Towards a Bibliography of Critical Whiteness Studies

Introductory Whiteness Studies

Tim Engles and Carmen P. Thompson

As the title of this list implies, the following is a sampling of works that could serve as an initiation to the recent explosion of work in scholarly critical whiteness studies. Like many of these writers, we acknowledge that this work follows and builds upon a great deal of whiteness critique previously written by African American writers, and by those writing from other racialized positions. For an extensive sampling of such earlier work, see David Roediger’s anthology listed below, Black on White (and for discussion of such analysis as conducted by other racialized minorities, see Stephen Knadler’s The Fugitive Race: Minority Writers Resist Whiteness, listed under “Studies of Literary Whiteness”). Some of these works offer broad, multidisciplinary coverage, such as those by Delgado and Stefancic, Fine, Levine-Rasky, Hill, and Rasmussen, while others have a specific disciplinary focus, such as those by Lee and Helfan, Nakayama and Martin, and Yancy. Nevertheless, each provides a solid introduction to key concepts and practices. 

Delgado, Richard, and Jean Stefancic, ed. Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror. Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 1997.

Fine, Michelle, ed. Off White: Readings on Race, Power, and Society . New York : Routledge, 1997.

Frankenberg, Ruth, ed. Displacing Whiteness: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism. Durham : Duke University Press, 1997.

Gates Jr., Henry Louis , and K. Anthony Appiah, ed. White Pages : Black Writers on Whites and Whiteness. Brooklyn : Soft Skull Press, 2005.

Hill, Mike, ed. Whiteness: A Critical Reader. New York : New York University Press, 1997.

Kincheloe, Joe L., Shirley R. Steinberg, Nelson M. Rodriguez, and Ronald E. Chennault, ed. White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America . New York : St. Martin 's Press, 1998.

Lea, Virginia , and Judy Helfan, ed. Identifying Race and Transforming Whiteness in the Classroom. Edited by Counterpoints. Vol. 273. New York : P. Lang, 2004.

Levine-Rasky, Cynthia, ed. Working through Whiteness: International Perspectives. Albany : State University of New York Press, 2002.

Lopez, Alfred J., ed. Postcolonial Whiteness: A Critical Reader on Race and Empire. Albany : State University of New York Press, 2005.

Najmi, Samina, and Rajini Srikanth, ed. White Women in Racialized Spaces: Imaginative Transformation and Ethical Action in Literature. Albany : State University of New York Press, 2002.

Nakayama, Thomas K., and Judith N. Martin, ed. Whiteness: The Communication of Social Identity. Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications, 1999.

Rasmussen, Birgit Brander, ed. The Making and Unmaking of Whiteness. Durham : Duke University Press, 2001.

Rodriguez, Nelson M., and Leila Villaerde, ed. Dismantling White Privilege: Pedagogy, Politics, and Whiteness. Edited by Counterpoints. New York : P. Lang, 2000.

Roediger, David R., ed. Black on White: Black Writers on What It Means to Be White. New York : Schocken Books, 1998.

Rothenberg, Paula S. White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism . New York : Worth Publishers, 2002.

Thompson, Cooper, ed. White Men Challenging Racism: 35 Personal Stories. Durham : Duke University Press, 2003.

Wray, Matt, and Annalee Newitz, ed. White Trash: Race and Class in America . New York : Routledge, 1997.

Yancy, George, ed. What White Looks Like: African-American Philosophers on the Whiteness Question. New York : Routledge, 2004.