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Caste-ing Race: An Exploration of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Four Zoom Sessions
Wed., Sept. 3, 10, 17, 24, 2025, 6:30-8:30 pm MT

Does the U.S. have a racial caste system, and if so, what are its historical roots? How does a caste system function? How might we understand systems of discrimination through caste? And perhaps most importantly, how can the average citizen help dismantle race and caste-based systems and build more inclusive societies? Just a few vital questions Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson addresses in her New York Times bestselling book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. In this four-session course, Dheepa Sundaram, assistant professor at the ������, explores the book to answer those questions and to shed new light on the terms caste and race as Wilkerson uses them and in terms of their individual cultural histories. Each week students read a few sections from the book and then explore how those sections relate to U.S. current events. The course is organized around the book’s seven parts and selected episodes from the two-time Peabody-nominated podcast Scene on Radio. In the final class, students discuss how the book functions as a call to action and reform. “This book was a bestseller for a reason, and I think students will come away with an understanding of caste and race in the U.S. plus what they can do to improve their community,” Sundaram says.

assistant professor of Hindu Studies at the ������, is scholar of performance, ritual and digital culture. Her research focuses on religious nationalisms, Hindu religious publics and hate politics. Her current monograph project examines how commercial Hindu ritual websites fashion a new canon for Hindu traditions.