IR323 Half Unit
Race and Gender in International Relations
This information is for the 2024/25 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Jasmine Gani CBG (Room TBC)
Availability
This course is available on the BSc in International Relations, BSc in International Relations and Chinese, BSc in International Relations and History and BSc in Politics and International Relations. This course is not available as an outside option. This course is available with permission to General Course students.
This course has a limited number of places (it is capped).
Course content
The course examines race and gender as ordering principles in world politics that shape (and are shaped by) historical and contemporary colonial practices in international relations. Students will engage with the ideas, epistemologies, and methods of anti-colonial thinkers and movements, and learn why and how international politics is inextricable from race and gender through the following substantive themes: sovereignty and nationalism; militarism, war, and policing; political economy, environment, and development; migration; civil rights and global solidarity movements. Grounded in postcolonial, decolonial, and feminist political thought, the course will enable students to develop their skills in applying political theory to the most pressing issues in contemporary world politics.
Indicative topics to be covered:
Part 1: Political theory and history of ideas
1. Excavating race and gender in International Relations
2. The imperial university: political theory and knowledge production
3. Epistemic disobedience: postcolonial theories
4. Intersectionality: gender, class, and Black/Indigenous feminist thought
5. Decolonisation, the pluriverse, and liberation theology
Part 2: Issues and case studies in world politics
6. Retelling the story of the state: sovereignty and nationalism
7. Militarism, war, and policing
8. Political economy, environment, and development
9. Racialisation of migration
10. Resisting empire: world-making through global solidarity movements
Teaching
15 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the WT.
Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.
Formative coursework
Mock Exam in the WT
Indicative reading
Frantz Fanon, “The Wretched of the Earth”
Edward Said, “Orientalism”
Angela Davis et al., “Abolition. Feminism. Now”
Gloria Anzaldúa, “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza”
Kimberlé Crenshaw, “On Intersectionality: Essential Writings”
Charles W. Mills, “The Racial Contract”
Errol Henderson, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism in International Relations Theory.”
Assessment
Exam (75%, duration: 2 hours) in the spring exam period.
Class participation (10%) and other (15%) in the WT.
The exam will be an on campus 'e-Exam'.
Reading Reflection (700 words) to be submitted in the WT
Key facts
Department: International Relations
Total students 2023/24: 27
Average class size 2023/24: 14
Capped 2023/24: Yes (30)
Value: Half Unit
Course selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Leadership
- Self-management
- Application of information skills
- Communication