Ethnicity and Race in World Politics

Image of a cemetery and memorial for the Rwandan genocide.  A myriad simple crosses stand in front of a memorial.

A cemetery and memorial for the Rwandan genocide. (Image courtesy of U.S. AID.)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

17.523

As Taught In

Fall 2005

Level

Undergraduate

Cite This Course

Course Description

Course Features

Course Highlights

This course features a detailed reading list and various course assignments.

Course Description

Discerning the ethnic and racial dimensions of politics is considered by some indispensable to understanding contemporary world politics. This course seeks to answer fundamental questions about racial and ethnic politics. To begin, what are the bases of ethnic and racial identities? What accounts for political mobilization based upon such identities? What are the political claims and goals of such mobilization and is conflict between groups and/or with government forces inevitable? How do ethnic and racial identities intersect with other identities, such as gender and class, which are themselves the sources of social, political, and economic cleavages? Finally, how are domestic ethnic/racial politics connected to international human rights? To answer these questions, the course begins with an introduction to dominant theoretical approaches to racial and ethnic identity. The course then considers these approaches in light of current events in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the United States.

Related Content

Melissa Nobles. 17.523 Ethnicity and Race in World Politics. Fall 2005. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.


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