Sociology and Criminology

The Alchemy of Race and Racism (Spring)

Module code: L3125B
Level 5
15 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Workshop
Assessment modes: Portfolio

On this module you’ll explore how race and racism can be understood, traced and resisted across different places, time periods and social contexts.

You’ll begin by reflecting on key concepts, including:

  • race
  • racialisation
  • racism.

You’ll examine how these ideas work in practice and which definitions are more or less helpful.

In the first half of the module, you’ll explore how ideas of race developed and became embedded in social and political structures. We’ll look at examples from Europe and the Americas. This includes the emergence of different forms of ‘Otherness’ and the development of ideas about ‘Whiteness’ and ‘Europeanness’.

In the second half of the module, you’ll examine how racism operates today. Case studies include ‘doing race’ through genetics and ancestry testing and the criminalisation of certain bodies and their movement.

Finally, you’ll consider how racism can be resisted. We’ll explore resistance through everyday relationships and social struggles and wider approaches to justice, including reparations and abolitionism.

Over the course of the module, you’ll also cover:

  • racism across positionalities, including making race & doing race
  • making of race as a system and systematic racism
  • making of racial subjects, covering both the Americas and Europe
  • reflections and exchanges.

Module learning outcomes

  • Critically reflect on and apply conceptual approaches to the study of race and social inequality (specifically racialisation and racism) to real-world events, biomedical and technological innovations (and where relevant, personal experience).
  • Independently research academic and non-academic sources and critically appraise diverse sources of knowledge.
  • Make appropriate use of concepts and empirical data to produce an academically informed written assessment and produce a coherent narrative.
  • Critically evaluate the relevance of history and positionality in crafting a reflexive written/visual/audio account of the central themes and debates introduced in this module.