Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

• Explore the intersections of race and politics in a broad context, offering research-led teaching on 4 or more regions of the world
• Prepare Stage 2 undergraduate students to employ race theories and discourse in their own research, including their Stage 3 project or dissertation
• Serve as an introductory course for Stage 3 advanced modules on race and ethnicity in politics, such as POL 3125 Politics of Citizenship and Race

Outline Of Syllabus

The Politics of Race generates lively and rigorous discussion about both historic and contemporary understandings of race in electoral politics, public policy and popular culture. Bookending the course with an introduction to the concepts of race, racism and intersectionality and concluding with a reconsideration of these concepts in light of the semester’s teaching and learning, POL 2114 uses the varied expertise of a team of researchers in the Politics department to explore the politics of race on a local and global scale. In this team-taught format, POL 2114 travels around the world to understand the fluidity of race as a concept and the many ways it factors in social interactions, formalised in legislation, and used in wider popular and political discourse.

Students enrolled on POL 2114 will explore topics such as (but not limited to):
• What is race and why is it political?
• An introduction to common definitions and uses of concepts such as race and intersectionality
• The methodological pluralism in the political studies of race, including how to conduct research on race from a comparative politics and international politics perspective
• Race across different geographic regions, with examples such as:
1. Racial politics and tensions, ethnicity and indigeneity, representational and identity politics, and electoral outcomes in the Americas
2. Colonial legacies and independence, migration and humanitarianism in Africa
3. Migration, citizenship and multiculturalism, impacts of tourism and international business, intersections of race and gender in Southeast Asia
4. Race and post-coloniality, indigenous rights, and the impacts of migration policy on race/racism in Oceania

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of the semester, students will have a sharpened understanding of:
1. The historic and contemporary definitions, use and mechanisms of race as both concept and lived experience
2. The similarities and differences in the conceptualisation and codification of race between and within countries and regions
3. The impact of race and racism on political processes like elections and law making
4. The relationship between race as it is presented and experienced in and shaped by political and popular culture, and social and news media

Intended Skill Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students will have developed their skills in:
1. Recognising and evaluating the economic, social and political factors that have shaped our understanding of race
2. Identifying and critically engaging with race as a form of political power, cultural identity and social marker
3. Confidently applying their new understandings of race in their own future research and everyday lives

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The weekly 2-hour lectures will offer students the chance to explore race through a number of engaging avenues that maintain a mindful balance of theory with real examples from around the world. As a course that’s responsive to the realities of global politics and discourse, the combination of on-demand content with in-person large and small group teaching gives students the opportunity to explore the politics of race through a variety of lenses and in three different environments. Online materials will present a foundation to each week’s topic and the in-person lectures offer a real-time presentation that builds on the on-demand content while giving space for Q&As. Seminars, which are to be held by each week’s lecture leader, will provide students with the unique opportunity to learn from and alongside each other in small group format and with direct contribution from a global and/or regional expert. These gatherings will provide important space for further exploration of the week’s materials and allow a safe space to unpack this significant topic under the guidance of a specialist lecturer.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The Portoflio (50%) is designed to serve students in two vital ways. First, students will prepare responses to weekly questions presented in the module guide, to be discussed in seminars. By guiding their engagement with course materials through targeted questions on each week’s assigned material(s), we will better prepare them to participate in seminar discussions and encourage ongoing and consistent engagement with the course concepts as a manageable pace. Second, together with their lecture and guided reading notes, these responses will form a portfolio of their own engagement with course content that they will use during their unseen digital exam. Clear guidance on format, word count and writing content for this portfolio will be made available to students in our introductory lecture, weekly seminars, in the module guide and on Canvas. The 2000-word portfolio will be compiled across 8 teaching weeks, with submission prior to the Easter holiday to allow for feedback before the final exam.

The 90 minute unseen digital exam (50%) is designed to test students’ understanding of general course content and learning outcomes, and will do so through an open-note, essay style exam, using the seminar portfolio outlined above. Students will be encouraged to bring their notes from the course – inclusive of lecture, guided reading and seminar notes, as well as responses to weekly seminar discussion questions – as a support tool to address the unseen prompt. The prompt will cover aspects of the entire course, and we will offer extensive exam preparation in Week 11’s lectures and seminars, additional drop-in surgeries, as well as appropriate materials on Canvas.

General Notes

POL 2114 uses a team-taught format to give students access to research-informed instruction with scholars working on race theory and racial politics around the globe. This course will help prepare Stage 2 undergraduate students to employ race theories and discourse in their own research, including their Stage 3 project or dissertation, and will serve as an introductory course for Stage 3 advanced modules on race and ethnicity in politics, such as POL 3125 Politics of Citizenship and Race.