Post-racial Preoccupations: Nella Larsen, Rachel Dolezal, and "Passing Through" the Core Curriculum

Using a classroom experience teaching Nella Larsen's 1929 novel Passing alongside a contemporary controversy over racial identity, this article explores the value of literary study for intervening in student attitudes toward core curriculum requirements. The author argues that literature is uniquely situated to teach the skills colleges most want students to acquire in their general education curricula, in turn providing a crucial method for responding to the "crisis" of the humanities in higher education today.