Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity Politics

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)