EU475 Half Unit
Racial Diversity and Conflict in Europe: Identities, Religion, and Culture
This information is for the 2022/23 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Eray Cayli
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe, MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (LSE & Sciences Po), MSc in Empires, Colonialism and Globalisation, MSc in European and International Public Policy, MSc in European and International Public Policy (LSE and Bocconi), MSc in European and International Public Policy (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in History of International Relations, MSc in International Migration and Public Policy, MSc in International Migration and Public Policy (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Social Anthropology (Religion in the Contemporary World) and MSc in Theory and History of International Relations. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
Course content
The question of racialisation figures prominently in contemporary notions and experiences of diversity and conflict in Europe. What might it mean to consider racialisation as a force that bears upon the very conceptual categories employed in imagining and practising diversity and conflict rather than only as a problem addressed through them? In this course, we will explore this question in relation to a series of key concepts including religiosity/secularism, minority/majority, native/migrant, nature/culture, and sex/gender (among others), which frame debates on identarian, religious, and cultural diversity and conflict in Europe today. Through weekly readings discussed collectively in class, we will unpack how such conceptual categories significant to diversity and conflict have been shaped by histories of racialisation through (and at the interface of) colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, and nation-state formation. We will read journal articles and/or book chapters (a minimum of two per week) by scholars operating across and between the fields of anthropology, cultural studies, geography, political science, and history, and occasionally will also draw on filmic works. Each weekly reading/viewing will be briefly introduced by a student to facilitate discussion.
Teaching
This course is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars totalling a minimum of 30 hours across Lent Term. This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Lent Term.
Formative coursework
There are two pieces of formative coursework designed to help students prepare for their summative essays:
1. Research question & long (500-word) abstract; submitted in reading week
2. Revised research question & essay draft (c. 1000 words long); presented orally in the final week of term
Indicative reading
- Balibar, Etienne and Immanuel Wallerstein. 1992. Race, Nation, Class
- Brown, Wendy. 2008. Regulating Aversion
- Chidester, David. 2014. Empire of Religion
- Hage, Ghassan. 2017. Is Racism an Environmental Threat?
- Hall, Stuart. 2018. Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity and Diaspora
- Hurd, Elizabeth Shakman. 2017. Beyond Religious Freedom
- Mamdani, Mahmoud. 2020. Neither Settler Nor Native
- Mignolo, Walter. 2011. The Darker Side of Western Modernity
- Sanchez, Melissa. 2019. Queer Faith
- Sharma, Nandita. 2020. Home Rule
- Stoler, Ann Laura. 2002. Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power
- Wade, Peter. 2002. Race, Nature and Culture
Assessment
Essay (100%, 5000 words) in the ST.
Students will write a 5000-word essay based on a research question they will formulate in consultation with the instructor.
Key facts
Department: European Institute
Total students 2021/22: 25
Average class size 2021/22: 13
Controlled access 2021/22: Yes
Value: Half Unit
Course selection videos
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Personal development skills
- Leadership
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication