Module Details for SOU33021 Race Ethnicity and Identity (Part 1 MT)

Module Code

SOU33021

ECTS weighting

5 ECTS

Semester/term taught

Michaelmas Term

• Develop foundational knowledge on the concepts of race and ethnicity and how they differ.
• Understand how race and ethnicity influence identity formation.
• Understand how racism operates at interpersonal and structural levels in society.
• Develop and be able to articulate a well-informed argument about race, ethnicity and identity in written and spoken format.
• Understand what it means to be raced, that all human groups are raced and be able to see how your race influences your identity.

Module Content

This module examines the ways that race and ethnicity are conceptualised, constituted, and interpreted. Race and ethnicity, it has to be understood, are about a certain execution of identity, and roles and norms that are intrinsically woven into and practiced in our daily lives. Society has fixed standards and rules to validate both racialised and ethnic identities. This involves asking epistemological questions. How do we know what we know? Thus, we will ask questions such as, how do we employ these categories as socially constructed, while also having material effects on the lives of people? We will interrogate the question, what is race and how do race and gender intersect? Are race and ethnicity the same thing? How are structures reproduced through institutions and action over time and generation? How is change accomplished? How do social structures and individual agency intertwine to produce raced individuals?  

Recommended Reading List

• critically theorise and contextualise race ethnicity and Identity;
• engage in critical thinking about the intersection of race and gender and how to incorporate intersectionality in research;
• understand the foundational and contemporary debates in ‘Race’ Studies concerning race and intersectional identities;
• discuss theorists of race and gender and apply a CRT approach;
• develop and articulate well-informed arguments about race, ethnicity and Identity in both written and spoken formats.

• Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. (2012). Critical race theory: An introduction. New York: New York University Press.
• Fanning B. (2012). Racism and Social Change in the Republic of Ireland, Manchester University Press.
• Garner, S. (2010) Racisms, An introduction. SAGE Publications Ltd. London
• Goldberg, D.  The Racial State
• Hill-Collins, P. (2000). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge, London and New York
• Lentin, A. (2020) Why Race Still Matters. Newark: Polity Press,
• Lentin, R. & McVeigh, R. (2006). After Optimism? Ireland, Racism and Globalisation. Metro Eireann Publications
• Omi, M. and Winant, H. (2014) Racial formation in the United States. New York

Assessment Details

coursework