Ethnic Studies

In this course students think critically about diversity and inequality and how they are manifest in place, focusing particularly on local scales. Students learn to see the places around them as a product of complex processes that reflect and reinforce social differences. In studying the making and meaning of place students consider themes such as international and internal migration, housing structures and gentrification, neighborhood representations, and place belonging. Students interrogate how social and spatial sorting (or stratification, or segregation) happens along lines of race/ethnicity, class, and age, and who is advantaged and disadvantaged. In this course students work with a variety of types of evidence (data) and be encouraged to appreciate how this can provide deeper and broader interrogations of social phenomena. There is considerable focus on the UK but also examples from elsewhere, and the inherent themes and theories are applicable globally.

This course covers the history of racial inequality in the United States from the arrival of the first African slaves in Virginia in 1619 to the recent emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Throughout, it considers how unequal the United States is; where racial inequality comes from; and why it has proved so enduring; how it has changed over time; what role the U.S. government played in this process; how racial inequality influences U.S. politics, economics, and culture; and what solutions have been proposed. The course introduces the multiple facets of racial inequality in the United States today, considers the history of racial inequality in the United States, and develops critical reading and writing skills in assessing and crafting complex arguments.

The German-speaking region was essential for the development of modern antisemitism. While many forms of early Christian and medieval persecution of Jews existed all over Europe, the Protestant reformation in Central Europe, contributed greatly to the proliferation and adaptation of medieval anti-Jewish sentiments into the early modern era. During the Enlightenment and the romantic period, the first major steps towards modernizing anti-Jewish sentiments happened. The class will address important social (middle-class), political (parties), intellectual (race theory) as well as cultural (visual culture) dimensions of the modern antisemitism, primarily during the 19th and early 20th century. Since the 18th century, Jewish Activists and intellectuals engaged in fighting antisemitism which the class will also address. The specific form of Nazi antisemitism will be discussed in its relation to the comprehensive discriminatory policy of the Nazi regime and, later on, the extermination policy during the Holocaust. With the almost complete annihilation of European Jewry, the history of modern antisemitism did not end, but, instead, it caused further fundamental changes in its structure. The final meetings will be devoted to these changes after 1945 and in the contemporary German-speaking world. While the class will insist on studying the specifically German-speaking forms of anti-Judaism and antisemitism, it will also place the ‘German case’ into the wider European context.

This course examines Maori and indigenous peoples’ knowledge in such fields as astronomy, physics, conservation biology, aquaculture, resource management and health sciences. It provides unique perspectives in indigenous knowledge, western science and their overlap, as well as an essential background in cultural awareness and its relationship with today’s New Zealand scientific community.

This course examines social and political issues involving Indigenous Peoples in Canada, historic and contemporary. It covers an examination of the concept and political condition of Indigeneity in relation to questions of knowledge and place; the problem of state power and violence for Indigenous peoples within Canada; and the Indigenous political action as a response to the state projects of incorporation and dispossession. 

Examine how racism works structurally and individually and how, this, in turn, affects us in our everyday lives. The course engages with critical approaches such as decolonizing the mind (DTM).  The course builds on the premise that although white and BIPOC persons are affected differently by racism, all groups are affected deeply. The course spends a significant amount of time focusing on whiteness and the ways in which white people are complicit with racism. Through detailed recordings of racialized situations in their everyday lives, participants exercise their ability to recognize that they live in a racialized environment.  Throughout the course, students grapple with France Twine’s contention that racial identities are changeable and movable – at least to some extent. This may help us to get away from monolithic ways of conceptualizing racial identities and, instead, adopt more fluid practices of speaking, writing, seeing, and perceiving. 

This course explores the major themes of Black British history between 1948 and 1990, such as protest, anti-racism, and migration as well as the everyday life of Black communities and neighborhoods from around the UK. Built into the course are three trips to archives based in the North West and Midlands, where students delve into the history of Black communities through the words and perspectives of historical actors. Through recovering, exploring, and being led by the Black voices of the neighborhoods that we encounter, the class build up histories of these communities according to the views of the people who lived in them. In this way, students acquire a rich and multi-faceted understanding of the fabric of Black British history.

In Germany and Europe public debates on migration, migrant and ethnic communities and religion play a big role in politics and society. This course first analyzes the concepts of race and racism, looking at historical and contemporary moments as well as developments of racism in society. Further, it examines the various uses of terminology in the field and particularly elaborates on the concept of ‘intersectionality’, studying racism and discrimination from this angle. After gaining the theoretical lens for this course, students engage with clear examples of different forms of racism and discrimination such as Antisemitism, anti-Black racism, anti-Muslim racism or anti-Gypsyism. These examples are analyzed and contextualized by looking at structural and societal problems of racism. Finally, students visit and hear from activists in Berlin dealing with the problem of racism and discrimination. Additionally, the course looks into how governments and policy makers try to tackle racism within their own societies. Students learn from this course the different concepts and forms of racism and are able to apply this knowledge in future discussions by critically questioning processes and events in politics and society.