Unit name | Law and Race |
---|---|
Unit code | LAWD30135 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24) |
Unit director | Dr. Russell |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | University of Bristol Law School |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
The history of the world has been marked and marred by the oppression of various groups and polities. In many cases, we face the consequences of that legacy of oppression and witness its continuation. Race often functions as the motivation for and justification of oppressive social, cultural, economic and political structures. This is evidenced by colonisation, slavery, and persistent global racial inequality that cut across, gender and class. Law has often been used to create or justify these demarcations. Nevertheless, the study of law often ignores the correlation between race and law as well as the paradox inherent in the use of law to both oppress and liberate. This unit aims to examine legal history and the current state of the law in a critical exploration of how legal evolution has impacted upon and caused racial disparities, and how these factors are continuously consciously and unconsciously embedded and reproduced within the operation of law.
Much of the key scholarship in critical race theory, for example, has focused on the black experience in the US. This has resulted in a dearth of knowledge about the interaction of race and law outside of the American experience. Therefore, this unit will centre its content on the relation between law and race in the UK. We will start with an examination of law and race through the creation, maintenance and purported cessation of British imperialism. Of key importance here is emphasis on how global power structures that persist today are produced and upheld. We will also examine the key theorists and theories in the area e.g. Delgado, Crenshaw, Patricia Hill Collins, Spivak, Darian-Smith, Nkrumah etc.
The unit will also examine how racial disparities are maintained and expressed in literature and how those representations impact and influence our collective consciousness. The latter half of the unit will focus on five case studies of how the combined force of law and race affects the following:
The unit sits within a paradigm that speaks to decolonising the legal curriculum specifically and decolonisation of knowledge generally. Decolonisation of knowledge involves the de-hierarchisation of knowledge. It involves acknowledging and confronting the hierarchies and exclusivities upon which we have built our world(s). It asks us to examine the margins of society and how these have come about. Decolonising the curriculum seeks to repurpose our study of law so it listens to the voices of those who have historically been silenced. That is the overarching aim of this unit.
By the end of this unit, a successful student will be able to:
The unit will be taught in the 10 lectures/10 seminars format. We will consult further with students who were earlier approached for their input before the syllabus is finalised.
A series of lectures will map on to the seminars, though we will probably use these as a general introduction to basic concepts relating to race and law, and to provide some context with which some students may not be familiar.
The unit aims to examine race and law from various perspectives, potentially including but not limited to the following: the historical evolution of relationship between race and law; a wide range of theories which examine this relationship; interdisciplinary approaches to the relationship between race, law and society; the impact of the relationship of race and law on issues like – the criminal justice system, activism/resistance, gender, poverty and class, among other things.
2x Summative Essays (2,000 words each)
Students will complete two from a choice of six questions (three for each term, and for each respective piece of coursework).
Race and literature class [we will eventually settle on between 8-10 texts]:
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. Gyldendal A/S, 2014.
Baldwin, James. I’m not your Negro. Penguin, 2017.
Bulawayo, NoViolet. We Need New Names: A novel. Hachette UK, 2013.
Chingonyi, Kayo. Kumukanda. Chatto & Windus, 2017
Chinua, Achebe. Things Fall Apart. Anchor, 1959
Eddo-Lodge, Reni. Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race. Bloomsbury, 2017.
Lorde, Audre. Your silence will not protect you. Silver, 2017.
Mafouz, Sabrina. The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write. Saqi, 2017
Paton, Alan. Cry, The Beloved Country. Simon and Schuster, 2003.
Phillips, Caryl. Crossing the River. Vintage, 2007.
Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North, trans. Denys Johnson-Davies. St. Paul Press, 1970.
Shukla, Nikesh (ed). The Good Immigrant. Unbound, 2016.
Unigwe, Chika. On Black Sisters Street: A Novel. Random House, 2011.
Zephaniah, Benjamin. Refugee Boy. Bloomsbury, 2017.