Handbook

Encompassing a variety of timely, globally relevant topics, reflected through various identity ‘lenses’, including those of race, gender, sexuality, culture and class, you will look closely in this course at the intersection of social identity, politics, and governance. You will be asked to think carefully about complex and intractable questions of identity, collectivity, social justice and governance. You will interrogate how identities are experienced politically, and in particular contexts, and will draw on particular examples from throughout the world to examine how various politics of identity, including the scholarly and public debates they have provoked, have emerged to challenge dominant ideas about social justice. How are identity and belonging shaped in the contemporary world? How do so-called nation-states engage, or not, with the political claims of oppressed social groups? Should citizenship still be the foundation for addressing identity claims in democracies? Does a nation-state have a right to protect its ‘national identity’ through restrictive immigration policies? What is the relationship between nationalism, race and sexuality? How do the media and popular culture impact the political recognition of ethnicity, gender, class and culture? By exploring how identities are constituted and situated in today’s highly mobile and interconnected world, you will make your own decisions about how these identities shape world politics and what, for you, are the most pressing questions therein. 

Subject Area: Politics and International Relations,