself fully of its past lack of openness to scholars and scholarship due to race, color, creed, gender, sexuality, nationality and a host of other assigned characteristics.”

We previously discussed the protests at Reed by “Reedies Against Racism” demanding “Humanities 110 – Introduction to Humanities: Greece and the Ancient Mediterranean” to be “reformed to represent the voices of people of color.”

Now the school has agreed to change its course traditionally focused on scholars underpinning Western Civilization from Aristotle to Plato to Ovid.  Student Alex Boyd, complained that“I am a student of color who has trouble focusing because the curriculum at Reed is Eurocentric and is unrelated to my lived experience. Being told that the West is the most important topic of study damages my mental health and makes me less able to learn.”

Professor Libby Drumm said  that “In spring 2019 two new modules will be implemented, both focused in the Americas and consisting entirely of new materials and lectures.”

However, the students reportedly are still not in agreement.  Protesters want assurances that the addition of New York city in the cities covered by the course will include Harlem.  They also posted a Facebook statement that they oppose starting a course with Athens or Rome because they believe that “centering the first module on Athens or Rome maintains the racist notion that the West is the key to other civilizations.”