Handbook

Encompassing a variety of timely, globally relevant topics, reflected through various identity ‘lenses’, including those of race, culture, gender, sexuality, and class, you will look closely in this course at the intersection of identity, politics, and governance. In this seminar we will focus on cultural identities – national, ethnic, racial, religious, and linguistic – and examine a range of scholarly and public debates provoked by these identities. How should cultural identity fit within liberal democratic states? Does a nation-state have a right to protect its ‘national identity’ through restrictive immigration policies? Are liberal democratic states obliged to recognise the cultural identities and practices of its minorities? Should Indigenous groups be distinguished from immigrant groups in this regard? Should religious identity be treated differently from ethnic identity? Is multiculturalism bad for women, children, and animals? Should citizenship still be the foundation for addressing identity claims in democracies? By exploring how identities are constituted and situated in today’s highly mobile and interconnected world, you will be equipped to think analytically about the importance and implications of the politics of identity in the twenty-first century.