Unit name | Describing Difference: Race, Culture and Ethnicity (Level H Reflective History) |
---|---|
Unit code | HIST38010 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Livesey |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
What makes people different? Do collective identities represent biological realities? What is 'culture'? Is ethnicity merely a cipher for 'race'? This unit examines the historical development of the idea of 'race', and the associated concepts of 'culture' and 'ethnicity' since the mid-nineteenth century. The focus is upon the history of these ideas, tracing a trajectory from the emergence of a language of race, through the rise of social Darwinism and eugenics in the latter nineteenth century, before turning to examine two parallel concepts that have emerged as ways of distinguishing human difference in the wake of the 'retreat' from race in the post-1945 era. The concept of 'culture', as defined through the developing discipline of anthropology will be examined, before turning to the idea of 'ethnicity', which has become a (supposedly) neutral term for collective social identities in the recent past.
Aims:
Reflective history is identified in the Subject Benchmarking Statement as an important skill. Whilst students will 'reflect' on their work in all of their units the aim of this unit will be to focus on that reflective practice and to enable students to carry it forward in conjunction with a particular historical subject matter which will fit in with their overall portfolio of subject/period/theme-based units.
Seminars - 2 hours per week
1 x 24 hour seen exam
K. Malik, The Meaning of Race: Race, History and Culture in Western Society (1996)
M. Banton, Racial Theories (1998)
E. Barkan, The Retreat of Scientific Racism (1992)
J. Donald & A. Rattansi (eds), Race, Culture and Difference (1992)
George W. Stocking, Race, Culture and Evolution (1982)
S. Fenton, Ethnicity (2003)
Jan Nederveen Pieterse, White on black: images of Africa and blacks in Western popular culture, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992).