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SOCA-D4900

Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity Politics



BROCHURE

academic year

2025-2026

2026-2027

Course teacher(s)

Giacomo ORSINI (Coordinator)

ECTS credits

Language(s) of instruction

english

Course content

This module introduces core academic debates concerned with race and ethnicity, and the operationalization of both concepts in society. Developing genealogically, the course starts first by concentrating on the genesis and functioning of race and racism from the colonial times, up until the two World Wars. Next, the attention moves to debates concerned with institutional racism in North America and the UK, and the political and societal struggles of the Civil Rights movements. Thus, classes explore the concept of ethnicity to track how it progressively complemented and replaced race in the analysis of diversity and global inequalities within a decolonizing/postcolonial world. As the timeline brings us to the last quarter of the 20th century, the course then focuses on key debates concerned with multiculturalism, transnationalism and cosmopolitanism in different geographical and institutional settings. Then, we concentrate on the progressive inclusion of gender and sexuality in the study of migration. The final section of the course provides a critical look at the current securitization of migration as a tool for racist/ethnic exclusion/inclusion. One last session is left for students and the lecturer to co-decide on the contents – including leaving students to present and discuss in class any group exercises/presentations/field works/etc. as agreed and organized during the course. Starting from this year, the course will be intensive as it needs to be organized over one single week (instead of a semester). This explains the dense calendar, and this means that the formats of teaching/co-learning will vary to increase students’ engagement over the many hours of class each day. Also, because of the intensive schedule, students are required to read the articles/book chapters indicated in the syllabus (available on the UV platform)

Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)

Students are expected to acquire a critical and multidisciplinary understanding of race and ethnicity and, more broadly, of the (re)production of diversity and inequality in society. Importantly, students are meant to learn how to mobilize the acquired theoretical tools for critically analysing the most relevant past and present policies for the governance of inclusion and exclusion.

Prerequisites and Corequisites

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

None

Teaching methods and learning activities

Given the focus of this course and the decolonial/critical approaches informing it, classes are set to combine more frontal sessions of classical lecturing, with horizontal practices to favour interactions and engagement within the class. The lecturer values especially co-learning practices, thus leaving space for thinking and preparing together some of the contents of the class, and for the use of different learning materials – e.g., audiovisual – and formats – e.g., group discussions.

Course notes

Syllabus
Université virtuelle

Other information

Contacts

giacomo.orsini@ulb.be
giacomo.orsini@eurac.edu

Campus

Solbosch

Evaluation

Method(s) of evaluation

Oral examination
Other

Oral examination

Open question with long development

Other

The final evaluation is based for the 70% on the results of a final oral exam to be held online (i.e., with open book) in the sessions of November and December, with the remaining 30% being determined by students' active engagement and attendance in class.