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Module

PHI2016 : Race, Empire and Political Philosophy

  • Offered for Year: 2024/25
  • Module Leader(s): Dr David Ventura
  • Owning School: School X
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 2 Credit Value: 10
ECTS Credits: 5.0
European Credit Transfer System

Aims

This module has three aims:

1) To encourage critical engagement with the canonical thinkers in the history of political philosophy by examining some of the contradictions of Enlightenment thinking and tracing assumptions made by 17th and 18th century thinkers regarding non-European subjects of empire and the notion of race itself;

2) To equip students with familiarity of the key texts and concepts in Postcolonial and Critical Race Theory, namely the work of Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and Charles Mills.

3) To highlight the uses of (continental) philosophy for elucidating race-based marginalisation and oppression.

Outline Of Syllabus

Key texts and thinkers covered may include, but are not limited to:

John Locke’s Second Treatise
J.S. Mill’s On Liberty
Kant’s Physical Geography and Lectures on Race
Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks
Edward Said’s Orientalism
Gayatri Spivak’s Can the Subaltern Speak?
Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish
Jacques Rancière’s Disagreement

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture81:008:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion120:0020:00Essay preparation and completion
Structured Guided LearningStructured research and reading activities101:0010:00Specific research or reading activities developed and directed by academic staff
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesSmall group teaching81:008:00Tutorials
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesWorkshops21:002:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study152:0052:00Review lecture material, prepare for small group teaching and assessment
Total100:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The lectures will provide essential subject-specific knowledge on a range of seminal thinkers and ideas. Seminars permit discussion of the relative merits of these thinkers and ideas and guide independent analysis, interpretation, and critique.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Essay2A1002000 words
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Students will be assessed by a 2000-word essay and will be able to choose from a range of essay questions. The essay tests the ability to think analytically, creatively, self-critically and independently as well as managing one’s own work to set time limits. This assessment method also gauges the students’ ability to move between generalisation and appropriately detailed discussion, to cite relevant texts and interpret them adequately, to discover examples in support of or to challenge a position, and to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant considerations.

Reading Lists

Timetable