All Courses
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SC3203 Race and Ethnic Relations [2220]
The overall goal of this module is to encourage a critical rethinking of race and ethnicity, particularly as they are lived and experienced in everyday life, spaces and relationships, and represented, performed, or articulated through governing practices, media and in commoditized forms. While special attention will be paid to the local context, examples and experiences from elsewhere, both contemporary and historical, will enrich our perspectives. Race and ethnicity have transnational and global dimensions to them even as they are encountered and lived locally. Arguably, humankind has entered the twenty-first century with ever more complicated modes of belonging and difference – and these have ramifications for how race and ethnicity may be studied in terms of the emerging ethnoscapes in an increasingly interconnected world. The module raises questions like: • Are races for real? Is ethnicity for real? • How good are race and ethnicity as concepts for explaining human differences? What human differences? • What is the salience of race and ethnicity for how we live and experience our lives? • How do race and ethnicity work as organizing forces in human societies? How do notions like multiculturalism, nationalism and hybridity complicate the story? • How do we explain and understand “racial” or “ethnic” conflicts and violence? • What is the sociological significance of how race and ethnicity feature in areas like media representations, the marketplace, tourism and medical research? • Given what we know, how should we respond ethically and politically as students of race and ethnicity to contemporary situations? One challenge that will follow us throughout the module is trying to grapple with the very ideas of race and ethnicity. While we will make a concerted effort in clarifying the terms race and ethnicity, bear in mind that the terms are themselves part of the problem we need to address. Race and ethnicity are sometimes used interchangeably – and yet not quite. The uses and understandings of the terms vary according to context, shift across time and space, often feature inconsistently, and come highly politicized. Both terms are hopelessly slippery – but it is this slipperiness that must be grasped by any student of race and ethnicity. Students contemplating this module will have to be prepared to investigate and reflect on race and ethnicity in their own life worlds – and to get out there to explore that of others. Done properly, you will find yourself drawn into debates and issues that can sometimes be deeply personal or biographical, demanding that you get into conversations with your experiences and those of your course mates. Respect and openness are essential if you intend to embark on this journey through the module.