Course Title: Sociology of Ethnicity and Racism (MA)

   Lecturer: Dr. Veronika Bajt

   Academic Year: 2005/2006 (Spring Semester)

   Thu 16.00 -- 17.40, room 42

   

   

   The course's main objective is to examine key theoretical debates on racism, ethnicity and
   nationalism. Sociology of Ethnicity and Racism critically assesses the ways in which concepts
   such as `race', `ethnicity' and `nation' are used in social science, political and everyday
   discourse. The course explores competing explanatory frameworks and analyses of ethnicity,
   racism and nationalism. We will debate the meaning and significance of multiculturalism,
   assimilation, acculturation and integration. The course also emphasises the intersections of
   ethnicity and social inequalities. Drawing on historical and comparative examples, this course
   develops a critical engagement with conventional understandings and current concepts including
   `cultural racism'.

   

   The following themes will be discussed:

   

   Basic concepts and definitions: 'race', ethnicity, nation, racism, nationalism; historical
   antecedents and contemporary manifestations of racism; slavery and the rise of 'scientific'
   racism; theories of race and racism; modernity and race; ethnicity: the idea of ethnic
   revival; primordialism; nations and nationalism; ethnonationalisms; multiculturalism and
   citizenship: the politics of difference, individual and collective rights; assimilation and
   integration; segregation and social exclusion; social inequality.

   

   Course requirements:

   

   Good command of English language (both spoken and written).

   Active participation.

   

   Selected literature:

   

   Back, Les & John Solomos (eds.) (2000) Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader. London:
   Routledge.

   Bulmer, Martin & John Solomos (eds.) (1999) Racism. Oxford University Press.

   Cornell, Stephen & Douglas Hartmann (1998) Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing
   World. London: Pine Forge Press.

   Cordell, Karl (ed.) (1999) Ethnicity and Democratisation in the New Europe. London: Routledge.

   Essed, Philomena & David Theo Goldberg (eds.) (2002) Race Critical Theories: Text and Context.
   Oxford: Blackwell.

   Fenton, Steve (1999) Ethnicity, Racism, Class and Culture.

   Guibernau, Montserrat & John Rex (eds.) (1997) The Ethnicity Reader: Nationalism,
   Multiculturalism and Migration. Cambridge: Polity Press.

   Hutchinson, John & Anthony D. Smith (eds.) (1994) Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University
   Press.

   Hutchinson, John & Anthony D. Smith (eds.) (1996) Ethnicity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

   Mortimer, Edward, Robert Fine (eds.) (1999) People, Nation and State: The Meaning of Ethnicity
   and Nationalism. London: I.B.Tauris Publishers.

   Kaufman, Eric P. (ed.) (2004) Rethinking Ethnicity: Majority Groups and Dominant Minorities.
   London: Routledge.